Adam Curtis is one of the most interesting documentary writer-producers working today. His material is the absolute best. The pieces usually run 3 or more hours at a crack. Here he does around 5 minutes, which is about all it takes to say that today’s journalists are useless and now they are begging the public to do the work for them.
found by Andrew Orlowski
For Kindle and with free ePub version. Only $9.49 Great reading.
Here is what Gary Shapiro CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said: Dvorak's writing sings with insight and clarity. Whether or not you agree with John's views, he will get you thinking and is never boring. These essays are worth the read!
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Interesting as far as it goes. I’m not sure I buy the implied innocent befuddlement. A more effective analysis can be had – at least in this country – by asking who owns the “free” press.
#1,
I think it’s pretty clear that John C is the President of the Illuminati, and therefore of the press, free and otherwise.
#2, and the C stands for Courageous.
Well, Mr. Curtis might have a different viewpoint due to the old government news monopoly that is the BBC. Here, in the U.S., there is no one TV news monopoly. We have had, until only recently, just ABC, CBS, and NBC. It was more of a duopoly (albeit with three parties).
At least, that is, until the advent of cable, satellite, and the internet. The expert journalists are becoming more and more marginalized. And it shows that many of them are biased, uniformed, and leading in their reports.
There are some benefits to a monopoly such as standardization but it is never going to give you diversity or all sides of any argument.
Personally, I feel that the whole “fairness doctrine”, which is currently going through a resurgence, is really about preserving the old style journalistic monopolies of the 40’s through 80’s. Those that are trying to break the mold, like Fox News or talk radio or internet bloggers, must be collared and belled so that the original government/media partnership can once again run roughshod over the facts.
Personally, I hope it stays the way it is. I love freedom of choice.
And James is right. I don’t buy the fact that the masses are clueless now that the mass media has lost their rudder. He seems to imply that the sheep must have a shepherd and that society is somehow worse off if the mass media loses control of the public consciousness. Bah.
And anyone know how I can see all of Mr. Curtis’s video?
HAR
Re: HAR
Feeling verbose, John? Please elaborate.
This story was FLUFF!!! All it said was journalists used to be journalists, as in JOURNALING history — now they’re just CORPORATE SHILLS — but we already KNEW THAT, and THEN ??? ….
In the good old days (Cold War, John Wayne, The Diamond Lady and American Westerns) Good was good and Bad was, well, bad and there was no room for confusion. But now The Wall is down, Billy the Kid was a hero and even the Terminator had his (it’s?) soft side, hell, he (it? even went into politics, doing that whole baby kissing (GAG!) routine. Everything has spin, the truth is non-viable and must be shaped into a monetized vehicle or cast aside to make way for more exciting contrivances. Demonization is a tool, and good/evil are but opposite faces to the same coin. Cabbage heads still believe what their favorite talking heads tell them, even though the talking heads change with the winds and the cabbage heads, with no thoughts of their own, still believe. Makes me want to get a job as a talking head, but shit, I’d probably have to wear pants and everything.
no #2.. he just thinks he knows someone in the illuminati
[Message deleted – See Comment Guidelines. – ed.]
MASS media, MASS audience, MASS consumption.
What is the average person interested in? Porn and Sports and Religion and Shopping. ie Pop culture. Politics? Why bother.
So, “news” goes where the money is. Must be some kind of elitism being argued for here.
11. bobbo. Right you are, as far as you went. A lot more than news goes where the money is. In fact, if it’s done effectively, much/most of the money has been made before the news gets there.
The really entertaining part of this is the assumption that journalist ever knew what was going on.
If you read the net and newspapers then watch TV in all of its forms you see print media trumpeting something that is days old.
As for actually digging up stories, if you watch or read carefully the overwhelming majority of the items are handouts from someone.
Remember one of the most sought after journalist assignments is White House reporter. And what does that reporter do? They sit around all day talking to other reporters and think of cleaver questions to ask the Public Relations talking heads. Then they report it to us breathlessly saying it is something they dug up.
Digging up information involves doing the research getting to the base of the information to learn about what is going on. If you have ever been involved in something that is presented as “NEWS” you very quickly see how little the reporter knows and how that lack of understanding is passed on as “NEWS”.
There never was much news but there are a lot of people employed in passing along something they were handed.
Sad really.
Bull !!!
Curtis is blaming journalists for what the editors and publishers are guilty of. They are the ones that assign journalists to cover a story and then rewrite the copy before publishing. They also set the tone, hire, and fire journalists.
A century ago, every city had multiple newspapers. Each selling to a specified audience. Usually they supported specific political parties. Too often, if they didn’t have any news, they invented it. Sensationalism sold back then too.
The remnants of that may still be seen in New York. The Wall Street Journal sells to the business class, the Post to the right wing trailer trash, and the Times to the educated. It wasn’t until men like Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite came along that journalistic standards soared to what they are today.
There is nothing wrong with soliciting news stories. The majority of stories already come from tips from the public.
While I am always a sucker for a British accent. I find the accuracy of this little piece to be quite askew. He acts as if the time line defining journalism is linear. It is not. He acts like sensationalistic journalism is a late 20th century invention. It is not.
Throughout history there have been good and investigative journalists that deliver us the hidden facts just as there have been corporate shills that deliver just what the government and big corporations want us to know. Nothing has changed.
I will say this. Lately it seems that there are very few of the former. I think a great many of them are too lazy to get out and get those hidden facts. They would rather have it told to them by their superiors or just look it up on the intertubes. There was a time if you had a video of a plane crash that you could earn thousands or even a million if it was a big plane crash by selling it to the news. Now they want you to upload it for free and in turn they will profit and all you get is the brief mention of your name. There was a time when the news divisions would lose money. Now they are one of the most profitable parts of a network.
The goal of all media is to sell, nothing more. Bad news sells so they need find the negative in everything. Tell me this isn’t spin: http://tinyurl.com/3yhcfy
#16 – The goal of all media is to sell, nothing more.
Take “all media” and boil it down to a sentence… It’s amazing how overly simplistic and ultimately inaccurate an idea you can come up with.
#17 – Truth hurts. Of course you could split out the traditional mainstream media by adding their secondary goal of pushing the Democratic party’s agenda.
#18 Spoken like a poster child for ignorance. There is no difference between Democrat and Republican anymore. Stop being a drone and wake up to the fact that the parties are dialing for the same big business money. So drop this left-wing ‘media’ crap.
Lazy retarded meat puppets only do what the hand in their ass directs them to do.
#19 – Spoken like a poster child for ignorance. There is no difference between Democrat and Republican anymore.
How do you call a guy ignorant then make a statement like that in the very next line?
Global just wants to pick a fight, but he’s a nice guy who really knows how to grill up a mean steak and obviously respects good BBQ. Now if you wanna spout off dumb populist platitudes about politics like some half assed armchair pundit, fine… But you damn well better make some sweet and succulent corn on the cob and bring some ice cold beverages.
A nice pie wouldn’t hurt your cause either.