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03.05.2003 || 10h56 A few thoughts on democratic broadcasting Once again, I have to state that the CBC is the coolest game in town. Anna Maria interviewed Billy Bragg and Kate Fenner to-day, as well as some hack from WPLJ in NYC, asking why it is that to-day's communications industry is so slavishly toeing the party line on stuff like that war on Iraq. The hack was making noise about catering to the wants of the people, saying that they didn't look at it as a songs issue, then immediately went on to talk about scrutinising songs for questionable content. Anna-Maria went on to ask who owned WPLJ. It's ABC and Disney. But the interesting part of the show was the three-way with Kate Fenner and Billy Bragg. The anti-war movement is doing an end-run around corpo music the same way as the anti-globalisation movement is doing. They're using the Internet and grass-roots hustling to get the message out, from Billy Bragg passing out copies of 'The Price of Oil' to fans at a concert, and telling them to MP3 it to death, to Kate slapping the chords, lyrics, and MP3s up on the Web and telling people to cover it all to hell. They're both available as free downloads. Go get them now. It's also telling that a state-run broadcaster is the most democratic voice in North America right now. The corporations control most of the airwaves, and tell us what we can and cannot see or hear; NPR has no teeth, and the student stations are too small to ask the questions to a large enough audience. Meanwhile, there's this public broadcaster sitting up here that is viewed by some as being stodgy and/or boring, and they're going after the government and the corporations on a daily basis (okay, and calling GWB every name in the book). I dunno, I think we need more stations like this. Everywhere. In my opinion, CNN is the enemy of democratic information dissemination, and it's a really cool secret that the CBC is here to counteract that influence. Oh, they also pointed me here. |
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shite One last little note... - 09.21.2006 de-stressing, biking and terrorism - 06.06.2006 Mildly stressed... - 05.29.2006 More crime stupidity - 05.28.2006 Scary stuff - 05.25.2006
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