What Matters To The Media

A couple of minutes after Liz made her statement, we found all the major media in the world - as our exhausted spokeswoman put it, “CNN, NYT, pretty much everyone” – glowing with schadenfreude, as they lined up for official feedback from RT. There were also those who had ignored the news of the Ashton-Paet talks, as if they didn’t happen. A rival media anchor’s resignation is certainly much more important and sensational and more closely connected to the Ukraine crisis than two European leaders saying some of their henchmen may have been killing people.

More here.

What Andy Warhol got wrong about “Campbell's Soup Cans”

I recently read a Salon.com piece titled:
What Stanley Kubrick got wrong about “The Shining”.

O.o

Oh, Kubrick got The Shining somehow wrong?

Quite interesting assertion. Maybe akin to the assertion that Andy Warhol got the "Campbell's Soup Cans" wrong, when he painted them in false colors.

(And no, I am not going to dignify such a piece of click-bait with an link. Go use a internet search engine, if you must.)

Wrong Angle

The Capenhurst Phone-Tap Tower – Richard Lamont:

…
I was slightly surprised at the `GCHQ bugged Dublin' angle in these reports. For me the issue has always been `Did GCHQ bug Dublin illegally?'. To be legal, there would have to have been a warrant. If there was a warrant, GCHQ could have presented the warrant to BT, which would then have been obliged under the terms of its Oftel licence to provide the tap. Much cheaper, and much more discreet.

If it was legal, why did GCHQ do it the hard way? …

Trust the media to get any story wrong. Not hugely wrong, but wrong enough to make a discussion of the topic meaningless.

… For SIGINT anoraks and anybody who is worried about governmental nosey-parkering, the Capenhurst tower has become part of the Echelon furniture. The story has disappeared from the public gaze as suddenly as it arrived. It seems that few people give a damn.

"Google AdSense Display Ads Will Now Feature the +1 Button"

Don't be evil my arse, Google Adsense has added the +1 "Like" button to adverts. And to make it extra sleazy, they put the +1 button in YouTube adverts above the mute button – way to go, sleaze bags.

But I'll leave it to Bill Hicks to tell excactly how I feel about these advert pushers:

Bill Hicks on Marketing


Bill Hicks - Corporate Shills

"Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)"

But did you know that in the 1980s, health activists actually promoted oils containing trans fats? They considered such oils a healthy alternative to the saturated fats found in palm oil, coconut oil, or beef fat. In 1986, for instance, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), described Burger King's switch to partially hydrogenated oils as "a great boon to Americans' arteries."

Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI): Now that is a mouthful for a vegan policy outlet advising for politically motived unhealthy advise.

The male stereotype in the media

A couple of days ago, a feminist site posted a quick little rant that used Erwan Le Corre as a segue to talk about how this whole "paleo" trend was promoting some hyper-patriarchal masculine past, comparing it to the modern Republican conservatism. It was pretty clear that the author didn't know much about the Paleolithic (her citation to how bad the Paleolithic was for women linked to the author of The Clan of the Cave Bear, which is fiction) and after significant negative feedback, the piece was pulled (but lives on thanks to the internet).

I commented that I really don't think that the Paleolithic diet/lifestyle thing is a man thing. But I think it seems that way to outsiders because that's how the media portrays it. It's the media that's selling the caveman hunter-barbarian stereotype, not the movement.

I've experienced this first hand, but I really haven't said much about it because it brings up so many personal insecurities. After the NYtimes article I was featured in, the NY Paleo Meetup and I interacted with a large number of media outlets, both television and print. We even managed two glorious comped dinners at Takashi that were filmed for various TV programs in the US and Europe. Overall, I probably spent hours and hours talking to reporters and being filmed or photographed. But I honestly don't have much to show for it except the original article. I was cut out of almost all of the things I was involved with.

Funny that Erwan Le Corre attacks the media's steoreotypical portrayal of the Paleo movement, while thinking it is the Paleo movement that is at fault.

Adolf Hitler was a fan of Mickey Mouse

Who would have thought?

Zitat aus Goebbels’ Tagebuch, vom 20.12.1937:

Ich schenke dem Führer 12 Micky-Maus-Filme zu Weihnachten! Er freut sich sehr darüber. Ist ganz glücklich über diesen Schatz.

Goebbels's Diary from 20th December 1937:

I gave the Führer 12 Mickey-Mouse movies for christmas! He was very pleased about that. Is very happy about this treasure.

Well, the fascists know good propaganda for the masses, when they see it.

"I assumed no media outlet would pick up on it. I was wrong."

In 2008 Alice Dogruyol representing The Spa PR Company wrote to me requesting I plug a new genital cosmetic procedure – the g-shot. It involved injecting collagen into the vaginal wall. And was being spearheaded in the UK by a Professor Phanuel Dartey of Harley Street.

I immediately noticed there seemed to be no robust peer reviewed clinical evidence for the safety and effectiveness of the g-shot procedure. I felt the press release I was sent was so poor and the ‘treatment’ described seemed so bizarre that it was best ignored. I assumed no media outlet would pick up on it.

I was wrong.

Several newspapers including the Sun, Mirror, Telegraph and Mail clearly had been sent the same press release as me. The only difference was they joyfully publicized the g-shot and promoted Prof Dartey’s Harley Street practice. And in the case of the Sun and the Mirror the pieces were written by their Health and Science correspondents. Who really should have known better. Since then many women’s magazines and websites have also described the procedure as a sex life enhancer, promoting both the g-shot and Laser Vaginal Surgery (which Dartey also offered).
…
This media distancing could be coincidence, or it may be more deliberate. In the Mail’s case it can be seen as deliberate in the way Dartey is talked about. When his g-shot procedures are being lauded he’s a Professor from Harley Street. When his striking off is detailed his qualifications from the Soviet Union and Ghanaian heritage are at the fore. As @PeteDeveson astutely commented on twitter: “on the way up it’s “Hollywood” and “Harley Street”. On the way down it’s “Ghana” and “Soviet””. This xenophobic coverage neatly airbrushes any involvement of the newspaper in promoting Dartey’s practice – and subsequent harm done to his patients.

(via)

"Wet streets cause rain"

Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.
― Michael Crichton

(via)

"The poster child of excessive lawsuits"

The case was noted by some as an example of frivolous litigation; ABC News called the case "the poster child of excessive lawsuits,"

Yeah, right.

I had never before seen the injuries suffered by the woman who sued McDonald’s for its hot coffee. Now I have.


Excerpt from 2011 documentary "Hot Coffee" von anonymouscoward382

The Media…

The country of Greece has been more or less shut down by a general strike as the country's economy teeters on a precipice that could plunge the Eurozone, and potentially the whole world, into a major economic depression. But you'd never know if from reading American news sources. The NYT front page, which includes a story about how Mitt Romney cared for his lawn (and no, I'm not kidding), makes no mention of it. I can find no mention of it on any other American news outlet. (CNN doesn't even mention it under World News!) The only coverage I can find at all is on Reuters and Al Jazeera. Reuters reports that there are 400 dock workers demonstrating outside the port, but I can neither see nor hear any sign of them.