This time Charlie looks how Politicians, the Media and the Voters interact. And how we all became like Richard Nixon. Excellent as usual. Enjoy!
This time Charlie looks how Politicians, the Media and the Voters interact. And how we all became like Richard Nixon. Excellent as usual. Enjoy!
This time Charlie Brooker attacks the media’s handling of Haiti and why Celebrities suck at raising awareness for important issues.
Very smart as usual!
Political Debate – about 90 minutes
Finally Obama takes the fight to the enemy. It’s amazing how easily Obama deflated the GOP spin machine. But it was also impressive to see such a great Intellect at work.
Could Sarah Palin do the same?
But I wonder if normal Americans even noticed the event or watched it?
And one more thing: it shows that Presidents or Prime Ministers SHOULD DEBATE in Parliament and explain their policies to the opposition. That is real political discourse.
BBC about 30 min.
Once again Mr Brooker pleases Misanthropes like me by dissecting the madness of daily life and the media frenzy we all live in.
Some excellent insights into the Newsbusiness and the so called "narrative" that is behind the Group Think of large Broadcasters.
BBC Panorama: A Walk in the Park
Excellent report on what’s really going on in Israel. And how fanaticism makes the lives of ordinary people hell. While the Mainstream Media focuses on Al-Quaeda, they mostly miss the slow grinding and brutal realities in all the other spots (like this one in this report, but also the tyranny in Egypt, Libya and other countries in the region).
Sorry Keith I had to abuse you …
The first thing the West always sends in an Emergency to help are reporters. They will mobilize the Public at home. The Public then will pressure the Politicians “to do something” to help these poor people.
The Politicians only really care what happened in some shitty place somewhere because their voters do. The Politicians then pledge to send some help now and loads of money later (which usually never arrives).
Then the Reporters will report back and show nice images about the help coming from the Country they are representing. This makes the Public at home feel good and generous about themselves for being such nice people.
The West loves Poverty Porn: we love watching starving children while having Dinner. We also love the Pop Concerts triggered by Poverty Porn.
Just because you are a celebrity doesn’t mean you need to share every stupid aspect of your life with us. Modern Media Sluts have forgotten what it means to "lead by example".
A new "message modesty" is in order for many A-List Twitt-Titts.
We respect your desire to promote your "brand", but real time reports of your digestive system and your overpaid friends will only earn you disrespect.
There was a big public outrage when the British BNP won two seats in the European Parliament in the last election.
The "good" British Public tried to ignore the "problem", but yesterday the BBC had invited the Parties Leader Nick Griffin on Question Time.
Question Time is a big institution in Britain – it’s a long running public forum, where voters and officials can debate and discuss issues.
Many people were angry at the BBC, because they think the Beep gives the BNP a big stage to spew it’s poison.
Obviously this edition of Question Time turned out to be a one sided bashing affair – Nick Griffin had to take a lot of criticism, mostly he had to eat his own words …
It is easy to "beat up" that right wing nutter and his whites-only-party.
But the sad reality is that Britain had racial tensions brewing for a long time. The recent population explosion (the biggest in the UK’s history) is mostly down to mostly "brown" immigrants having way more babies than Brits.
There also another factor: since most European societies are also aging rapidly it is becoming more conservative and protective. Suddenly grey Europeans see only "brown" people having babies – and it’s true: the Muslims / Immigrants birth rate is much higher than the "native" European one.
First of all this is a statistic reality. In same city areas there are more brown, than white people. Especially in harsh economic times this aggravates many people. This kind of Xenophobia is pretty normal and happens not just in Britain. Plus the old argument of "why do we allow immigration, when we have such a huge unemployment rate" always adds fuel to the fire.
Britain – as well as the rest of Europe – hasn’t really faced the reality of a strong and fast growing Muslim part of the population.
Especially Britain has allowed many extreme Muslim activist as well as radical preachers / Imans (often financed by Saudi Arabia) into the country. Often angry Muslims demonstrated violently against British politics. Plus many Muslims call for the introduction of Sharia Law in Britain. The terrorist attacks on London didn’t help either …
There is a Anti-Secular, Anti-Democracy and intolerant movement inside the British Muslim community, which can’t be ignored either. The racism is not strictly a white affair and some Muslims really do believe in conquering Europe via their wombs.
So this shift in population and basically reintroduction of strong influences of religion into public life and politics. Many people react negative to these new influences, the reactions range from frustration to outright anger. "So many people feel shutout in their own country." (Quote from Nick Griffin)
Britain’s immigration politics has been a failure in many areas. It has allowed more immigrants than the British Public actually could stomach.
