BALANCE of CULTURE

Our Media's Corporate Ideology

With all of the "journalistic" noise that corrals our political discourse into a hysteric corporate-centric yelling contest, it has become increasingly difficult to "get the news" from major outlets. A great piece on the media's role in corporate ideology by Chris Hedges:

The cable shows, whose hyperbolic hosts work to make us afraid of self-identified liberals or self-identified conservatives, are part of a rigged political system, one in which it is impossible to vote against the interests of Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, General Electric or ExxonMobil. These corporations, in return for the fear-based propaganda, pay the lavish salaries of celebrity news people, usually in the millions of dollars. They make their shows profitable. And when there is war these news personalities assume their “patriotic” roles as cheerleaders, as Chris Matthews — who makes an estimated $5 million a year — did, along with the other MSNBC and Fox hosts.

Is this the state of our media and news today? While this rehearsed "patriotism" may aid the short term success of certain parties in our corporate culture, the emotional divisiveness it cultivates in our society ultimately weakens the nation state as a whole. 

UN Exhibit: History as News

A very interesting exhibit just opened at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland: History as News. This unique exhibit shares +100 historic front pages of newspapers worldwide published from 1898-2012. It's located at the Palais des Nations until March 1. Definitely a must-see if you're in Geneva this month!

al Jazeera's New Role in Global News

One of the meatier developments in the media over the holidays was the announcement of news network al Jazeera purchasing Al Gore's Current TV in order to enter mainstream American households. While plenty has been discussed on how ironic the $500 million sale is, most commentary thus far has centered around the spectacle of the transaction (Gore is estimated to gross approximately $70 million).

While the financials are definitely eye-opening to how this sort of business can muscle itself around despite the inherently divergent politics of the involved parties, hardly anybody is pointing out how al Jazeera may not be the straightforward news network it purports itself to be besides CFR's Elliot Abrams. 

In his blog post, Abrams brings up a simple test: Is al-Jazeera capable of candid reporting on Qatari affairs? Unfortunately, the answer ends up as  no--a questionable conclusion since the network is well known as property of the oil-rich Qatari royal family.

Despite this, al Jazeera is still one of my favorite news outlets. I often find it to be a rich resource for events outside the radar of, say, the ubiquitous New York Times. But unlike the UK's BBC, Germany's Deutsche Welle, FRANCE 24, or Voice of America, al Jazeera's direct funding connection to the government of Qatar (via Sheik Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani) is not overtly disclosed in its fine print. So the question is, will people care if al Jazeera doesn't objectively report on Qatari events while on their television sets?

With Time Warner dropping Current shortly after the sale, we'll have to wait and see how the rest of this story continues.

The Media's Desperate Pivot to Pervy

As part of the Obama administration's "pivot to Asia," President Obama is officially the first sitting US president to visit Myanmar, formerly known as the Burma. 

While most analysts realize this trip is an initial diplomatic push towards more democratic and economic reforms in this key region, the folks behind Drudge Report decided to frame it as some kind of pervy debacle, according to their photos above. Quite a stretch.   

Not only does this misinform the public on the most base and classless level (the sexualization of Asian women is getting seriously old at this point), it completely undermines Aung San Suu Kyi's incredible political struggle for human rights in a seemingly impossible situation. There she is now, an influential party figure after years of political imprisonment in her own country. But Drudge only "sees" one thing. 

To be fair, other sites have jumped on this theme as well, also going into detail about the president's "playful" and "flirty" meeting with Thailand PM Yungluck Shinawatra.

But all you have to do is keep reading, and you'll see Secretary Clinton doing the very same things. It's called being a friendly and polite diplomatic guest, but some "journalists" would clearly rather focus on their own disturbing racial fantasies. 

Candy Checks Mitt

Regardless of our opinions on whether Candy Crowley overstepped her role as moderator (or "facilitator") during the Libya portion of the presidential debate last night, the bottom line remains: the facts do matter.

 

 

Legitimate Manipulation I Can See From My House

Remember Bill Clinton's "arithmetic" angle in his DNC speech last week? Fox News apparently didn't get the memo as of yesterday, based upon their amateurishly-manipulated metrics on unemployment. I thought that was bad enough, for this week anyway, until the news of the embassy attacks in Egypt and Libya surfaced.

On cue, predictable right-wingers promptly politicized the tragedies--from Sarah Palin's Facebook rant (which starts off with, "Apparently President Obama can’t see Egypt and Libya from his house"--I unfortunately kid you not) to Mitt Romney actually conflating the two separate incidents into one vague and mushy criticism on the Obama administration's nonexistent kowtowing to Muslim extremists. Really.

