a few e-mails came in about elaine's 'Still blogging' from friday. people were wondering if i laughed at the parts elaine thought i would? yes, i did.
here's a part of it:
I went to the one in NYC with Rebecca, Mike, Mike's mother and "Fly Boy" (as Mike has dubbed Rebecca's ex-husband). Not having Rebecca's large breasts (trust me, she'll laugh when she reads that), I wasn't able to just pull on a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers. I wore a medium hell and grew to regret that as the day wore on. My feet were killing me by the time I got back and, though excited by the day, I was also tired and figured the smartest thing would be to just get some sleep. (Rebecca would say, "How very non C.I. of you!")
i did laugh. we always joke about it. but i did not laugh about the way elaine presents herself as 'plain jane.' she's not. she's very beautiful. she's tall, long waisted, beautiful bone structure, gorgeous skin. she's like audrey heburn only taller. i didn't read her post until sunday but when i read it, i got on the phone and balled her out for acting like she was 'plain jane approximately.'
that's the only thing that bothered me. we joke all the time, elaine, c.i. and i. but i don't like her acting like she's nothing special because she's very beautiful.
something i caught up on this morning was a post c.i. did last night called 'Your responses to "Show The War, Tell The Truth".' danny schechter wrote a piece called 'MediaChannel Appeal: Join Us In A "Show The War, Tell The Truth" Campaign' and c.i.'s piece was summing up members feelings. here's one section of c.i.'s post:
75 members, with Brandon being the most vocal on this, felt that the weekly program should come with video. Brandon cited the success he has at work with Democracy Now! People will walk by his cubicle while he's watching it online and they'll stop to watch as well. Brandon also listens to audio programs and doesn't see a similar response even when that program is Democracy Now! which he'll listen to when he can't get the video stream to work.
Brandon feels visuals are important and 74 others agree with him. Most, like Brandon, cited Danny's work on 20/20.
and that reminded me of something i saw on c-span awhile back. it was from booknotes and from when amy goodman was the guest. the booknotes program was june 6, 2004 and was called 'The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them by Amy Goodman:'
LAMB: Is there any way to characterize how much it costs to do "Democracy Now" for a year?
GOODMAN: I don't know the exact budget. I'll just say it is a fraction of the corporate networks, to say the least, but it is a team of absolutely remarkable producers, who are just completely committed. It's both television and radio, we are the only ones doing that daily, and the first daily national public broadcast on radio and television at the same time. And it`s really opened up a new world going to television.
First of all, most people -- people get most of their news from television, so it is very important. Images really matter. And to be able to broadcast the images, for example, of war, and we talk about this in the book, to counter the sanitized media, is very, very important. People listen to radio, won't even know that the images are going by. But people who watch television see the film and photos of the independent journalists who are out there, videographers and photographers, and also corporate -- those who work for the networks who don't get some of this stuff on their stations. It's very important. I'm not for reality television, except when it comes to war. Then I am for showing exactly what's happening.
LAMB: When it comes to money, on this book, are you taking the money yourself?
GOODMAN: No, the royalties are for "Democracy Now," which is a nonprofit.
LAMB: Why don't you take it yourself?
GOODMAN; Because I want to shore up independent media. In fact, we're on a more than 70-city book and media tour, called "The Exception to the Rulers" tour. And we are going from independent radio station to independent radio station. We started in BAI, big fund-raiser for WBAI, headed on the 55th anniversary of Pacifica. KPSA, to a big celebration there, and made our way to Los Angeles. And each of these -- Los Angeles, 2,000 people came out. Minneapolis, KFAI, the big community radio station there. We did a big fund-raiser; 1, 500 people came out.
And I think it is about a tremendous hunger for independent voices. People hungry for, searching for not the views of a fringe minority, as I was saying. I mean, I have come to think about the corporate networks in this way. You have all of these pundits -- actually, it`s a very small group of them -- who know so little about so much. I'm beginning to think they sit in a room and they just change the logo throughout the day, CBS, NBC, ABC. Now, they are wringing their hands. How did we get it so wrong about weapons of mass destruction? Why not invite someone into the studios who got it right and who got it right more than a year ago when it mattered? Who was questioning the credibility of the so-called intelligence?
And I'm not talking about just people outside the system, outside the establishment. But people in the establishment. People in the intelligence agencies who were saying, no, we are being manipulated, the intelligence is being misrepresented. I'm talking about military families who are asking very serious questions, and now so many servicemen and women have been lost.
i emphasized the section that i felt backed up the point brandon was making.
i'd love to tell you that i weighed in via e-mail or even on the phone with c.i. but i didn't. but i really think the suggestions were accurate. danny schechter has the experience and talent to really do an amazing weekly online program.
i prefer watching democracy now. if i was going to miss it on television and was near a radio, i would turn on the radio but i try to arrange my day so that i don't miss it. i usually watch it twice honestly. once with my morning coffee and the new york times and then when i've woken up and gotten my blood pumping, i'll watch it again.
which reminds me that there was something i wanted to note from democracy now:
Public Access TV Stations Plan Protest Tonight
And public access TV stations across the country are planning on stopping programming tonight in protest of new Congressional legislation that could lead to the elimination of public access television. At 9 p.m. eastern-standard time, scores of stations are planning to air one minute of snow. Anthony Riddle of the Alliance for Community Media said "this snowstorm is to remind communities what could be lost if new cable legislation before Congress is not fixed to protect the wonderful community channels we have all come to know and love."
i get it on the local npr and i get it on satellite. but there are areas where people who watch do so via public access and if you're 1 one of those people, you need to be contacting your congress members. i think you should contact any way because public access is community tv and we need it.
you can go to http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/ and enter your address and zip - it will give you contact info on your reps and you can let them know that public access tv matters to you.
public access matters and i think we also need more web programming. so hopefully danny schechter and media channel will think about producing a program. i think it would be a great calling card for their site that would bring in new traffic and help get the word out on realities in iraq.
democracy now
the new york times
the common ills
like maria said paz
iraq
danny schechter