So the BNP simply reflects the fringe racists as well as people who are simply angry about the failed immigration policy. So some of their anger and concern are legit.
As much as many leftist often turn a blind eye to religious fundamentalism and Muslim racism – the right also sticks to their ignorant doctrines as well.
Like I said before: Europe has not really faced it’s identity crises in face of a new religious pressure (which happens to be Islam). Based on the tragic events of racism and genocide during WWII plus the guilt from Colonialism has created a fake openness to other cultures.
It is not just Britain, but almost all European countries haven’t succeeded in integrating immigrants. The beloved idea of a multiethnic society proves harder to form than idealists hoped it would be. But also European politicians and citizens have forgotten to foster and evolve their own culture and historic values. So it’s no surprise that many people feel left alone and even abandoned in face of a new, strong and often aggressive "foreign" culture.
As a final part of the story one has to mention to new lower class and poverty in Europe that adds to that problem. The economic development in the last twenty years – thanks to the Free Market ideas Margaret Thatcher and constant pandering to big business – has eroded the middle class Europe. Poverty is on the rise and a new lower class has been created when the working class disappeared – thanks to the shift of factories to the east and Asia.
Underprivileged people in poverty are rarely tolerant or willing to share. And their anger of being left behind finds an easy target in foreigners, especially when they have to share public purse for social support with big waves of immigrants – as it happened in Britain in recent years.
So booing Nick Griffin on Question Time is so politically correct, but doesn’t solve the problem of racism nor the real concerns of immigration and poverty.
Casting Shows are made to ridicule you and other contenders – so the producers make loads of money. These shows are not interested in making you famous or “give you a chance to become successful”.
BBC News: Gaddafi want a Security Council Reform
Now this is how you say some obvious truths and combine it with great theatrics.
I agree that the UN Security Council is crap: it basically is a relic from WWII, it is neither fair, nor does it reflect the current global power situation. It’s just a a political instrument for the US, Russia, China and the Brits to play their global games. Yes, I know that the French are also part of it, but they don’t really play on a global scale anymore.
But a tyrant asking to reform an international institution is a great act of hypocrisy. He hardly runs his country on a fair and balanced basis …
Update: short video of Gaddafi
From Monster to best friend and lover – the vampire has been transformed into the new human idols on our screens.
The times when vampires were “just” blood sucking monsters are over. Since “Interview with a Vampire” (or better say the Lestat-Books by Anne Rice) that image is history.
Now they are mostly our friends, more like much older sisters and brothers – incredibly sexy and wise. And now they even want to be our chummy friends!
The vampires bite was always a sexual act and a very horny symbol. Since we still can’t show two people making love on TV (killing each other is oke) we simply let them bite each other to show what can’t be shown.
Plus Vampires get away with many immoral act, because they have evolved into a super species. As ancient beings they have transcended social niceties and laws.
Overall it’s simply a wet dream for the powerless masses – hungry for sexual and power fantasies onscreen for their tiny minds. “If I only were a Vampire I could have such a horny life, kill the evil humans and get away with it …”
I hereby officially quit being a Star Trek fan. No I have nothing against the new Star Trek movie – it’s as bad as most recent ones. I am just bored by the total lack of ideas and inspiration. Already with the dreadful series "Enterprise" the franchise had started cannibalizing itself by reinventing it’s past and trying to make it all fit somehow.
Now creating a new alternate storyline is certainly an easy way out – just take the original idea and mangle it for the "next generation" of viewers.
The different Star Trek series always had the stupid habit of copying old story plots and therefore repeating itself. But recycling story elements and old characters into an alternative universe to restart the series is too lame for me.
Gene Roddenberry tried a new approach to telling science fiction stories in the 60’s. Sure – some of his stuff was also terrible, but he broke many old taboos and created a great positive universe to literally inspire millions of people.
Exactly that lack of inspiration and new ground has so appalling – not just in Star Trek – but most TV series and movies.
All intelligent life forms seem to have forsaken the media business?
I know it’s a bit late and outdated, but still worth watching and highly entertaining – if you have a dark soul like me.
Thanks Mr Brooker!
Once again every shitty country in Europe sent it’s "best" songs to compete with each other in the Eurovision contest.
And like every year the songs were mostly terrible and the voting was as idiotic as ever. Slavs voted for Slavs, Nordic countries for fellow Nordic countries. The Turkish Diaspora produced a high rank for their nations terribly tittie twisting song – Turkey could put someone like Mr Methane on stage and still score a Top 5 position.