I'd be remiss to exclude other recent equally concerning comments by our nation's b̶r̶i̶l̶l̶i̶a̶n̶t̶  ̶m̶i̶n̶d̶s̶ loud voices such as Rudy Giuliani and Reince Priebus, which border on the inanity of the Todd Adkin cartoon above. 

Clinton was right by stressing the simple importance of basic arithmetic. And we all know what that really means: education of the American people, not just the elite who are taking advantage of those looking to be "informed." 

Playboy's Social Capital Beatdown

Perhaps it's a little early to pass judgement on what really happened here, but the news of 21-year old Marston Hefner (son of Playboy's Hugh Hefner) allegedly kicking and punching now-former girlfriend/former Playmate of the Year 2011 Claire Sinclair is pretty outrageous.

After a conspicuous initial silence from Hugh Hefner and Playboy Enterprises, Sinclair has stated that she will not press charges as long as Marston Hefner publicly apologizes and receives psychiatric help for his anger and violence issues.

But Hugh Hefner's statement on the situation leaves so much to be desired: "If they care about each other, they'll patch it up."

Seriously? After all of Hugh's claims the past decades of how Playboy actually liberates and empowers women -- as opposed to exploiting or objectifying them -- this is a severely inadequate response to allegations of his own son beating down on a glorified Playmate. "No one's empathetic or concerned," Sinclair states. "It's more like cover it up and protect an image."

As a "liberated" woman myself, I've never been opposed to the concept or image of Playboy, and since I live in Los Angeles, I know lots of "bunnies" and Playmates. But regardless of one's stance on the company, it's obvious that the iconic but struggling American publication has been given tons of slack in recent years despite their sometimes disappointing and outdated approach to publishing, online content, art direction and overall style and sensibility.

But these issues are the problems of most publications that are on the front lines of the internet battle. What is especially uninspiring here is not only the highly disturbing allegations of domestic violence linked so closely to the Playboy empire, but the seemingly sketchy and hypocritical manner in which this situation is being handled by the company that proclaims to put women on a pedestal.

Like I stated earlier, it is still early to tell what will transpire. But so far this is an awful look for Playboy that will only further harm the brand the longer they fail to take a very strong and disciplinary position with Marston Hefner's alleged actions.

A few weeks ago, Darren Rovell tweeted his opinions on how the quality of Playboy Playmates has gone down in recent years, spurning stinging responses from some of the girls. Let's hope those same women step up and support their own in this strange case of domestic violence!

Whether or not Sinclair's allegations of abuse are correct, Playboy and Hugh Hefner need to gather their courage and back up their past statements on women's empowerment by addressing this messy issue as soon as possible. They're no longer in the safety of the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, or even 1990s anymore -- and now with the internet, the ivory tower of publication can't hide a company's fumbling and archaic handling of issues it has once proudly claimed for its own social capital.

AP in Pyongyang, North Korea

After about one month since Kim Jong-il's death, the Associated Press (AP) has opened up a full news bureau in North Korea. Of course most people are wondering how any fair and balanced news reporting could be executed from within the DPRK's borders, but executive editor Kathleen Carroll assuredly noted from Pyongyang that the new office will adhere to the same standards and practices as all of the other AP bureaus.

AP, for the most part, represents a rigid Westernized approach to journalistic standards (at least compared to the likes of North Korean media). The new Pyongyang location will be an unprecedented direction for both the news organization as well as the North Korean government, which is known as one of the most mysterious and controlled systems in the world -- a big difference from South Korea, where AP has had a busy news bureau for decades now.

At this point I'm still skeptical. Chinese state media is currently busy "curating" public information (especially things that come from Western society) to their own citizens in a bid to maintain power and influence. What chance does AP have in outputting objective news items from within North Korea? I will be very impressed if this new bureau is able to do the job it claims.

Playboy's New Bunny-Shaped Ad

Some people have a problem with this new ad, not just because it's Playboy but also because the women are made to look like "things" (ex: "ants") as well as the fact that all the women seem to have nearly the same skin color.

All-American Muslim--not American enough for advertisers?

All-American Muslim, the hit reality TV show on TLC, isn't so much of a hit with all-American advertisers, apparently: after "activist group" Florida Family Association condemned the series (let's all wonder why!...), US companies like Lowe's (whose Facebook page is a mess due to this situation) and Kayak withdrew their ads during the program. Other companies may include WalMart, Bank of America, and Campbell Soup.

This is really sad…I know so many people (mostly of the younger set, I admit) who are in love with this show, but I guess that doesn't really matter to the nutty, ultra-conservative agenda pushers out there. And so many of these "all American" brands lately are showing that they're really anything but what America symbolizes...