Water, Water, Every Where ….
Posted on February 8, 2010
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Southern California has been inundated these past several weeks with rain storms; it’s something we’re not used: There’s flash floods, mud slides, overflowing storm drains and traffic jams.
What’s really scary, though, is an advisory sent out by L.A. County’s environmental health division, advising people to stay out of the ocean because of the possibility that storm runoff could bring disease-carrying bacteria into the water. This is nothing new, however; after every major storm in Los Angeles the beaches become contaminated with sewage and the flotsam and jetsam of urban living.
But just how toxic are the beaches? Is this something out the 1950s and ’60s, when we had to worry about radioactive rain and fallout? Remember all those sci-fi movies about animals mutating into giant creatures because of radioactivity or pollution or scientific experiments gone wrong (”Them,” “Tarantula,” “The Beginning of the End,” “The Flesh Eaters,” to name just a few)? Is this what the future holds?
Where’s the Toxic Avenger when we need him?
Taylor Swift’s Performance Malfunction
Posted on February 6, 2010
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What are we to make of the ongoing controversy over 20-year-old country singer Taylor Swift’s off-key performance at the Grammys last week? The Web world is abuzz with fans and detractors defending or denigrating the singer. MTV News even published an article titled “Why You Shouldn’t Hate On Taylor Swift” in response to the backlash.
We’ll cut her some slack; everyone has a bad night. What’s so troublesome is not her weak performance but what her record label’s response says about the music industry.
According to her label, Swift had a technical issue that made her worry about her performance with Stevie Nicks. “We had a volume problem in the ear. So, she was concerned that she wasn’t able to hear everything in the mix,” Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta said. “That’s just part of live TV. … So you’re going to have difficulties on occasion. Unfortunately, on one of the biggest stages, we did have a technical issue. She couldn’t hear herself like she had in rehearsal.”
In other words, Swift can’t perform unless the electronics are up to snuff? We don’t buy it. Whatever happened to just getting up and performing before a live audience sans earpieces, electronic mixes, etc.? This kind of reminds us of the heyday of manufactured singers in the 1950s and 60s, when the record labels were turning every pretty face or young TV star into a singer — with the aid of echo, reverb, and a host of wonderful studio electronics to improve their voices. Remember Fabian, Paul Peterson, Tommy Sands, Johnny Crawford, Shelley Fabares?
It’s a sad state of affairs when a big star can’t perform live because her electronics are malfunctioning.
Healthcare Costs on the Rise. Why?
Posted on February 5, 2010
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OK, everyone leery of government intervention in our health care system. Take a look at what the L.A. Times reported today under the headline:
Anthem Blue Cross dramatically raising rates for Californians with individual health policies. Policyholders are incensed over rate hikes of as much as 39%, which they say come on top of similar increases last year. State insurance regulators say they’ll investigate.
Anthem Blue Cross is telling many of its approximately 800,000 customers who buy individual coverage — people not covered by group rates — that its prices will go up March 1 and may be adjusted “more frequently” than its typical yearly increases.
The insurer declined to say how high it is increasing rates. But brokers who sell these policies say they are fielding numerous calls from customers incensed over premium increases of 30% to 39%, saying they come on the heels of similar jumps last year.
… the company defended its premiums, even as it tried to strike a sympathetic tone.
“We understand and strongly share our members’ concerns over the rising cost of healthcare services and the corresponding adverse impact on insurance premiums,” the company said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, the individual market premiums are merely the symptoms of a larger underlying problem in California’s individual market — rising healthcare costs.”
Anthem is not the only health insurer imposing double-digit rate increases. Competitors such as Blue Shield of California and Aetna also have raised premiums significantly in recent years, insurance brokers said. But they said the impending Anthem increases are the largest they have seen.
39%. Way ahead of inflation and cost-of-living.
Rising healthcare costs? Too many MRI and CT tests for early detection of diseases? The rising costs of hospital stays, where every item is used once and then thrown away, to be charged to healthcare insurance (This is true — last year in the hospital every time my bandages were changed, the nurse had to throw away the metal scissors for sanitary reasons). The high quality of hospital food? (OK, that’s an necessary dig).
Here’s one reason healthcare costs may be rising: incompetence.