The winning Norwegian Song is mediocre at best and I am sure all of Europe’s 12 year Girls must have voted for that charming übergifted little shit.
I hated it and will so until I die.
Of course I will watch next years Eurovision. I love to hate the trashy competition. And I will once again hate the winner, since only bad songs win – not really good ones. But everyone expects that anyway …
So the porky Doomsday has been postponed. Humanity will live another do – and so will the Press. Mass Media loves hysteria and with Swine Flu they found another small fire to pour oil into.
The flu is dangerous, but during the Mexican Swine Flu panic more people died of the "normal" flu compared to Übervirus. Death is always relative – and so are pandemics.
But I am happy that this happened: it was basically an exercise for the real thing. It’s good to know that the medical establishment and government actually do care and do something about it. It might not be perfect, but such almost-pandemics keep our emergency systems on their toes.
Another masterpiece by Mr Brooker and his team – plus an extra section by the revered Mr Adam Curtis.
Once again some great insights and humor.
Charlie looks at the evolution of news anchors and compares them to their US counterparts, including Bill O’Reilly. Enjoy!
Oink! Oink! Oink! I am gonna kill ya …
New Scientist: Swine flu: What you need to know
Good thing we humans don’t panic or blow problems out of proportion. On the other side: the Spanish Flu has killed millions of humans and was a real threat.
But with six billions humans eating away the planet who would really miss a couple of million people?
Quote: "There is no Information Overload, there is just selection failure!"
Really? Internet nerds and the Generation Web loves to brag about all the information revolution, how it empowers users and saves the world. But instead we are polluted with information noise …
Yeah, the future is upon us – including pictures and comic strips (watch the video and you know what I am talking about).
Too bad that newspapers hardly profit from feeding so much information into the internet today.
PS: I feel very old right now.
Just because you deliver a stunning performance doesn’t mean you will be generally admired.
Today’s rich athletes either excel in popular sport many people enjoy themselves (like football, golf or tennis) or a totally mad and dangerous sport (like FMX).
Less exciting sports hardly get covered in the media and therefore it’s athletes hardly make any money.
Another war involving Israel and once again people all over the world and the intranet are taking sides.
And once again barrages of silly arguments fly through the air – missing reality by a mile and only damaging egos …
Political debates are hardly a modern invention – I think it started already with Caveman arguing who will lead the clan.
In Athens all males could simply join the political debate themselves, by simply turning up and speaking.
With ever bigger Kingdoms and Nation States being there personally didn’t work anymore. Sure you could visit your national parliment and maybe listen to the talks.
With the invention of the newspaper and journals political speeches were once again accessible to the masses. If you read some of Abraham Lincoln oral masterpieces you would be surprised who eloquent, deep and highly educated these speeches were. Simply amazing – I bet most modern journalists are hardly able to write the way Lincoln could simply speak to his voters.
But most importantly: speeches were reduced to words. What the candidates said was more important than their looks, gestures and personality.
Even with the advent of radio this didn’t change much – apart that you could ‘read’ more the personality of each candidate by listening closely.
Today the debates are no longer debates anyway – because the format has devolved into a simple phrase exchange.
But the candidate himself is the message today – not what he / she is saying. It’s all about image, not about content.
Is that the kind of Democracy the US likes to export to all nations?
It sucks.
I am a huge fan of Bill Maher. His and Jon Stewards wits helped us bloody foreigners to believe that the progressive and intellectual heart of America hasn’t died.
Being progressive means making progress – moving forward. But already during the last season the jokes were stale and predictable, the outrage had turned into professional satire.
Most of all: many funny guests were rather “unhelpful” by being totally disconnected or adding stupidity instead of sharp and witty remarks.
The new seasons started last weekend – and it seems more of the same. So I expect many old faces from last season as well as the same lame comments and jokes.
Like Keith Olbermann Bill Maher seems to have founds his audience and is raking in the praise he deserves. But please don’t fall asleep …
45 Minutes
(the first five minutes are just applause and ass kissing)
It has momentum, it has spirit and it has character. Great speech for the troops and the media. Let’s see if the Americans are willing to elect this guy and change their great nation.
Let the muddy fight begin!
Video / 55 Minutes / Spiegel TV
Especially in our modern mass media world and after the 2008 Beijing Propaganda Olympics it’s scary how little TV has changed – or that the Nazis already had figured out the basics of TV brainwashing.
Scary.
