Goddamn FOX September 17, 2007
Posted by dave128 in Censorship, Media, Television.add a comment
Fox censors Sally Field in US telecast of Emmys
Fox US producers of Sunday’s Emmy telecast censored best drama actress winner Sally Field Sunday evening after she veered off into a remark criticizing the US invasion of Iraq.
Welcome to bizarro land again. Yes, it’s FOX standing up for family values and liberty and all that stuff by putting the kibosh on an act of free speech. And let’s put things into perspective. It’s not as if she said anything remotely controversial. Her comments held a simple anti-war message.
It’s always amusing when things like this occur. By their over the top reaction FOX has given more publicity to Field’s speech than it probably would have received.
Sally Field’s entire speech ran uninterrupted in Canada and Australia, and I would assume all other democracies where the Emmy’s were televised.
Daily Update – Wednesday April 25 April 24, 2007
Posted by dave128 in Bush Administration, Human Rights, Invasion of Afghanistan, Media, Oil, Politics.add a comment
I’m finding it hard to write longish posts, the main reason being it’s too depressing. So, in order to keep what’s left of my sanity I’ll be trying “daily updates”. I won’t be updating everyday, but rather they will be a collection of news worthy/interesting things I’ve come across over a particular day. So, on with it…
The US Government has been positively pwned* over the Pat Tillman cover-up: Ranger alleges cover-up in Tillman case
Via Boing Boing: Fascist America, in 10 easy steps
The independence of Afghanistan’s media could be eroded if a new law is passed: Media at risk under new Afghan law
Indiginous American women are “2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than women in the United States in general” says Amnesty International: Native American women suffering shocking rates of rape: Amnesty
Another racism controversy from US radio DJs: US radio DJs in fresh racism row
In the six-minute prank broadcast, the caller says he wants to see one of the female employees of the restaurant naked and calls a part of her body “hot, Asian, spicy”.
[snip]
The two suspended DJs had been vocal supporters on air of Don Imus.
What a huge surprise.
I thought I’d end on something positive, Dave Raggett’s Introduction to HTML. A really handy guide, if like me, HTML scares the bejesus out of you.
Another positive, I watched the excellent documentary Crude Impact last night. It examines that huge issue oil, from its damage to indigenous communities and the environment, to the extent certain countries will go to in order to satiate their lust for oil (*cough* invasion of Iraq *cough*). And on this subject, I wonder just how much oil China and Russia get from Iran? Like this post, the film was mostly depressing, but ended with hope (okay, so HTML for beginners isn’t as snazzy as saving the planet, but meh!). I haven’t felt this energised by a documentary since The Corporation. Please visit their website, and try to view the doco if you can.
The world media are knuts* April 7, 2007
Posted by dave128 in Media.add a comment
You would have no doubt heard the story about Knut, the baby polar bear in Germany. Adorable, (even I must admit all I want to do is give him a big cuddle), amazingly cute and lefty greenie animal activists WANT TO MURDER HIM TO DEATH!!!!
What with headlines such as:
Animal activists to kill baby bear
and
Kill tame bear, say animal nuts
and this:
Berlin Polar Bear Cub at Center of Animal Rights Brouhaha
You know things are serious when the media bring out the “brouhaha”. Dare the New York Post or Britain’s Mirror raise the stakes to a hubbub?
The public were, shockingly, aghast! Kill? That cute bear? WHAT?!?! Some comments from the Daily Telegraph page:
The activists are ill, I think!! 
How about we eradicate the activists instead.!!!!
I am appalled by this. Maybe the suggested fate should be put onto the people that suggested it??
Only people who are trash would think of such a thing to destroy a innocent, harmless animal who cant speak for it self. These activist need to be hung for there barberic thought!!
It’s very scary to me that there are still German people who can think in such a way. It’s too reminiscent of the mind set of World War II. (dave128: where’s a rolls eye emoticon when you need one?)
This is supid. How can you kll something as cute as that?
Are we going to murder poor helpless orphaned children next? How disgusting.
Euthanise the so called ‘animal rights’ activists instead.
OMG are you serious his so cuteeeee,
its appaling to see a chief of animal rights can advocate to kill a helpless animal. what kind of animal activist is he? wolfgang should be banned from animal rights activities.
i feel that people like that should not be living and when they feel that helpless animals like this cute bear should die or be left to defend itself is ludacris. THOSE PEOPLE SHOULD BE LEFT IN CAGES TO ROT OR PUT IN THE WILD AND SEE IF THEY CAN DEFEND THEMSELVES.
That was just a small portion of response to one Sydney newspaper website. The Knut story was featured all over the world, getting pretty much the same reaction.
But there’s just one small thing. It simply isn’t true.
Media Watch: Look out Knut… It’s a zoo out there
But who wants the measly truth to get in the way of a juicy story?