Today I received a cryptic call from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Business Office. “This is a courtesy call about a medical issue,” the woman on the phone said. “Could you please verify your name and address.” Since I didn’t know if this was really Cedars or a scam, I declined. The woman gave me a number to call to verify that Cedars needed to talk to me, and also gave me a reference number. Figuring a scam call could give me a scam number for “verification,” I called a number on my most recent bill from Cedars (I’m still paying off $xx.00 per month on an $xxx.00 bill left over from emergency surgery in 2008; I have a contract with Cedars for x number of monthly payments).
A woman at the billing number told that the reference number was for a doctor’s office affiliated with Cedars, and I was transferred. After being on hold for 10 minutes, another operator came on, and asked me to verify my name, address and phone number.
“I see you’re paying $xx.00 per month and are up-to-date but apparently there was a change and the bill went to default. But it has been corrected.”
“So I’m current and not in arrears,” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Then why did you call me?”
“That was a courtesy call because the terms changed.”
“But how could the terms change if I have a contract and I’m making the payments every month?”
“Well, that was just a courtesy call. You can just disregard it.”
“Why are you wasting my time?”
Silence.
“Good-bye.”
Of course, the other reason for health insurance carriers raising their rates: GREED
The People Speak: Howard Zinn
Posted on February 4, 2010
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With the death on January 27 of historian Howard Zinn (author of “A People’s History of the United States,” the first book to present American history through the eyes of working people rather than political and economic elites), we wanted to call to your attention the release of Zinn’s DVD “The People Speak” on February 23. Here’s the complete press release:
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NOTE: As one of the last projects on which he worked before his passing at 87, acclaimed Historian Howard Zinn couldn’t have been more proud. A long-time labor of love for the best-selling author of “A People’s History of the United States” (among many other books) and professor emeritus at Boston University, THE PEOPLE SPEAK is a legacy of powerful and poignant ideas that shall live on forever. And, given the country’s current ideological situation, it’s a significant program which should be shared by all. Said executive producer Matt Damon, “The message that is so critical to disseminate is that change doesn’t come from the top, but rather from the bottom, and that without everyday citizens pushing to make a difference, there would be no America.”
“Text all your friends not to miss ‘The People Speak’” – The New York Daily News
A DOCUMENTARY 500 YEARS IN THE MAKING: “THE PEOPLE SPEAK”
Based on Historian Howard Zinn’s Best-Selling Books, This Exclusive Extended Broadcast Version Also Features Bonus Programming Including Additional Interviews and a Behind-the-Scenes Featurette
NEW YORK, NY – Presenting 500 years of history through speeches, letters and music performed by today’s most talented voices, THE PEOPLE SPEAK is a stirring HISTORY special paying homage to ordinary citizens whose words and actions commanded extraordinary change in America. Based on historian Howard Zinn’s seminal books “The People’s History of the United States” (first published in 1980 with over 2 million copies in print) and “Voices of a People’s History of the United States” (the primary-source companion to “A People’s History”, edited with Anthony Arnove, who also helped found, with Zinn, the nonprofit Voices of a People’s History of the United States at www.peopleshistory.us), this documentary gives voice to those who spoke up for social change throughout U.S. history, forging a nation from the bottom up with an insistence on equality and justice. From executive producers Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Chris Moore and Anthony Arnove, this DVD presentation features over 20 minutes of never-before-aired footage as well as two exclusive bonus features for $19.95 from A&E Home Entertainment due February 23.
Narrated by Zinn himself, this groundbreaking doc – which ultimately recounts the rich and vibrant story of social change in America – illustrates the relevance of passionate historical moments to our society today, and reminds us that democracy is not a spectator sport. Journeying from the founding of our country to the civil rights movement and beyond, THE PEOPLE SPEAK harnesses the dramatic and musical talents of an all-star cast of international celebrities and activists to celebrate democracy, echoing the actual words (in letters, songs, poems, speeches, and manifestos) of rebels, dissenters, and visionaries from America’s past and present including Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Langston Hughes, Chief Joseph, Muhammad Ali, and unknown veterans, union workers, abolitionists, and many others never highlighted in high school textbooks.