The time of the Rebellion is long over. Most Rockstars are old farts now or close to death. Their music is as fresh and boring as most other commercial crap. The Rock & Roll lifestyle is simply a bad choice of booze, drugs, bad music and terrible clothes.
It’s over – go and retire and take care of your kids.
I am a big fan of the American liberal TPM media, because they look at the details of American politics and media interaction. Today the media is so self obsessed that it creates it’s own politics around politics. So called experts and pundits are framing the issues where there are none – and create a storm of media attention where it is wasted. Big issues like the war in Afghanistan get under-reported.
The clip above perfectly illustrates how one false citation can keep the cable network news happy and busy for a whole day. The pundits simply create work for themselves. This is not journalism, but simply a propaganda business that has nothing to do with the real needs of people and essential political issues.
God bless America and TPMtv!
WordSpy: Worry or agitation caused by concerns about the present and future state of the environment.
Care about Mother Nature? Are you worried about our environment and global warming?
Yes?
Then you are the perfect victim for eco-anxiety. A new fabulous fear that is milked by many green activists, the mainstream media and ruthless profiteers.
Now after over 20 years of constant bombardment with new terrible scientific data and insights most people are worried sick about the environment and more than willing to do ANYTHING to be greener than green.
The German word ‘Weltschmerz’ (Worldpain) comes very close to the concept of eco-anxiety – to bear all the pain and worries of the world. It’s also a very romantic and melancholic notion to it.
But all forms of fear are mind killers. Most of all it’s currently abused by many politicians and green people to ‘direct’ the fearful masses according to their desires.
Always remember the Holy Mother Church – who made a fortune and ruled a huge empire with guilt and fear. Nature needs our help – but we need to be fearless and well informed.
For years now newspapers have been closing down all over the world – and once again it has been a miserable year for publishers. It’s not only paper, but also TV and radio who find themselves under attack from the net.
Personally I love paper – but apart from my weekly edition of the ever great Economist – I don’t read any newspaper or magazine at all.
Overall mainstream media has lost the plot and has been to unwilling to confront the technological change and – MOST OF ALL – the contact to the reader. And there is still that thing called competence …
I knew many journalists in the early 90’s who sneered at so called "New Media" and it’s shiny new world. Today they are either unemployed or deeply into Internet publishing. But still most of them don’t like talking to "the reader" – their very audience. But if you don’t care about your readers – why should they care about you?
Make me smarter, not dumber!
Blogging brought back the "citizen journalist" – who stands on the same "height" as their readers and therefore love the exchange, no matter how bloody it is.
Many great publishing houses and broadcasters have started blogs on their own – trying desperately to build that very same relationship. But they usually fail. You can’t pit the passion of a 24/7 self-propelled blogger against a 9 to 5 work attitude of a normal employee.
But there is a final big mistake all these stations and newspapers make: the lack of depth, seriousness and competence. In the days before Google and Wikipedia it was very hard work for a normal person to research anything those newscasters and experts told us. Today it’s easy to find out if these "professionals" are competent.
Dunno where all that crap is coming from?!
Most mass media web sites are written poorly, offer no depth and real competence. They still just recycle what comes out of the big news agencies like AP or Reuters. Even my beloved BBC publishes only very short and not very deep news articles – I dare not to mention CNN or MSNBC, which are a lot worse.
Most publishers are still under the illusion that if they offer infotainment and loads of celebrity crap people and advertisers will flock to them. That is why all stations and newspapers have so much trivial crap on their sites, pages and shows. And they is why they are all so exchangeable and don’t deserve any viewers loyalty.
Keep the paper – and give us competence!
Plus: since they all use the same news agencies all their content reads and looks the same. Reuters and AP also offer video and images – not just text anymore. That is why most smarter surfers "leech" the news directly from these providers – not from the recyclers like CNN or any newspaper.
But readers have to evolve as well. They have to be more willing to pay for good stuff and services. Only a few web sites so far have managed to get some money directly from their audience. And that’s a shame! Good journalism shouldn’t be funded by advertising, but by the readers.
But I am afraid in our "all for free" culture this won’t happen.
Bastian Schweinsteiger – called "Schweini" by his friends (which actually roughly translates into "Piggy") – is devasted …
Congratulations Spain – you really are Europe’s Football Champion. That title is well deserved – although I still think that the Dutch are an equally breath taking team.
Germany – once again – didn’t make it to the top. They didn’t play very good and it’s more or less by chance they ended up in the finals.
