Links and commentary on media, politics and culture by Steve Rhodes.

 
The Republican Convention is starting. You can find coverage at commondreams.org and the Philly IMC
which will be providing ongoing reports and tv coverage in the morning
with a simulcast of Democracy Now and another program in the evening. Radio coverage includes Unconventional Coverage and
Radio For Change.

Farai Chideya is doing commentary from CNN. She is posting stories to her site, Pop & Politics. Her first report is up.

C-SPAN is providing extensive coverage on tv and online of the convention
and the protests. On Saturday, I saw an absurd press conference with protesting puppets (though it was
no more absurd than what we'll see during the brief prime time coverage on the networks). You can also
watch the
Shadow Convention.

Dan Perkins (Tom Tomorrow is posting http://members.freespeech.org/tomorrow/pages/gra/gra_r2k.html>pictures he is taking at the convention.

posted by steve at 7/30/2000 11:55:00 PM

 
Supporters of the death penalty always say it has never been proven that an innocent person was executed. Now there is a chance it may be shown someone was executed for a crime he
was innocent of. In
DNA testing ordered in case of man already executed, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reports on the case of
Ellis Wayne Felker.

He was convicted on circumstantial evidence and his lawyers tried to get DNA testing done before his execution that wasn't available at the time of his trial. He was executed in 1996 despite protests by Amnesty International.
NPR did a story on the case. You can http://www.npr.org/ramfiles/atc/20000727.atc.10.ram>listen in real audio.
posted by steve at 7/27/2000 09:33:00 PM

 
Journalist Miroslav Filipovic has been convicted in a Serb court for articles such as Serb Officers Relive Killings and sentenced to seven
years in prison. This means he will be held while his case is appealed (he could have been released if it was
five years or less). There is more on his case at the http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl5?balkans_filipovic_index.html>Filipovic Files. Anthony Borden writes about the impact of the case.

There is very little coverage of Yugoslavia in US media. They seem to forget there was a war there last year, so follow-up would be good. But there aren't pictures of flaming Concordes. You can http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl5?balkans_index.html>sign up (scroll to bottom of page) to get news via email from
Institute for War & Peace Reporting and you can get daily text news summaries from Radio B92.

posted by steve at 7/26/2000 02:57:00 PM

 
This week, Newsweek reported in Creating Static for AOL that Disney had produced a video
attacking the AOL Time-Warner merger to show to the FCC and Congress.

Inside.com has a follow-up,
Dirty Movie: Disney Trots Out a Video in Its War Against the AOL Deal and you can watch
the nearly 12 minute video in real video.

The video is really bad (Disney should have watched some http://www.papertiger.org/>Paper
Tiger TV tapes for examples of how to make fun, compelling
videos attacking concentration of media ownership).

The video makes a good point, those who produce the content shouldn't
control distribution . But it is hypocritical since Disney also
owns plenty of distribution.

At the end, the video points out three times the government stepped in
in similar cases: Microsoft, stopping studios from owning
theaters and stopping tv networks from owning shows on
their network.

It doesn't mention that the FCC has eliminated that last one
and now most programs on ABC are now produced by Disney or
that the same guy now heads ABC the network and ABC the tv
production studio.

And Disney only seems to care that it has access. They aren't
lobbying for community media centers, so local non-profits,
artists and others can create broadband content which might
be more compelling than the enhanced tv version of that show
with Regis.
posted by steve at 7/26/2000 10:58:00 AM

 

Today's Chicago Tribune has an article, Federal Death Sentences Show Race Gap. It finds there more whites than blacks accepted plea bargains which prevented them from getting the death penalty. Rory Little, a former federal prosector who now teaches at
Hastings School of Law, is interviewed in the story. He wrote an article on the federal death penalty for the http://www.fordham.edu/law/pubs/fulj/ulj-home.htm>Fordham Urban Law Journal.

posted by steve at 7/24/2000 02:15:00 PM

 
Stephen King has released the first part of The Plant through his Philtrum Press. You can download it from his site
and pay $1 through Amazon. It is about a 20 page PDF file, actually short enough to almost be comfortable reading on a computer screen (though you
can print it out). It is a funny story about the publishing industry focusing on a slush pile submission to a genre paperback publisher (which originally was published in 1982 as a small book King sent to friends). The second installment will be published August 21st . If enough people have paid, the third will go up in September and he will post more until it is finished. It is worth the $1 though I wish he would post one installment a week rather than one a month. I want to know what happens next.