In a labor of love, these dramatic moments from our history have been immortalized by accomplished performers and artists who “bring a full sense of drama and import to the voices of our democracy without turning the production into a pile-on celebrity vehicle.” There’s Matt Damon reading from The Declaration of Independence, Morgan Freeman reciting Frederick Douglass’ chilling speech on the meaning of the Fourth of July and Rosario Dawson as feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton. There’s hip-hop legend DMC reciting David Walker’s appeal to the slaves to revolt, while, as Cesar Chavez, poet Martin Espada makes an appeal to farmworkers and David Strathairn powerfully steps into the words of World War II hero Admiral Gene LaRocque. Music legends Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen perform the songs of folk icon Woody Guthrie, while THE PEOPLE SPEAK also features additional dramatic and musical performances by: Allison Moorer, Benjamin Bratt, Chris Robinson, Christina Kirk, Danny Glover, Don Cheadle, Eddie Vedder, Harris Yulin, Jasmine Guy, John Legend, Josh Brolin, Kathleen Chalfant, Kerry Washington, Lupe Fiasco, Marisa Tomei, Matt Damon, Michael Ealy, Mike O’Malley, Pink, Q’orianka Kilcher, Reg E. Cathey, Rich Robinson, Sean Penn, Staceyann Chin, and Viggo Mortensen.
Like Zinn’s work as a whole, THE PEOPLE SPEAK on DVD celebrates the extraordinary possibilities for creating social change that ordinary people have realized throughout the course of our nation’s rich but often ignored history of dissent and protest.
More information on Zinn and his work can be found at HowardZinn.org.
New Birthday for 2000 Year-Old Man
Posted on August 14, 2009
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Shout! Factory on November 14 will team with comedians Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks for the release of “The 2000 Year Old Man: The Complete History,” compiling the best of the bits featuring Brooks playing the oldest man in the world, answering questions posed by Reiner about historical events and people. The pair started doing the routine in 1961. The three-CD/one-DVD set contains all five legendary comedy albums released by the duo, including “The 2000 Year Old Man In The Year 2000,” for which they received a Grammy Award in 1998. The DVD features a brand-new interview with Reiner and Brooks discussing the history of the routine, the 1975 animated “2000 Year Old Man” TV special, and vintage clips of the two appearing on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and “The New Steve Allen Show.” The set also includes extensive liner notes, rare photos and tributes from some of the biggest names in comedy.
Save the Century Plaza Hotel
Posted on July 19, 2009
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On June 23, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson attended a $500-a-plate Democratic Party fundraiser at the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City. A peaceful anti-Vietnam War demonstration assembled outside the hotel; I was one among approximately 10,000 protesters — representing groups ranging from Another Mother for Peace to Students for a Democratic Society to Trotsky groups.
Lined up in front of the hotel were some 1,300 LAPD officers, sunlight gleaming off their metal helmets. I had a sinking feeling in my stomach as the police bullhorns urged us to disperse; I turned to a friend and pointed to one particularly burly cop: there’s going to be trouble and he’s the first one who’s going to start hitting people, I said. My friend demurred — that wouldn’t happen — there were women and children here.
As the sun went down and evening fell, the nightstick-wielding police — using a parade permit and court order that restricted the marchers from stopping to demonstrate — waded into the crowd, pushing us into a vacant lot that later became the ABC Entertainment Center and is now the CAA building. In their wake they left scores of protesters bloodied and hurt; 51 were arrested.
This was a turning point in the peaceful anti-Vietnam War movement; the protest mobilized more students and groups and bigger demonstrations, but it also augured more violent confrontations between demonstrators and police around the country.
Some 40 years later, the famed Century Plaza Hotel is on the demolition block. According to the Los Angeles Conservancy, in December 2008 the owners of the Century Plaza Hotel (designed by Minoru Yamasaki, 1966) announced plans to raze the building and replace it with two 600-foot towers. The new project would include a boutique hotel, condominiums, and mixed-use space, plus two acres of open space. The venerable hotel received a $36 million facelift less than a year ago.
On April 28, 2009, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named the Century Plaza Hotel in Century City to its 2009 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. This annual list highlights historic places throughout the U.S. that face destruction or irreparable damage.
