In article ,
Doug Freyburger wrote:
Bert wrote:
"Bob F" wrote:
It is really hard to find liberal media these days.
On radio I think the reasons are pretty simple.
For a while I kept liberal talk radio on one of the buttons on my car
raio and I cycled back and forth. On the conservative talk shows I
would push the button away from the show any time they got to personal
insults. Certain voices I learned to push the button away at the first
sound of their potty mouthed voices. The result was few shows that I
ever listened to but in many cases it took a while before I dropped
the show. In the end the number didn't hit zero. And it wasn't the
popular ones that remained. On the liberal talk shows I did the exact
same thing, push the button away from the show as soon as they got to
personal insults. Very rapidly there were no liberal talk shows on the
air that I would listen to during the hours of my commute.
Conclusion is some conservative talk shows try to stay with matters of
principle but only a few manage it, while all of the liberal talk
shows I heard proceeded directly to personal attacks. The only people
interested in personal attacks are the ones very biased to a specific
side in the first place. It's a bit cliche'. Liberal is supposed to be
about feeling; converative is supposed to be about thinking. The cliche
ended up working, somewhat, on my radio button settings.
For news I found some of the public radio ones fairly close to centric
others so left I don't have any trouble calling them commies or even
soviets. But that still leaves a number of nearly centrist news folks
on public radio. So far so good. The problem is the signal. In my
experience public radio stations and classical music stations broadcast
in very low power. I figure they have low budgets and can't afford high
electricity bills.
You don't have access to newspapers and news magazines in your neck of
the woods?
Exactly. The conservatives hold the radio the liberals hold the print.
Hold majorities, that is. No one has any exclusive hold on any of the
media.
Sorry, if my facetious remark about "fearmongering" from the "liberal
media" was taken seriously. Corporate news (which comprises 90% of the
media) is easy to find. They include corporations like G.E. which not
only makes weapon systems, but tell us how well the wars are going.
Other corporate media are loth to criticise corporate advertisers, and
try to stay away from criticizing the government for fear of
"blow-back", and appearing unpatriotic. The fact that they have
interlocking boards of directors help keep them on the same page (far to
the right).
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2003/04/47530_comment.php#48355
Who owns CNN? or MSNBC? ABC?
by systemfailure Wednesday, Apr. 09, 2003 at 1:43 AM
So ya think we have a "free press" eh? Check out who owns who, and who
owns what you think.......
GENERAL ELECTRIC --(donated 1.1 million to GW Bush for his 2000 election
campaign)
Television Holdings:
* NBC: includes 13 stations, 28% of US households.
* NBC Network News: The Today Show, Nightly News with Tom Brokaw, Meet
the Press, Dateline NBC, NBC News at Sunrise.
* CNBC business television; MSNBC 24-hour cable and Internet news
service (co-owned by NBC and Microsoft); Court TV (co-owned with Time
Warner), Bravo (50%), A&E (25%), History Channel (25%).
The "MS" in MSNBC
means microsoft
The same Microsoft that donated 2.4 million to get GW bush elected.
Other Holdings:
* GE Consumer Electronics.
* GE Power Systems: produces turbines for nuclear reactors and power
plants.
* GE Plastics: produces military hardware and nuclear power equipment.
* GE Transportation Systems: runs diesel and electric trains.
==================================================
WESTINGHOUSE / CBS INC.
Westinghouse Electric Company, part of the Nuclear Utilities Business
Group of British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL)
whos #1 on the Board of Directors? None other than:
Frank Carlucci (of the Carlyle Group)
Television Holdings:
* CBS: includes 14 stations and over 200 affiliates in the US.
* CBS Network News: 60 minutes, 48 hours, CBS Evening News with Dan
Rather, CBS Morning News, Up to the Minute.
* Country Music Television, The Nashville Network, 2 regional sports
networks.
* Group W Satellite Communications.
Other Holdings:
* Westinghouse Electric Company: provides services to the nuclear power
industry.
* Westinghouse Government Environmental Services Company: disposes of
nuclear and hazardous wastes. Also operates 4 government-owned nuclear
power plants in the US.
* Energy Systems: provides nuclear power plant design and maintenance.
================================================== ==============
VIACOM INTERNATIONAL INC.
Television Holdings:
* Paramount Television, Spelling Television, MTV, VH-1, Showtime, The
Movie Channel, UPN (joint owner), Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, Sundance
Channel (joint owner), Flix.
* 20 major market US stations.
Media Holdings:
* Paramount Pictures, Paramount Home Video, Blockbuster Video, Famous
Players Theatres, Paramount Parks.
* Simon & Schuster Publishing.
=============================================
DISNEY / ABC / CAP (donated 640 thousand to GW's 2000 campaign)
Television Holdings:
* ABC: includes 10 stations, 24% of US households.
* ABC Network News: Prime Time Live, Nightline, 20/20, Good Morning
America.
* ESPN, Lifetime Television (50%), as well as minority holdings in A&E,
History Channel and E!
* Disney Channel/Disney Television, Touchtone Television.
Media Holdings:
* Miramax, Touchtone Pictures.
* Magazines: Jane, Los Angeles Magazine, W, Discover.
* 3 music labels, 11 major local newspapers.
* Hyperion book publishers.
* Infoseek Internet search engine (43%).
Other Holdings:
* Sid R. Bass (major shares) crude oil and gas.
* All Disney Theme Parks, Walt Disney Cruise Lines.
================================================== ====
TIME-WARNER TBS - AOL (donated 1.6 million to GW's 2000 campaign)
America Online (AOL) acquired Time Warner-the largest merger in
corporate history.
Television Holdings:
* CNN, HBO, Cinemax, TBS Superstation, Turner Network Television, Turner
Classic Movies, Warner Brothers Television, Cartoon Network, Sega
Channel, TNT, Comedy Central (50%), E! (49%), Court TV (50%).
* Largest owner of cable systems in the US with an estimated 13 million
subscribers.
Media Holdings:
* HBO Independent Productions, Warner Home Video, New Line Cinema,
Castle Rock, Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera.
* Music: Atlantic, Elektra, Rhino, Sire, Warner Bros. Records, EMI, WEA,
Sub Pop (distribution) = the world's largest music company.
* 33 magazines including Time, Sports Illustrated, People, In Style,
Fortune, Book of the Month Club, Entertainment Weekly, Life, DC Comics
(50%), and MAD Magazine.
Other Holdings:
* Sports: The Atlanta Braves, The Atlanta Hawks, World Championship
Wrestling.
================================================== =====
NEWS CORPORATION LTD. / FOX NETWORKS (Rupert Murdoch) (donations see
bottom note)
Television Holdings:
* Fox Television: includes 22 stations, 50% of US households.
* Fox International: extensive worldwide cable and satellite networks
include British Sky Broadcasting (40%); VOX, Germany (49.9%); Canal Fox,
Latin America; FOXTEL, Australia (50%); STAR TV, Asia; IskyB, India;
Bahasa Programming Ltd., Indonesia (50%); and News Broadcasting, Japan
(80%).
* The Golf Channel (33%).
MEDIA HOLDINGS:
* Twentieth Century Fox, Fox Searchlight.
* 132 newspapers (113 in Australia alone) including the New York Post,
the London Times and The Australian.
* 25 magazines including TV Guide and The Weekly Standard.
* HarperCollins books.
OTHER HOLDINGS:
* Sports: LA Dodgers, LA Kings, LA Lakers, National Rugby League.
* Ansett Australia airlines, Ansett New Zealand airlines.
* Rupert Murdoch: Board of Directors, Philip Morris (USA).
*(Phillip Morris donated 2.9 million to George W Bush in 2000)*
-----
For old fashion responsible reporting, I like the McClatchy news service
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/
-----
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
Al-Jazeera (
http://english.aljazeera.net/ ), which has aroused great
interest by being banned in Egypt due to its excellent coverage of the
uprising, is not itself carried by any American cable or satellite
company, but LINK TV (
http://www.linktv.org/ ) has included regular
programming from Al-Jazeera and other foreign networks, and has recently
greatly increased the amount of news coverage it shows from Al-Jazeera.
Progressive news show Democracy Now! (
http://www.democracynow.org/ )
remains the world's best news show, and of course includes great
coverage of the Egyptian uprising, including extra specials on the
subject. Democracy Now! is carried by LINK TV (
http://www.linktv.org/ ),
Free Speech TV (
http://www.freespeech.org/ ), and Pacifica Radio
(
http://www.pacifica.org/ ), all of them worth checking out anyway.
Antiwar.com (
http://antiwar.com/ ) has been providing its usual
essential coverage of these happenings as well as other important
issues, as well as opinion pieces from across the spectrum. Common
Dreams (
http://www.commondreams.org/ ), The Raw Story
(
http://www.rawstory.com/ ), and AlterNet News (
http://www.alternet.org/
) provide info and commentary from a progressive viewpoint, as does
Information Clearing House (
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/ ).
Progressive Indian site Towards a Counter Movement
(
http://www.countercurrents.org/index.htm) has also given the uprising a
good deal of coverage.
From a right-libertarian viewpoint, Strike The Root
(
http://www.strike-the-root.com/ ) and Rational Review
(
http://rationalreview.news-digests.com/todays-edition ) are worth
checking out.
For left-libertarian/anarchist news and viewpoints, see Infoshop News
(
http://news.infoshop.org/ ), Anarkismo
(
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php ), Anarchist News
(
http://anarchistnews.org/ ), A-Infos (
http://www.ainfos.ca/en/ ), and
the Center for a Stateless Society (
http://c4ss.org/ ).
Middle east scholar Juan Cole's blog Informed Comment
(
http://www.juancole.com/ ) provides excellent info and commentary on
this and other mideast issues.
Finally, I will of course try to post the most interesting info and
commentary on my own Smygo list (
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo ).
--
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
--
- Billy
Both the House and Senate budget plan would have cut Social Security and Medicare, while cutting taxes on the wealthy.
Kucinich noted that none of the government programs targeted for
elimination or severe cutback in House Republican spending plans
"appeared on the GAO's list of government programs at high risk of
waste, fraud and abuse."
http://www.politifact.com/ohio/state...is-kucinich/re
p-dennis-kucinich-says-gop-budget-cuts-dont-targ/
[W]e have the situation with the deficit and the debt and spending and jobs. And it's not that difficult to get out of it. The first thing you do is you get rid of corporate welfare. That's hundreds of billions of dollars a year. The second is you tax corporations so that they don't get away with no taxation.
- Ralph Nader
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/7/19/ralph_naders_solution_to_debt_crisis