There is more on the impact King's experiment is having on the publishing industry in King Bucks Publisher and
Stephen King Sows Dread in Publishers With His Latest E-Tale.

King also http://www.nytimes.com/books/yr/mo/day/reviews/000723.23kinglt.html>reviewed the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in Sunday's New York Times.
You can also listen to Jim Dale talk about his audio versions of the Harry Potter books
and download an excerpt from it on MPlit.com.
posted by steve at 7/24/2000 01:03:00 AM

 
Tonight Nightline is on men who've been paralyzed by gunshot wounds, Invisible Men. They have a story up with
a videoclip. It was inspired by a May Washington Post article, Left Alive And Staring At Forever.

Update: There is now a transcript of the show.

Also, in May Nightline did a show on Lonnae O’Neal Parker's Washington Post article White Girl and the reaction to it when it was reprinted in Seattle. Nightline has a http://abcnews.go.com/onair/DailyNews/chat_000510ntl.html>chat which is linked to the transcript and a video clip. Now, the
Washington Post has printed a follow-up article,
Conversation in Black and White which has email between Parker and one of her readers.
posted by steve at 7/21/2000 03:31:00 PM

 
Nightline Thursday focused on the use of stun guns and restraint chairs on prisoners. They have a story and transcript online (the transcript will only be up for a week or two).

They interviewed Ann-Marie Cusac of the Progressive. She won a George Polk award for her story, Stunning Technology. She also wrote Shock Value and
The Devil's Chair.

They also interviewed John Conroy, author of Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People: The Dynamics of Torture. John Schwartz reviews the book in the Washington Post. His stories on torture by the Chicago Police are online. There is an interview with him from March on
WBUR's The Connection.

A representative from Amnesty International which has reported on the abuse of these devices was interviewed. A Phoenix
weekly has story on one of the jails in the Nightline report.
posted by steve at 7/21/2000 12:02:00 AM

 

The New York Times series How Race is Lived in America has concluded
with a special issue of the New York Times Magazine. David Carr of Inside.com
has a critique of it.

Michael Moore has endorsed Ralph
Nader and explains why he Ain't Fallin' For That One Again . You can watch in real video Nader's July 18th
speech at the National Press Club (it is also running on many NPR stations).
posted by steve at 7/20/2000 11:28:00 PM

 
I've been spending too much time watching Big Brother on tv and the streams online.
But at least I can use the excuse that I was planning on writing about it. Salon has put together a guide to all the tv episodes so far. I
wrote the summary for episode 4, the first
hour long Saturday show. Martha Soukup (who is among a number of people discussing the show on the well) wrote a companion http://www.salon.com/ent/tv/feature/2000/07/19/bb_internet/index.html>piece about the webcast.

She touches on how aware they are that they are on a tv show - something that is rarely shown on the actual tv show. Most of them know
all of the other reality shows and the media attention people on Survivor have received. But they are a bit naive about how much
is being shown on the internet. How most everything that happens is being related in chats, on message boards and posted on websites
which are springing up all over.

The best designed of the fan sites is Big Brother Central. It has links to most of the other sites
including The Red Room. Fan sites have already sprung up for
George, Jamie and Brittany (the last is part of a contest CBS is having). As always, TV Tattle has lots of links to Big Brother stories.
posted by steve at 7/18/2000 09:59:00 PM

 
Robot Wisdom has a link to a profile of Carl Hiaasen, a columnist for the Miami Herald and
author of a number of novels. Random House has a page on his latest, Sick Puppy, which has an interview and excerpt from the audiobook.
He wrote a piece, Real Life, That Bizarre and Brazen Plagiarist, for the New York Times'
Writers on Writing series.
posted by steve at 7/18/2000 12:36:00 PM

 
The New York Times series on race finally has a permanent URL that takes you to the most recent story along with links to previous pieces and additional material.

There is also a story in the Sunday Times on Martha Rosler, A Pure Artist Is Embraced by the Art World (it is no longer online - the Times should archive articles on artists, particularly if their show will be up for months). There is a retrospective of her work in NYC at the New Museum from July 15 to Oct. 8 and the International Center of Photography on Fifth Ave from July 29th to Oct. 1.