The Los Angeles Conservancy is leading the charge to save the Century Plaza from demolition. Here’s how you can help:
Send a letter or e-mail to the Planning Department by July 30
We need as many people as possible to write the Planning Department to let them know that the Century Plaza Hotel is a significant cultural resource and should be treated as such in the City of Los Angeles Planning Department’s environmental impact report (EIR). If you believe that the site can be made more pedestrian friendly without razing the hotel (as we do, and as envisioned in the Greening of Century City Plan), please mention that as well. We’re shooting for 200 letters or e-mails, and you can help us get there!
Please direct your comments to City Planner Jimmy C. Liao as follows, with a copy to the Conservancy:
By e-mail: Jimmy.Liao@lacity.org; copy: centuryplaza@laconservancy.org.
By fax or mail:
Jimmy C. Liao, City Planner, EIR Unit, Environmental Review Section
Department of City Planning
200 N. Spring Street, Room 750
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Fax: (213) 978-1343
Phone: (213) 978-1331
Copy: Los Angeles Conservancy, Attn: Century Plaza, 523 West Sixth Street, Suite 826, Los Angeles, CA 90014; fax (213) 623-3909.
For more ways to help, jump on over to the Los Angeles Conservancy’s website action page on the Century Plaza Hotel.
Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music
Posted on June 8, 2009
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Hey ex-Hippies: It’s time to set your soul free again (”We are stardust, we are golden”). This year marks yet another benchmark for aging hipsters: the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. Though I was unable to attend the event ( I did, however, attend a few other benchmark musical events, including the first L.A. concerts of Pink Floyd, the Newport Rock Festival in Costa Mesa in August 1968, and the Last Days of Fillmore West in July 1971), I, like so many of my peers, just marveled at the news of the wonderful event. And the 1970 movie “Woodstock,” by Michael Wadleigh, summed up all the best aspects of the rock generation — to that point in time.
But the last year of the decade already was sounding the death knell for the 60s “revolution” (which we thought would go on forever): The virtual dismantling of SDS by the Weather Underground faction in late 1969, the debacle of the Altamont Free Concert in December, and even the breakup of The Beatles (late 1969 to early 1970) … with the decade being “finished off” by the Kent State Shootings on May 4, 1970. The idea of the 60s struggled on through the 1970s, seeing the end of the Vietnam War, a punk rock movement to offset the corporatization of rock ‘n’ roll, and a blossoming of grass roots art and theatre. The dream officially ended with the rise of Ronald Reaganism in 1980.
But hey, the 1960s did shine brightly for awhile, and Woodstock was one of it’s great beacons.
So today we celebrate Woodstock with the release of “Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music,” a director’s cut of that seminal film. Herewith is the press release from Warner Home Video:
Woodstock: The Director’s Cut:
40th Anniversary
Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music — the four-hour director’s cut of the 1970 Oscar-winning documentary about the landmark music event that featured some of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll performers in history — will be released June 9 in a spectacular new limited, numbered Blu-ray and DVD Ultimate Collector’s Edition. With two extra hours of rare performance footage — some of it newly-discovered, some only seen in part and some never seen at all — the set is destined to make its own history.
Today, four decades later, Woodstock still resonates deeply with those who attended and those who wished they had. Director Michael Wadleigh notes, “Based on the vast e-mails and calls I’ve received, many from young people, it’s very evident that people still relate so much to the film and view the ‘60s as an age when anything and everything was possible, mostly good. Many hope for a new Woodstock generation since what people loved back then was spontaneity, originality, innocence and honesty — even in superstars; that’s why Woodstock, with its open and natural philosophy, has become timeless.”
The two extra hours of rare performance footage features 18 new performances as never before seen from 13 groups, including Joan Baez, Country Joe McDonald, Santana, The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Canned Heat, Joe Cocker and five (Paul Butterfield, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Grateful Dead, Johnny Winter and Mountain) who played at Woodstock but never appeared in any film version.
A third hour of bonus material also in the set includes a featurette gallery (”Woodstock: From festival to Feature“) showcasing interviews with Martin Scorsese, producer Michael Lang, director Michael Wadleigh, Hugh Hefner, Eddie Kramer (the concert’s original chief on-site engineer and producer-engineer for Jimi Hendrix) and others who chronicle the making of the festival and the film. Included are such segments as “3 Days in a Truck,” “No Rain! No Rain!” and “Living Up to Idealism.”
The discs will be packaged in a unique giftbox, numbered as part of a limited run with an array of collectibles that include a 60+ page reprint of a Life magazine commemorative issue, a lucite lenticular display of vintage festival photos, festival memorabilia and an iron-on patch with the classic dove and guitar Woodstock emblem.
VH1 Rock Docs and History have joined forces in a unique television collaboration to co-produce the definitive two-hour documentary, “Woodstock: 40 Years Later” (working title), which will premiere this August on VH1, History and VH1 Classic. Directed by two-time Academy Award winning filmmaker Barbara Kopple and executive produced by Michael Lang, the original festival organizer, the film examines Woodstock from the perspectives of not only the musicians who graced the stage, but the fans, concert promoters and countless others. The film will also take an important look at Woodstock’s legacy through the eyes of today’s musicians and activists examining why Woodstock and all it symbolizes is still relevant in today’s culture.
Woodstock Ultimate Collectors Edition: Band Roster
Arlo Guthrie
Canned Heat
Country Joe & the Fish
Country Joe McDonald
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Crosby, Stills, Nash
Grateful Dead
Janis Joplin
Jefferson Airplane
Jimi Hendrix
Joan Baez
Joe Cocker
John Sebastian
Johnny Winter
Mountain
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Richie Havens
Santana
Sha-Na-Na
Sly & The Family Stone
Ten Years After
The Who
Full Description of 18 Bonus Performances
- Joan Baez “One Day at a Time”
- Country Joe McDonald “Flying High”
- Santana “Evil Ways”
- Canned Heat “I’m Her Man” and “On the Road Again”
- Mountain “Beside the Sea” and “Southbound Train”
- Grateful Dead “Turn On Your Love Light”
- Creedence Clearwater Revival “Born on the Bayou”, “I’ve Put a Spell on You” and “Keep on Chooglin’”
- The Who “We’re Not Going To Take It” and “My Generation”
- Jefferson Airplane “3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds”
- Joe Cocker “Something’s Coming On”
- Johnny Winter “Mean Town Blues”
- Paul Butterfield “Morning Sunrise”
- Sha Na Na “Teen Angel”
Full Description of “Woodstock: From Festival to Feature”
- The Camera: The Éclair NPR was the best camera around in 1969; Michael Wadleigh talks about why the Éclair was the right camera for this film.
- 365,000 Feet of Film: The stories of how Dale Bell and his crew begged, borrowed and stole just enough film to document the festival.
- Shooting Stage: Those up-close shots of performers didn’t just happen by magic; see how Wadleigh and his cameramen got those up close and personal shots of the performers.
- The Line Up: The Who, Sha Na Na, Santana, Ten Years After, Jefferson Airplane and many more; how did all these bands get on the roster for the festival of a life time?
- Holding the Negative Hostage: What does a filmmaker do when Technicolor is sending a copy of your negative to the studio without your permission? Well, you lock up the film and hire a lawyer.
- Announcements: “Don’t take the brown acid” or maybe it was green. We’ll hear about all the strange and informative announcements heard during those three days of peace, love and enlightenment.
- Suits VS. Longhairs: The clash between the hippie filmmakers and the Warner executives who didn’t understand what this film meant.
- Documenting History: Find out from Michael Wadleigh and Dale Bell, along with filmmakers, where the idea of capturing this event on film came from.
- Woodstock: The Journey: Some came by car, others by truck, a few came by helicopter but most walked to the most famous festival in history.
- Pre-Production: We’ll find out how this production got off the ground and meet the members of the crew that made it happen.
- Production: How many cameras were used? How much film did they go through? Did anyone sleep? All these questions and more will be answered here as we explore how Woodstock was captured on film.
- Synchronization: How do you sync all this material with out any slates? No slate, no problem. With the help of an upright Moviola, Dale Bell, Michael Wadleigh, Eddie Kramer and the editors were able to make magic from miles of tape and film.
- The Crowd: Half a million people of all colors, shapes, sizes, ages and sexes attended this historical event. We’ll hear stories about the number of people and how they all coexisted for three days with only minor incidents.
- No Rain! No Rain!: Everyone talks about the rain at this event as if it were a character. It was. It set the tone, provided moments of danger, fun and disgust.
- 3 Days in a Truck: Eddie Kramer heard some of the most amazing performances as he recorded this historic event. But during those three days of peace, love and music, he didn’t get to see any performances because he was stuck in a truck.
- Woodstock Effect: The film, the event and the album catapulted many musicians into the limelight, changing their lives forever.
- Living up to Idealism
- World’s Longest Optical
- Critical Acclaim
- Courtesy of The Museum at Bethel Woods: The Hog Farm Commune
- Hugh Hefner and Michael Wadleigh: The Woodstock Connection
For more Woodstock info:
1969 Woodstock Festival & Concert
Return to Peyton Place
Posted on May 6, 2009
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On September 15, 1964, ABC began airing a twice-weekly primetime drama based on the then-scandalous best-selling novel “Peyton Place” by Grace Metalious (which had been made into a 1957 theatrical feature by Mark Robson starring Lana Turner, Lloyd Nolan, Arthur Kennedy, Russ Tamblyn, Terry Moore, Hope Lange, Diane Varsi and David Nelson). The show catapulted ABC from No. 3 to No. 1 in the TV ratings race.
With fine acting by Dorothy malone, Mia Farrow and Ryan O’Neal, among others, the nightime soap opera stretched the boundaries of what was considered morally acceptable in pre-sexual revolution America.
“Peyton Place” was one of those TV series that helped mold a generation of teens, becoming the topic of conversation in school yards and on campuses around the country. Others that come to mind are “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” (as David and Rick grew into teens) and “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis,” which aired from 1959 to 1963.
“This is the continuing story of Peyton Place” the soothing voice of benevolent town elder Matthew Swain (Warner Anderson) would begin every episode. But the stories that followed were anything but soothing. Extramarital affairs, unwed teen pregnancies, family betrayals, mental illness and even murder were all lurking behind the storybook façade of this picture-perfect, centuries-old New England village and its citizens.
From the day Dr. Michael Rossi (Ed Nelson) arrives at Peyton Place to assume his role as town doctor, some of the townspeople’s lives begin to unravel, revealing unexpected and intersecting relationships long hidden by secrets and lies. The widow Constance MacKenzie (1950s melodrama star Dorothy Malone), her innocent daughter Allison (Mia Farrow), the wealthy but troubled brothers Rodney and Norman Harrington (Ryan O’Neal and Christopher Connelly) and their powerful father Leslie (Paul Langton), love-struck sex goddess Betty Anderson (Barbara Parkins) and others are revealed to be much more than they initially appear.
The series ran for 514 episodes until 1969.
In the 50s people were shocked by the book and teens had to carry their copies wrapped in book covers or plain paper; in the mid-60s we were shocked when Mia Farrow cut her loose, blond hair to less than a few inches in length before leaving the show and marrying Frank Sinatra in 1966; now we’re shocked that it’s taken so long for the series to come to home video.
The folks at Shout! Factory have put together two sets of episodes from the first year of “Peyton Place”:
Due May 19, 2009 is “Peyton Place: Part One,” a five-disc set with 31 episodes, to be followed by “Peyton Place: Part Two,” another five-disc set with 31 episodes, due July 14.
Both sets have a $39.99 list price.
Now if only Dobie would come to DVD.
Source: Shout! Factory press release.
For more info:
The Museum of Broadcast Communications
The End Is Near (For Newspapers)?
Posted on January 14, 2009
Filed Under Main, Culture, People, Future | Leave a Comment
It was only a matter of time: A Pew Research Center survey conducted in early December found that the Internet has now overtaken newspapers as the second-most preferred news source among Americans.
According to the study: “The Internet, which emerged this year as a leading source for campaign news, has now surpassed all other media except television as an outlet for national and international news. Currently, 40% say they get most of their news about national and international issues from the Internet, up from just 24% in September 2007. For the first time in a Pew survey, more people say they rely mostly on the Internet for news than cite newspapers (35%). Television continues to be cited most frequently as a main source for national and international news, at 70%.
“For young people, however, the Internet now rivals television as a main source of national and international news. Nearly six-in-ten Americans younger than 30 (59%) say they get most of their national and international news online; an identical percentage cites television. In September 2007, twice as many young people said they relied mostly on television for news than mentioned the Internet (68% vs. 34%).”