* Yes, I know it’s lame but I couldn’t think of anything wittier. You were warned of my witlessness.**
** I did a Google search for “FOX +News +Knut” but all I found were Bill O’Reilly sites.***
*** Yeap, just as unfunny second time around.
Australian reaction to Saddam Hussein’s killing January 3, 2007
Posted by dave128 in Human Rights, Invasion of Iraq, Media.1 comment so far
I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the general reaction of Australians to the hanging of Saddam Hussein. If newspaper letter sections and phone/internet polls are anything to go by, the vast majority of Australians are against the killing of Hussein.
The Herald Sun, a Murdoch owned Melbourne tabloid, ran a phone poll asking “Was death the right punishment for Saddam Hussein?” 87.3% (2, 171 callers of an overall 2, 489 callers) said no.
W hile Melbourne’s broadsheet newspaper, The Age, recorded 73% opposition to the hanging.
The Herald Sun’s editorial reiterated their stance against capital punishment, saying the scenes from Baghdad only reinforced this position. Saddam died without dignity, the paper said, and the verbal abuse he received seconds before he died was a “terrible indictment on the Iraqi justice system.”
Both newspapers have been filled with letters aghast at the execution, with letters supporting the killing a tiny minority.
It goes without saying that I do not agree with this execution. I am vehemently opposed to capital punishment (in other words, state sponsored murder) without exception.
My first thought when I heard Saddam was dead? “So they’ve (America and other western governments and companies) got away with it.”
There’s no doubt that Saddam Hussein was a tyrannical dictator responsible for the torture and killings of at least several hundred thousand people, if not over one million. But his crimes were not committed in isolation. Saddam Hussein received help from the west, including the US government and US and French companies.
A brilliant French documentary, Saddam Hussein: le procès que vous ne verrez pas, (“Saddam Hussein: The Trial the World Will Never See”, a very prophetic title that) details all of this so beautifully.
Indeed, it’s one of the greatest pieces of television I have ever watched. Seeing Donald Rumsfeld confronted with the footage of him shaking hands with Hussein is priceless (Rummy looks bewildered and stammers and says “well… that’s interesting!”.)
Unfortunately, the only reference I’ve seen so far to the west’s involvement in Saddam Hussein’s crimes was on SBS World News Australia (the same channel that aired The Trial The World Will Never See). Here is the relevant excerpt of the 30/12/06 bulletin:
LEE LIN CHIN [NEWSREADER]: He (Saddam Hussein) was due to face a second trial and this one over the gassing of thousands of Kurds at Halabja. Why do you think the death sentence was carried out before that trial?
CLIVE WILLIAMS [intelligence analyst with the Australian National University]: Many people will say that it was intended to silence Saddam before he could talk about his links to the United States and in particular to chemical supplies because during that period before 1990 he was a close ally of the United States and the US assisted Saddam in his war against Iran.
The co-director of The Trial…, Barry Lando, has a blog and a few months ago wrote an excellent article about this very topic: The Trial in Iraq We’ll Never See.
This mobile phone video that was released on the net of the execution has directly contradicted official accounts of the execution (“He was a broken man,” he (Iraq’s national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie) said. “He was afraid. You could see fear in his face.” Hardly. What execution was he watching?) and of course the taunts, absent from the silent official video. [I've just heard on the news that the man who filmed the second footage has been arrested]. And now Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Miliki wants to quit his job (though really, who could blame him?).
This whole thing (the invasion, the trial etc.) has been a deadly farce from the beginning. The government lies over Saddam’s execution only highlight that corruption (relatively small, in regards to things such as death squads) continues to exist irrespective of whether Saddam Hussein is alive or not. His hanging is hardly a “milestone” for Iraq, a “turning point.” It’s merely another ghastly pot hole on a road where humanity has been all but crushed.
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Click here to find out more about the documentary “Saddam Hussein – The Trial The World Will Never See”
The BBC’s John Simpson on the mobile phone video: Saddam hanging taunts evoke ugly past
Riverbend, as always, provides an articulate assessment, along with the raw honesty and immediacy that only living in Iraq can bring: A Lynching…
Editor sentenced to jail over Muhammad cartoons November 26, 2006
Posted by dave128 in Media.1 comment so far
BBC: Yemen editor jailed over cartoons
A court in Yemen has sentenced a newspaper editor to a year in jail for reprinting Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
[Snip]
The editors of two other Yemeni publications face similar charges.
Sigh. As crude as the cartoons were, this is an outrageous decision.
Mr al-Aalafi has been released on bail and will appeal the sentence.
Hopefully it all goes well for him and the other editors. And hopefully the media won’t be cowed into obedience because of such charges.
And you thought ads in shows were bad… October 21, 2006
Posted by dave128 in Australian Politics, Media.add a comment
The Age: First it was the ABC, now senator has new target
KEY Howard loyalists are set to launch a scathing attack on multicultural broadcaster SBS and force it to answer accusations of blatant left-wing bias.
Oh no, here we go again.
