SOS for SBS - no advertising

SaveOurSBS
Living in New Zealand I am familiar with the impact of commercialising public broadcasters. Our national TV network, TVNZ, is partially funded by government, but must also accept advertising in order to pay a dividend back to the central coffers. As a result the programming is not great, the local content is patchy and the News/CAFF division is leaking resources like a rusty tub.
Don't let the same thing happen to the SBS in Australia.

I have signed a petition at www.SaveOurSBS.org to support SBS so that it is properly funded from the public purse without the need to rely on advertising. I am asking you to support this cause so that our public multicultural broadcaster may once again be able to fulfil its Charter responsibilities with high quality, multicultural and ethnic programming. ~ Please click on the direct petition link www.petition.saveoursbs.org and sign the petition there as I did. ~ In short the petition calls for the Minister to immediately require that:- 1) The SBS Board cease disrupting all programs for advertisements; 2) Amend the SBS Act to prohibit advertising and sponsorship on SBS; 3) Fund SBS so it is not dependent on commercial revenue nor supplementation from advertising; and, 4) Introduce a new system of appointments to the SBS Board that will result in Board members being appointed on the basis of merit with a strong commitment to multiculturalism and SBS independence, and, that the Board is independent from the government of the day and commercial influence. ~ The petition will be handed to the Minister soon. ~ Our public multicultural broadcaster is still under threat and your support is needed so SBS can once again be properly funded and not reliant on advertising. ~ Support public broadcasting and SBS and sign the No Ads on SBS petition (NO ADVERTISEMENTS OR SPONSORSHIP ON SBS) petition NOW before it closes. ~ Protect our multicultural broadcaster. Don't let SBS be sold out to commercialism! Click the direct petition link www.petition.saveoursbs.org and sign the petition now.

How the Pentagon Planted a False Hormuz Story - CommonDreams.org

How the Pentagon Planted a False Hormuz Story - CommonDreams.org

I am grateful to my old friend Rob Elliott in Hobart for passing on this piece.

Do you remember the incident a couple of weeks ago when the Americans alleged three of their warships came under direct threat from Iranian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz? Well, surprise surprise, it ain't what it appears to be at first glance.

This piece from Interp Press Service and posted at Commondreams.org deconstructs the story quite nicely and shows it for what it was - blatant propaganda designed to boost public interest in and support for Dubya's sleazy "peace" mission to the Middle East.

Hat tip Rob, keep'em coming.

MTV sending out citizen journalists to cover campaigns - The Boston Globe

MTV sending out citizen journalists to cover campaigns - The Boston Globe

This interesting snippet from the Boston Globe - MTV, home of reality TV schlock is getting into the journalism business.
They've hired a non-journalist to work on the presidential election campaign with a youth focus.
It will be interesting to see how it pans out.

Britney Spears - queen of the blogosphere

There's little doubt that the story of Britney Spears' disappearance with paparazzo Adnan Ghalib is garnering a lot of attention for the fruitcake singer and her sleazy boytoy (look at me sounding like those celeb-chasing tabloid types already).

The stuff is clogging up the blogosphere and taking up precious minutes in TV news bulletins.

someone is looking to milk this shit for all it's worth. It might even be Ghalib's photo agency, Finalpixx.
The finalpixx site has "exclusive" pictures of the couple and apparently the site didn't exist a few days ago; it's been recently launched to capitalise on the notoriety of Ghalib's "fling" with Spears.

That's it, I can't write any more, but I had to do something.

summer reading #3: not for faint-hearted

Is there something in the wind that might make 2008 an interesting year for progessive/left politics?
I don't put much faith in the US election system, but the "change" mantra is catching on, there's something to it.
Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton are fighting it out for the Democrat nomination, not that either of them will "change" anything fundamental about American capitalism, but the very core of politics seems to be shifting.
The neocon ascendency may be over.

I've just finished Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine: the rise of disaster capitalism and Joe Bageant's eriely amusing Deer Hunting with Jesus. I recommend both of these books to anyone who wants to understand American politics today.

Bageant's book is an insider's view of life in working class America today, in particular in the south. It's not a pretty picture; but as Orwell said, "if there's any hope at all, it lies with the proles".
Bageant is a self-taught journalist, editor and blogger who writes at "The Smirking Chimp",though when I checked on 11 Jan 08, he hadn't posted anything since July 2007. [Ah good, I'm not the only blogger-slacker].
Bageant grew up in the south and he understands the people of his community; he knows why they're obese and sick and smoke and die young and bitch about blacks etc. He pulls no punches, but he also makes the point that without these people, there will be no new American revolution. He's right about that.

On the other hand Shock Doctrine is, in one sense a more academic book. Klein thanks a small army of researchers for helping with the detail in this massive and well-written book.

Klein's thesis is simple, yet effective. global capitalism has, for the past 30 years, thrived on crisis. In fact, one of the key drivers of profit and sustaining the system is the use of shock tactics against entire nations and peoples.
It begins with psychological torture and physical torture of the body in the 1940s, and quickly moves on to show how Milton Friedman took these tactics into mainstream economics thanks to the "Chicago Boys".
Latin America was their first laboratory -- think Pinochet and the other dictators; then the shock doctrine was applied in Eastern Europe and China during the 1980s and early 1990s; but today it's in Iraq and New Orleans where the shock doctors ply their evil trade.
What I really found interesting was the excellent economic analysis of capitalism, even though Klein is not an avowed Marxist.
I was also pleased to see her writing about surveillance. Her arguments about the hollowing-out of the state and the privatisation of government functions (everything from Blackwater to reconstruction in New Orleans) and the rise and importance of surveillance for both commercial and political means, echoes the arguments John Harrison and I make in Communication and New Media: From Broadcast to Narrowcast.

The surveillance economy and disaster capitalism are part of the same reordering of capital in order to maintain hegemony. You can read more about Klein and the shock doctrine at her website

However, back to the good news for 2008. It seems the class struggle has not gone away and Klein's upbeat assessment of the resistance in Latin America was pretty convincing and I'm a real skeptic about the revolutionary potential of Hugo Chavez.

News reporting faces web challenge, warns NYT editor : CyberJournalist.net

News reporting faces web challenge, warns NYT editor : CyberJournalist.net

Bill Keller, the executive editor of the New York Times, warned last week that reliable news reporting is dwindling, speaking at the Hugo Young memorial lecture in London. Keller said bloggers, internet search engines and satirical talk shows had blossomed across the world but could never replace reporting.

Bloggers and Journalists: Friends or Foes? : CyberJournalist.net

Bloggers and Journalists: Friends or Foes? : CyberJournalist.net

Audio and video of the blogging panel from this year’s Society of Professional Journalists Convention:

Legal action against bloggers has skyrocketed during the past three years. While some cases have merit, most are lawsuits designed to suppress free speech. Meanwhile, journalists have sought to differentiate themselves from bloggers through self-regulation and legislation. But should they? As new organizations have begun to embrace blogs and user-generated content, the “blogging v. journalism” debate has begun to dissolve, replaced instead by a greater awareness that what threatens bloggers today may well threaten professional journalists tomorrow.

— Watch video (67.2 MB, 33:34)
— Listen to or download audio