She has done important work in video (including Martha Rosler Reads Vogue and Born to be Sold: Martha Rosler Reads The Strange Case of Baby S/M with Paper Tiger and If It's Too Bad to be True, it Could be DISINFORMATION, an analysis of NBC News from 1985), photography, collage and criticism.

Her son, Josh Neufeld is a cartoonist who has illustrated stories for Harvey Pekar's American Splendor and done web design (including an Alfred Hitchcock site and Martha Rosler site). He did a collaborative piece with his mother.
posted by steve at 7/09/2000 07:35:00 PM

 

There was an interesting 20 minute long conversation with David Byrne on Saturday's All Things Considered about his interest in World Music (though he has written that he hates the term) and the Luka Bop record label.
posted by steve at 7/09/2000 10:33:00 AM

 
I haven't read the Harry Potter books yet, but I have been watching the reaction to them with interest. It is good to see books
and reading getting so much attention. Nightline covered the unveiling of the books
live on friday (unfortunately from a Barnes & Noble rather than an http://www.booksense.com>independent bookstore. Inside.com does have a report from an indie, http://www.booksofwonder.com/>Books of Wonder). Some of ABC's coverage is collected, but the transcript and video from
Nightline won't be up until Monday. Newsweek (which has
a horrible design since it moved over to MSNBC a few weeks ago) has a cover story.

Yahoo has full coverage including a link to an interview with Rowling in real audio from last fall (though currently WBUR's server seems to be overloaded). There is a Harry Potter weblog (which is the blog of the week).

MP3Lit.com has an excerpt of Jim Dale from the audio book of Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire and the New York Times has an interview with Rowling on the train she is riding across England to promote the book.

I just went through a lot of my old books and got all of my Tolkein books, so I can read them again before the movies start coming out next fall.
I also plan on reading the Potter books.
posted by steve at 7/09/2000 10:14:00 AM

 
Clinton has postponed the first scheduled federal
execution.

David Protess and his class have investigated death row inmate
Hank Skinner's case and called upon the state of Texas to conduct DNA tests which may clear him. Protess and his students have found evidence which helped free several inmates in Illinois.


posted by steve at 7/06/2000 09:32:00 PM

 
Well, the Big Brother site finally did get up later last night. But
the still seem to be having some difficulties. Some features of the site like more info on the profiles
and news are gone.

I watched too much of the video streams (which unlike the tv show can be oddly compelling). And if they aren't you can switch to another (there
are four). There are lots of articles about the show toward the bottom of Thurday's TV Tattle
and Yahoo's Reality TV Full Coverage.

There is a page on Jamie Kern at the Miss USA
site and a brief profile of her at the bottom of this page.

Tom Shales writes in the Washington Post:

One conclusion many people have already drawn about the show is that Julie
Chen, the host for last night's hour and a sort of liaison between the
program and CBS's "Early Show"--lowest-rated by far of the three network
breakfast programs--has no business being there, since she is technically a
journalist, or at least an employee of CBS News. Andrew Heyward, CBS News
president, ought to end that relationship at once, with Chen being
transferred to the entertainment division and staying there.

She is not acting as a journalist on the program, she is acting as a shill:
"Wow, that was in-tense," she gushed of the inmates' arrival via SUV
caravan. Thus does "Big Brother" threaten to insult and desecrate not only
the memories of CBS founder William S. Paley and the still-alive former CBS
president Frank Stanton--men of class and quality--but also that of CBS News
patron saint Edward R. Murrow.

Heyward should be further ashamed that the CBS News program "48 Hours" has
been dragged into the cross-promotional frenzy. Last night's edition was
ballyhooed with the promise that two former "Survivor" islanders would be
among those profiled. It's all so shameful and shameless at the same time,
so garish and ugly and embarrassing...

"Three months is a long time," housemate Eddie said in his little interview
segment last night. The first edition of "Big Brother" proved that one hour
can be a mighty long time, too.

posted by steve at 7/06/2000 08:58:00 PM

 
It is bad enough that the official Big Brother site has been the same for the past few days. Just a little Big Brother graphic
and the option to add it to your AOL calendar (yeah, right). No background or other info like the site for the British version (which starts in a couple of weeks).

Then the first show was badly directed, hoakey (sp?) and not a terribly compelling start. But they told you to go to the website to see live streams from 4 cameras and learn more than the sketchy info on the 10 "guests'" presented on the show.

Right after the show it is still the same boring page. Now even worse for CBS and AOL is the site is completely hosed. This is what lot of curious people are now seeing: