Stories by Norman Solomon
Norman Solomon's latest book Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America's Warfare State (PoliPointPress) is available now. For more information go to www.madelovegotwar.com.
Big-name journalists are fond of rosy windows on the world. Overall, the powerful politicians they cover have similar vantage points. And when large numbers of them get together, the upbeat -- and facile -- rhetoric is thick.
Posted on Jul 21, 2000, Source: AlterNet
Try your luck in four categories: "Tv Follies," "Basics of News Media," "Quotable Quotes," and "To Have and Have Not."
Posted on Jul 18, 2000, Source: AlterNet
George Orwell has been dead for half a century, but Orwellian language lives on. Instead of scrutinizing the facile rhetoric of U.S. politics, reporters are inclined to solemnly relay it, while adding some of their own.
Posted on Jul 3, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"It's media spin in overdrive: Major security breaches have jeopardized the vital work going on at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where scientists toil to protect America."
Posted on Jun 27, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"In recent years, several dozen companies have bought major-league naming rights. Teams now play in Bank One Ballpark (Phoenix), Network Associates Coliseum (Oakland) and Continental Airlines Arena (New Jersey). But a public-interest group is urging sportswriters to resist a free-enterprise wave of the future."
Posted on Jun 20, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"There's a slick new term surfing its way into the mass media. 'E-government.' Many citizens would be glad to see the Internet streamline their dealings with federal agencies. But we're now hearing claims that go way beyond matters of efficiency -- to conflate convenience and democracy."
Posted on Jun 13, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"George W. Bush and Al Gore are among the most boring political leaders in the country. And that's saying something. But every four years, when summer begins, the national media curtain rises on an overheated stage of presidential politics. The political show must go on -- no matter how phony it may be."
Posted on Jun 1, 2000, Source: AlterNet
One phrase -- "security zone" -- sums up an entire era of media spin about Israel's 22-year brutal and illegal occupation of southern Lebanon.
Posted on May 30, 2000, Source: AlterNet
The virtual Ten Commandments of Dot-Comity are now widespread: You shall not take the name of the Lord your Market in vain ... You shall not fail to make a killing ... Remember the stock exchange and keep it holy ...
Posted on May 18, 2000, Source: AlterNet
After the Love Bug virus struck millions of computers, many news outlets attributed the magnitude of the damage to "software monoculture" -- too many people relying on the same exact programs. But what about media monoculture?
Posted on May 12, 2000, Source: AlterNet
The mass media has ignored a recent book about the deadly effects of advertising, which isn't terribly surprising, given the media's addiction to commercials that give them their big profits.
Posted on May 2, 2000, Source: AlterNet
Like with Microsoft, we should consider breaking up the six huge firms that dominate our media landscape.
Posted on Apr 27, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"From a powerful microphone, Dr. Laura Schlesinger spews abuse at gays and lesbians, asserting that homosexuality is 'a biological error.' But now she's facing a well-organized challenge. A Feb. 24 letter to Dr. Laura, signed by more than 100 prominent clerics, medical, child-welfare and civil rights organizations, asserts that 'The anti-gay beliefs you espouse on a regular basis -- that homosexuality is 'deviant' and that gays can and should be cured -- are entirely outside the mainstream of scientific thought.'"
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"What if a big restaurant chain announced that it was hiring a chief inspector -- and filled the job with the person who'd been in charge of the company's kitchens? That's akin to what National Public Radio did when it hired its first ombudsman in two decades 'to independently investigate editorial standards in its programming.'"
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"Media alarms have been loud recently: Electronic commerce is under siege. Any site is vulnerable to e-vandalism, no matter how big. And though we might not shed any tears for the likes of E*Trade and Amazon.com, I won't cheer for cyber-saboteurs either. Efforts to censor or block communication are odious -- whether based in government offices, corporate suites or secret hacker locations."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"The fact that Donald Barlett and James Steele's investigative report -- "Big Money and Politics: Who Gets Hurt?" -- made a splash in Time magazine is encouraging. But other media, including wire services, big daily newspapers and broadcast networks, failed to pick up on the superb cover story."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"None of the presidential candidates is closer to Wall Street, or more indebted to it, than Bill Bradley. And yet, 'the politics of ambiguity' generates so much fog on the media landscape that quite a few people view him as a progressive alternative."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"Regret to Inform, a deeply painful movie airing on PBS stations in late January, asks difficult questions about the Vietnam War. Were our soldiers war heroes? Murdurers? Was their killing justifiable? These are exactly the sort of questions that journalists covering the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain have avoided."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"And so, early in the year 2000, it came to pass that visions of a seamless media web enraptured the keepers of pecuniary faith as never before. A grand new structure, AOL Time Warner, emerged while a few men proclaimed themselves trustees of a holy endeavor. They told the people about a wondrous New Media world to come ... "
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"Five years ago, there was tremendous enthusiasm for the emerging World Wide Web. Talk about the 'information superhighway' suggested that the Web was primarily a resource for learning and communication. Today, according to the prevalent spin, the Web is best understood as a way to make and spend money."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"Every day, a nationwide media barrage encourages us to be cynical and passive. But we are much better off if we can develop an attitude of idealistic skepticism."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
A perennial AlterNet favorite! The P.U.-litzer Prizes recognize some of America's stinkiest media performances. Each year, hundreds of deserving entries are sifted through, and the competition is always fierce. But only an elite few can walk off with a P.U.-litzer....
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"When the World Trade Organization summit collapsed in Seattle, major American news outlets seemed to go into shock. The failure to launch a new round of global trade talks stunned many journalists who were accustomed to covering the WTO with great reverence. In the wake of the crucial meeting, the mainstream media plunged into the four stages of grief."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"Welcome to an all-new episode of Media Jeopardy! This is a game that never ends, whether you like it or not."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
When thousands of protesters converge on Seattle to challenge the World Trade Organization, they're unlikely to get a fair hearing from America's mass media.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"We revere Mark Twain as a superb storyteller who generates waves of laughter with powerful undertows of biting satire. The renowned author's fiery political statements are a very different matter. They reached many people in his lifetime -- but not in ours."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"From corporate America's vantage point, Pat Buchanan is the ideal 'populist' candidate: he mouths anti-corporate rhetoric but doesn't support workers, minorities or the environment."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
There's nothing wrong with playing the stock market. But there is something very wrong with a media environment that equates investing with a quest for self-identity.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
This is a tale of two magazines. One is a new, upscale monthly with more than 100 colorful pages of ads packed into each issue. The other is a cutting-edge political journal on a shoestring budget smaller than the glossy monthly's martini budget.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"It's known as advertising, but we may as well call it psychological warfare. Our entire society is a free-fire zone for nonstop commercial assaults. "
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
After weeks of bitter partisan wrangling over budget issues, the federal government began its new fiscal year on October 1. Such political confrontations have become routine in Washington...
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"For this high-tech age of super-duper mass communications, quite a few objects could go into a media time capsule..."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
In his lifetime, Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon became a media pariah because of his vocal and unflagging opposition to the Vietnam war. In the quarter-century since his death, political reporters have rarely mentioned his name. But a vivid new documentary, "The Last Angry Man," will allow viewers to see and hear for themselves the extraordinary efforts and intrepid spirit of Wayne Morse.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
When the story about Viacom and CBS broke, news accounts quickly depicted a match made in corporate heaven -- at more than $37 billion, the largest media merger in history. With the public kept outside the frame, it was a rosy picture.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
No matter how nice it may be, ritual coverage of Labor Day doesn't begin to make up for routine media themes the rest of the year. News accounts may portray workers as admirable -- but when they struggle in an organized way, in solidarity with each other, it's often a different story.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
A new machine is scaring the corporate daylights out of television broadcasters and cable networks. It's called a "personal video recorder," and it can do a lot of things that VCRs can't. One of those technical advances is truly wondrous -- the ability to filter out commercials before they reach TV screens.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"The news that actor Warren Beatty might run for president in 2000 has raised eyebrows across the country. Starring in 'Bulworth' last year, he portrayed a senator who began to speak disturbing truths in the form of rap lyrics. But what if today's leading journalists followed the example that Beatty set in the movie? They might sound something like this ..."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
Is it really possible for broadcasting and democracy to mix? In theory, yes. But right now, the prospects look bleak. Most Americans live in areas where just a few media conglomerates dominate. Overall, what's on the airwaves is more like centralized monotony than democratic discourse.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
Few phrases in American politics have more negative connotations than "inside the Beltway." In this rarified and unreal zone, we often assume, the activities of politicians and bureaucrats are disconnected from the main concerns of most Americans. But it would be a mistake to forget that the tenor of national news coverage is largely responsible for the political climate in the nation's capital.
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
"It could become a notable media crime of the century -- the killing of the strongest progressive radio station in the United States. Or it may turn out to be a case of attempted murder, ultimately averted by the determined struggle of a vibrant 50-year-old named KPFA."
Posted on Apr 26, 2000, Source: AlterNet
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