Tag: media

Fault Lines: The Top 1% (via THE INTERNET POST)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Exactly. The distribution of income is this country is a great moral and ethical problem. If the money were allocated according to ability and work ethic, that might make some sense but walk around in this country and look at the hard working men and women reduced to penury by law that favor financial “innovation” over hard work and productivity.

James Pilant

The richest 1% of US Americans earn nearly a quarter of the country's income and control an astonishing 40% of its wealth. Inequality in the US is more extreme than it's been in almost a century — and the gap between the super rich and the poor and middle class people has widened drastically over the last 30 years. Meanwhile, in Washington, a bitter partisan debate over how to cut deficit spending and reduce the US' 14.3 trillion dollar debt is u … Read More

via THE INTERNET POST

Japan Passes Law To Cleanse Internet Of ‘Bad’ Fukushima Radiation News (via THE INTERNET POST)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Predictable, I wonder why it took so long. As radiation is detected in larger and large amounts further and further away from the damaged nuclear plants, I guess things just started to get annoying. So, we’re just going to give all those nasty news agencies a good talking to!

James Pilant

Japan Passes Law To Cleanse Internet Of 'Bad' Fukushima Radiation News 'The supposedly free democratic nation of Japan, which supposedly values and promotes freedom of speech, has officially issued orders to telecommunication companies and webmasters to remove content from websites that counter the official government position that the disaster is over and there is no more threat from the radiation. The government charges that the damage caused by earthquakes and by the nuclear accident are being magnified by irresp … Read More

via THE INTERNET POST

What’s the difference between the News of the World and mechanically-recovered chicken? (via QA)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This is marvelous. Here we have some subversive, original thinking about our current state of morality. Do the ends justify the means? Murdoch’s empire is a vicious example of raw power in action. It deserves some tough satire.

James Pilant

Or, Does the end justify the means? I'm always on the look out for a good analogy. This one popped into my head. Once upon a time, the people who run meat processing plants became frustrated that little bits of otherwise delicious (and saleable) meat clung doggedly to a carcass after it had been stripped to make chicken nuggets, beefburgers or satay sticks. So, they invented ever more elaborate means by which to remove the meats from the bones. ' … Read More

via QA

The Beginning of The End of Rupert Murdoch? – Rebekah Brooks resigns over phone-hacking scandal (via Kempton – ideas Revolutionary)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

When I first saw this, all I saw was the first part of the headline, and I thought, “No, he can’t be stopped.” But then I caught the part where Rebekah Brooks resigns and thought, “Maybe he is mortal after all. ”

James Pilant

The Beginning of The End of Rupert Murdoch? - Rebekah Brooks resigns over phone-hacking scandal Given the business smart of Rupert Murdoch and the firepower one can buy from hiring Edelman, the largest global PR firm, it may still be too early to say this is the "Beginning of The End of" of Murdoch. But at least it is easier to say this may be the beginning of the end of Rebekah Brooks. Guardian, "Rebekah Brooks resigns over phone-hacking scandal – News International chief stops short of full apology, saying she no longer wants to be 'focal … Read More

via Kempton – ideas Revolutionary

The Seduction of Power (via Only Ed)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Battle. That’s a very strange word to use in the context of media in conflict but I don’t doubt its importance or relevance.

I believe the battle for the print, broadcast and cable media has been lost. The kind of news that was in the paper and on the television 35 years ago is gone. We now live in an age of “distraction” news, content free news and outright deception. It is a great pity.

A free people cannot defend itself without information, facts and leadership, we have none of that. We have celebrity scandals, fake facts that our sniveling media decline to describe as a lies and a jello spined leadership so beholden to financial interests they contest among themselves for who is the most slavish in their devotion. They throw their offering on the altars of these demigods like the food offerings thrown before the wooden carvings of Odin in Pre Medieval Scandinavia.

Read on and discover nations and cultures where the media is still up for grabs.

James Pilant

  The Seduction of Power   Posted 24 June 2011, by Raúl Pierri, Inter Press  Service (IPS), ips.org MONTEVIDEO, Jun 24, 2011 (IPS) – The governments and big private media groups in Latin America are waging a war to win over public opinion, the ultimate arbiter of legitimacy, and the only solution would appear to be to strike up an alliance. "Battle" was the most oft-repeated term in the seminar on "Communication, pluralism and the role … Read More

via Only Ed

Which face to slap first? (via Static)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

We live in a new age.

Often when someone says those words, they are ranting or exaggerating. I am doing neither. For the first time, a citizen with a common appliance, a desktop computer, can read material from every part of the earth. We can watch their videos, read about their politics and communicate with the citizens through writing and commentary. Directly. No governments between us. No media filter.

There will be enormous changes coming from this, but it is going to take a while. It took a long time for television to change the political landscape to what it is today, this will be faster.

Here we have an obviously skilled and intelligent writer from Pakistan discussing the intellectual bankruptcy of the media. His complaints while illustrated by news examples from Pakistan are not different in kind from those in this country.

What we will find talking and listening to people from all over this planet is that we are brothers and sisters. We share many of the same concerns.

And we all have accomplishments to be proud of and problems to be solved.

Read the article. I assure you will find the author’s examples to be fascinating even though they take place on the far side of the globe.

James Pilant

by Rohaan Ahsen The issue I am about to talk about now is a very major issue, in the sense that it has crept into the very essence of an overwhelming majority of our population. Be it an extremely famous (or infamous) personality, or some run-off-the-mill average Joe, hypocrisy is inherent in people from just about every faction in our country. The names I take are those everyone repeats, I will not point fingers on any specific person or group, … Read More

via Static

The Agenda Shaping Our Worldview (via It Could Be Simpler)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

The idea of a “comforting illusion” is one you can easily think of when confronted by the apathy of so many. Myself I’ve studied the mortgage crisis (more like crimes) and have seen how little it bothered so many that this was going on. So many people still say, “They made a contract, they owe the money, things didn’t work out, they should pay up or get out of the houses.”

No one seems to care whether the original contract was fair, laden with fraud, or sold to those least able to understand what they were signing.

I see a lot of comforting illusions. I don’t like them. This fellow doesn’t either.

James Pilant

My thanks to “It Could Be Simpler.”

“If we choose, we can live in a world of comforting illusion.”- Noam Chomsky Manufacturing Consent For the majority of people journalism is still the primary source for their view of the world, it doesn’t just show how events unfold from day to day, but how the world is defined. This obvious power has not gone unnoticed, since the inception of mass media governments have understood the abilities of radio, TV and print to enhance the propaganda el … Read More

via It Could Be Simpler