Of course, the study doesn’t take into account which online news sources people are flocking to — we hope that people are using the Web sites of established news providers, with track records for comprehensive coverage and fact-checking — rather than relying on blogs and sites that deal in word-of-mouth, innuendo and rumors. What is the quality of the news that people are accessing online?
What does this mean for the future of newsprint? More and more newspapers will cut back on their “hard copy,”* using newsprint as “loss leaders” to “push” readers to their Web-based product. News providers will have to figure out ways to differentiate their product from the voluminous other voices online. There will always be a need for comprehensive and fair news reporting — it just may be more difficult in the future to hold it in your hands.
For more info, jump on over to “Internet Overtakes Newspapers as News Outlet.”
* After a century of continuous publication, The Christian Science Monitor abandoned its weekday print edition in late October to f
ocus on their innovative online publication; the cost-cutting measure made The Monitor the first national newspaper to largely give up on print (though they will be publishing a weekend paper “magazine”). According to The Monitor, the shift will take place in April.
Disclaimer: This entry was prompted by David Sarno’s “Free news comes at a cost” Web Scout column in the Calendar section of the Los Angeles Times, January 14, 2009.
More Yearend Tidings
Posted on January 11, 2009
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The Falsies
This year marks the Center for Media and Democracy’s fifth annual Falsies Awards. The Falsies are the non-partisan group’s attempt to shine an unflattering light on those responsible for polluting the information environment during the past year. According to the group: “Don’t think this is an award in name only. Heavens no! Falsies recipients can collect their prizes — a pair of Groucho Marx glasses, our two cents and a chance to atone for their spinning ways by making a detailed public apology — by visiting CMD’s office in Madison, Wisconsin (detailed directions available on request).
This year’s Gold and Silver Falsies go to masters of war deception. No. 1 is the Pentagon’s successful effort to turn retired military officers into the Bush Administration’s “message force multipliers,” mostly on broadcast and cable television. “You could see that they were messaging,” one former Defense Department official explained to New York Times journalist David Barstow, who first reported on the covert program. “You could see they were taking verbatim what the [Defense] secretary was saying … and they were saying it over and over.”
The Silver award goes to the reporters and commentators who placed ideology over accuracy when discussing and discounting studies by the prestigious British journal Lancet that suggests that some 650,000 Iraqis had died as of mid-2006, a number that may be more than one million by now.
The Bronze Falsie recognizes a massive greenwash campaign by the coal industry, which ramped up its public relations and marketing efforts in response to the public awareness of global warming that has made it difficult to build new coal-burning power plants. Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC), an industry front group formed by coal, mining, electric and railroad companies, nearly quadrupled its budget for PR, advertising and “grassroots” organizing, from 2007 to 2008. ABEC sought to influence the U.S. presidential election with a $35 million campaign touting “clean coal” in key primary and caucus states.
The first-ever Lifetime Achievement Falsie goes to a serial corporate front man:”It seems like just yesterday, when industry lobbyist and anti-labor lawyer Rick Berman was helping tobacco giant Philip Morris (PM) defend itself against pesky public health advocates. In 1995, Berman urged PM to create a front group called the ‘Guest Choice Network’ to foster ‘a proactive, aggressive mentality’ against smoking bans in restaurants and other public places. An ‘additional benefit,’ he explained in a letter to PM, would be if the group were ‘externally perceived as driven by restaurant owners’ giving it ‘more flexibility and creativity allowed than if it is ‘owned’ by Philip Morris.’ Today, the Guest Choice Network is known as the Center for Consumer Freedom. “60 Minutes” profiled Rick Berman in a segment titled “Meet Dr. Evil”
All the juicy details are available at Falsies 2008.
Fimoculous: The Lists 2008
And if you’re not yet tired out by the best of 2008 (what with all the bigtime awards shows coming soon (the Golden Globes, the Academy Awards, the Grammys) , then head on over to Fimoculous. Rex Sorgatz’ site lists hundreds of End of Year lists going back to 2001 in advertising, art, books, business, fashion, gadgets, music, paranormal, sex, travel and much much more. We’re just too out of breathe to go on.
keep looking »
