Dangerous Intersection Interviewed on KDHX

A big thanks to Ed Bishop of St. Louis radio station KDHX for inviting Dangerous Intersection onto his show, Reality Now. Ed, a journalism professor at Webster University in St. Louis, created his show after attending the 2005 National Conference for Media Reform sponsored by Free Press. Ed's show focuses on media issues, and on January 3, 2011 Mark Tiedemann and I joined him for his half-hour show. We discussed the origins of Dangerous Intersection, citizen journalism, religion and political labels, among other things. If you'd like to hear the January 3rd show, it is available at the KDHX site, but only for a couple of weeks. Note for aspiring citizen journalists: the next Free Press National Conference for Media Reform will be held April 8 - 10 in Boston, Massachusetts

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Big wasted money

I know I've quite recently written about the immense amount of money the United States is pouring into Afghanistan, but this terrible waste of money simply must stop. It occurred to me that the huge amount of money we are spending to fight poor people in Afghanistan needs to be described in terms that make it more understandable to the average American. Imagine that the federal government made a big announcement tomorrow that it would start funding large-scale improvements for each of America's largest 100 cities. In accordance with this new program to build bridges, hire teachers, convert buildings to high energy efficiency and retrain workers (in addition to other things), the federal government would pay each of America's biggest 100 cities $20 million. Imagine this celebration! The citizens of each of these cities would be treated to ribbon-cutting ceremonies complete with large replicas of checks, each of which contains the number $20 million. The mayors of these cities would tell their citizens about all the great things they will be able to do with $20 million. Now imagine that while this celebration is going on, a 10-year-old child walks up to a reporter on the street, tugs at his sleeve, and tells him that something is wrong. The cameras keep rolling as the surprised reporter asks the child what could possibly be wrong with each of America's 100 biggest cities getting a grant of $20 million. The child pulls out a calculator and explains that $20 million times 100 equals only $2 billion. The reporter asked the child what could possibly be wrong with this. The child explains:

$2 billion is what America spends in Afghanistan each and every week. In order to spend a big amount of money on America's 100 biggest cities, an amount equal to the amount we waste in Afghanistan each year, we would need to pay each of America's biggest 100 cities $20 million every week for a year.
The reporter blurts out, "Think of the huge number of teachers and police officers we could hire for that kind of money. $20 million times 50 weeks means that each of American's biggest cities would get $1 Billion. Think of the crumbling bridges we could fix with that. Think of the improve schools, the improved health care and the collective relief we would feel knowing that our hard-earned tax dollars are being used wisely. At that point, the child would again tug at the reporters sleeve and remind him, "We are not spending tax dollars in Afghanistan. It is all borrowed money we are blowing over there. In fact, 42 cents of every dollar spent by the federal government in 2010 is borrowed money. " At that point, the reporter might look at the camera and say something like, "That's it from here tonight. I'm speechless."

Continue ReadingBig wasted money

Ralph Nader and Julian Assange on Wikimania

Ralph Nader has commented about the government witchhunt of Wikileaks:

Secrecy-keeping the people and Congress in the dark-is the cancer eating at the vitals of democracy. What is remarkable about all the official hullabaloo by government officials, who leak plenty themselves, is that there never is any indictment or prosecution of government big wigs who continually suppress facts and knowledge in order to carry out very devastating actions like invading Iraq under false pretenses and covering up corporate contractors abuses. The morbid and corporate-indentured secrecy of government over the years has cost many American lives, sent Americans to illegal wars, bilked consumers of billions of dollars and harmed the safety and economic well-being of workers.

Meanwhile, Julian Assange warned those who work for traditional media outlets that they should not try to dissociate the work of Wikileaks from the work that they do. In fact, he argues that once the U.S. government criminally prosecutes him, that they will be next, and that will be the end of serious government journalism. This link includes a long interview with Assange by Cenk Uygur of MSNBC. Here's what he had to say about the various calls for him to be illegally murdered, coming from several prominent American politicians:

If we are to have a civil society, you cannot have senior people making calls on national TV to go around the judiciary and illegally murder people," he said. "That is incitement to commit murder.

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If you didn’t watch the local TV news Wednesday evening, you missed all of this

I have long been disheartened by the offerings that pass for “news” on local TV news shows, but I thought it might be interesting to carefully monitor a newscast, and to log the content, minute by minute. I invited my 10-year old daughter to join me watching a videotape of the local news of Wednesday evening’s news on St. Louis NBC affiliate KSDK, Channel 5. I had recorded the 30-minute show ahead of time so we could carefully track the time and content, stopping and starting the tape as necessary to be accurate with our note-taking. We got lucky because there was a mild sleet storm in the forecast, which would give us a chance to see how much the station would play up a bit of weather. It turned out that we weren’t disappointed with the winter storm hyperbole. We were sorely disappointed with what passed as “news,” however. Here is the “news,” minute by minute:

0:00 - Intro: Welcome to the News 0:25 Winter Weather Watch (There might be some sleet and ice tonight). 2:10 Breaking News: the police are investigating a crime-a woman was murdered in Illinois 3:28 More weather - (There might be some sleet and ice tonight). 4:22 Stock videotape of the city salt trucks. The “story” is that these trucks are ready to go if necessary. 4:31 A local organization provides meals for the elderly. The accompanying video features an elderly woman who is for the frozen meals. 6:22 More weather: Take care of your pet when it's cold and icy outside. 7:25 Today, there was a student protest at a radio station run by a University. The police arrested a student who was allegedly unruly. The student blames the police and the police blame the student. No serious injuries. 9:02 Several police officers were laid off in one of the municipalities of in the St. Louis area. 9:22 An ex-police officer who had been arrested for corruption regarding an automobile towing operation goes to prison. 10:19 There was a shooting at a school board meeting in Florida. The story includes security video of the shooter being attacked by a woman who used her purse to smack him. He did not shoot her; he was much bigger than her, and swatted her away. She is interviewed afterward and states she didn't know why she hit the man with her purse. 11:03 A preview of upcoming news. 11:30 Commercials 13:13 A video of a small airplane making an emergency landing (without landing gear) at the Springfield Missouri airport. No injuries. 13:35 A bandit in Las Vegas steals $1.5 million in casino chips. The story includes a video of the disguised robber walking out of the casino. 14:10 A mother sues McDonald's for offering Happy Meals to lure children to the restaurant. McDonald's says is proud of its happy meals. 14:50 A skunk breaks into a warehouse and sprays some toys. Many of these stinky toys can no longer be distributed to children. 15:12 More weather. There might be ice and snow tonight. 15:36 Commercials 18:15 More Weather. There might be ice and snow tonight. 21:30 Promos for the local news. We keep you informed. 22:11 More commercials. 24:30 Merry Christmas message from the station. 24:57 Sports. 28:00 A short story about Twitter. 28:20 More commercials 30:00 End of the “news.”
[Epilogue: Despite all of the attention on the weather, only a few schools closed in St. Louis the following morning and there was only a modest amount of ice on the roads]. Here are a few statistics based upon this news monitoring session: - Total time of commercials: More than 8 minutes. - Total amount of weather: About 7 minutes. - National news: None - Investigative reporting: None. - Speaking truth to power: None. [More . . . ]

Continue ReadingIf you didn’t watch the local TV news Wednesday evening, you missed all of this