He singled out SBS’s coverage of the recent Hezbollah-Israel conflict as one of the most appalling examples of biased reporting he had ever seen. “Their commentary on international events, particularly the conflict between Lebanon and Israel, just displayed a clear lack of impartiality and completely lacked any balance whatsoever,” Senator Ronaldson said.
What rubbish! SBS’s coverage was as unbiased as could be. They showed the destruction, human and material, by Israel’s bombs on Lebanon, but also showed the damage inflicted by Hezbollah rockets. They screened many reports showing the plight of Israeli citizens coming under fire, including a heartbreaking story I won’t forget with Israeli children talking about the emotional impact the conflict had on them.
The upside down world continues. Criticise Israeli government policy and get labelled a racist. Daring the humanise the Lebanese suffering from Israel’s aggression is “appalling bias.”
Yesterday I was fretting about Murdoch’s involvement with Fairfax, and now this comes along. Independent media is so vital, especially when the alternatives are so dreadful. This government bullying of SBS should not be tolerated. I look forward to SBS’s response.
Freedom of press = Terrorism?! September 12, 2006
Posted by dave128 in Australian Politics, Media.1 comment so far
An Australian politician, Michael Danby, has strongly attacked the Australian commercial television channel Network Ten because they aired the September 11 conspiracy theory film 911: In Plane Site.
Now, I can certainly understand that the idea of the 9/11 attacks being perpetrated by the U.S. government to be offensive to some people. A mainstream television network broadcasting a film about said allegations would also be offensive to such people. But Mr Danby’s reaction is rather loopy indeed. First he calls for Channel Ten’s program director to be sacked. And then he calls Channel Ten murderers!
Mr Danby said September 11 victims had been killed twice – once by the terrorists and once by Ten.
You do know that this was a repeat screening, don’t you Mr Danby? Channel Ten first aired In Plane Site in 2005. So that means they’re double murderers!
You know, this kinda reminds me of the Play School lesbian “controversy”, considering the offending segment had once been shown without a hint of scandal. I also remember a Myer catalogue advertising the DVD not long after the film first aired on Ten.
Now, if Channel Ten are murderers that also means our public broadcaster, SBS, also have blood on their hands. SBS aired the Canadian documentary Conspiracy Theories: September 11 in 2005. Though since SBS also screened the anti-conspiracy theory polemic September 11 Didn’t Happen, maybe that made them even.
I’ll be looking out to see if any columnists from News Limited papers attack Channel Ten’s decision to repeat the program. If any do it will be very interesting to see if they also attack the Australian version of The History Channel, which aired the 9/11 conspiracy theory documentary Loose Change on Monday night. The History Channel is on FOXTEL, partly owned by News Limited.
Mr Danby has a history of wishing to censor things, such as a book by Antony Loewenstein.
Mr Danby, as the Channel Ten spokeswoman said, Australia is a free country. I respect your right to criticise books, TV programs, whatever you want. Hell, many people in the 9/11 truth movement think In Plane Site is garbage. But please don’t tell me what I can or cannot watch, read, whatever. That’s the point of democracy. Mr Danby, why do you hate us for our freedoms?
The path to benign heaven September 10, 2006
Posted by dave128 in Media, Television.add a comment
The Path to 9/11 is currently on TV and though not totally involved in it I couldn’t help but watch a little of the beginning. The depiction of the 1993 explosion was laughably crude and amateurish. It was like I was watching a TV movie.
Oh wait, it is a TV movie.
And I’m so over the jerky camera. Ooh, this is gritty, this is real, WHOOO! WHOOO! Stop it! Stop it now!
One positive note: at least some of the Arab characters speak Arabic amongst themselves. It always pisses me off when non-English speakers speak English to other non-English speakers. “Let us speaks bad in-ger-leesh because the in-ger-leesh telly visual watchers cannot reads the in-ger-leesh on bottom of screen.”
Also: god dammit, there’s this guy in it that I know from somewhere, but I can’t put my finger on it. Who is it?! It’s driving me insane. [ ... ] Ah! It’s the sheriff from that TV show Roswell. I can sleep easy tonight.
Also also: I reiterate, the camera is so FUCKING IRRITATING! ARRGGGHHHHHHH!!!
Um…. Rosa Popesku? August 28, 2006
Posted by dave128 in Media, Television.add a comment
Temptation is a daily quiz show here in Australia. One prominent feature of the program is the “Who am I?” questions. The host begins with date and place of birth, and if applicable, year of death. He then lists details about the person’s past, usually beginning with their childhood and early life then moving onto more recognisable achievements.
On Friday’s episode one of the Who am I? questions was Rosa Parks. I got it pretty early on, because I had read about her early life just after she had died. I was even more chuffed because none of the contestants had buzzed in yet. The clues kept coming and still none one had answered.
I expected the question would go off when the host mentioned her famous protest on the bus. But that came and went without action! Finally the host had exhausted all clues and said “with a last name beginning with P, I am Rosa ____?”
And the three contestants all just sat there like idiots!
I could not believe my eyes. No one knew who this wonderful lady was. What disrespect!