And I glad it’s over. After a month of madness, endless street parties and over excited fellow countryman I am glad some form of silence and normality is back.
Actually it’s a stupid affair anyway: watching these youngster millionaires sweating it out on the field to make even more money. Almost all of these players are the cream of the top of their national leagues and earn shitloads of money.
So each Euro Championship is mostly about overpaid sport stars duking it out and RAISING their net worth in pro football.
I am actually happy that the Spaniards won the tournament, since it has already helped to heal some of the rift in a still divided country. Spain’s many proud regions usually despise each other and didn’t stand behind their national team in unity. This year was different. So sport and symbolism can have a huge transforming impact – even in so called "modern societies".
This is not about terrorist propaganda, this is not about free speech, this is not about radicalizing the public – it’s about the truth.
American politicians, American media and most parts of the so called American public simply "sanitize" reality to they don’t have to face the ugly truth: their own soldiers and mostly innocent people die in this stupid war on terror.
Don’t look away! This is your war. You decided to invade Afghanistan and Iraq – now stand up to it and face the blood.
This is the 21st century – you won’t be able to hide such videos and censor images – like the return of your own dead soldiers.
But America has learned from the Vietnam experience – and all side are making HUGE efforts to keep the TV screens clean. Because shocking images can make people change their minds – but cool 3D animations with heroic videos – but no blood or gut hanging out – do not offend …
There is not much TV (via the Internet) which is worth watching, but "30 Days" is a great show. It is TV at it’s best: showing people other people and their way of life – so we can learn from each other and gain insights that are usually hard to achieve.
All "30 Days" episodes are built around the same mechanism: one person has to live with another group of people – with a contrary lifestyle or opinion. For example a bible thumbing guy has to live with a San Francisco gay dude or a meat munching hunter lives 30 days with a vegan family.
Most reality TV is built on "stupidity sensationalism" – which means they show the stupid sides of people and their actions and make fun of them. Jerry Springer talkshow is a typical example of this breed of television.
Morgan Spurlock and his team try to keep it real and show both sides of the argument / lifestyle. They never preach, they never portrait any side as better or superior – and they don’t use any cheap television effects to dumb it down.
I really hope there will be some day an international version of these – because it is obviously very US-centric – but nevertheless good.
More? 30 Days – Official Site and Wikipedia
You can only get as smart as the programs you decide to watch on the telly. Most people chose crap – so they stay stupid. But also most so called educational broadcasters like Discovery or History Channel are pretty dumb. Fancy computer graphics are no substitute for excellent researchers and writers.
Is this supposed to be funny? Or a documentary? Or simply a reflection of a trivial everyday thing by even more trivial multimedia artists?
These "people" have their own channel on YouTube and many other places. Even more terrifying is, that so many seem to watch and LIKE this kinda stuff.
I wish channels like ForaTV or RealNews would get as much attention! But reality always seems to loose against triviality in our day and age.
Hollywood has long lost it’s hunger for musical, simple romance and naive Kitsch. The great dance movies of the 1940’s are long forgotten.
But don’t despair: another booming nation is willing to fill your head & heart with naive Kitsch.
India’s romantic Kitsch crap is making people all over the globe. It’s simple mixture of sing & dance, naive cliches and archetypes right out of fairy tales are easy to understand for those craving some happy and brainless entertainment.
These variations lack all the cynicism and twisted modern identity crises of modern romance and most western romantic Kitsch. In India woman are still old fashioned woman and behave like a proper princess.
So audiences not only crave Kitsch romance, but simplicity itself. Why not move to Saudi Arabia instead, where traditional roles are strictly enforced?
The meat on the mass media gets younger and younger – and sluttier and sluttier. The Clique Girls are all born between 1994 and 1996 – and they already marketed like professional music whores.
Call me old fashioned, but I think a 12 year old should neither watch or make such videos. But I guess it sells – and every layer of society is allowed to have it’s dreams of fame and richness. No matter how much it twists their minds …
Click image for more channels.
I love Maestros Friedlander’s art. He is such a great observer and social commentator at the same time.
This modern view is know to any traveling business men and woman. Your lousy hotel room and a TV. Nothing else. I like that there is a kid on TV – suggesting the far away family and being away from your loved ones.
Today we would see a notebook with a webcam – talking to your family or watching crappy clips on YouTube.
When the whole US campaign started is very happy to Madame Clinton running for office. Here we have someone – I thought – who really has experience and the balls to get back at the Republicans.
A few months later Hillary has made almost every mistake she could have avoided. For a pro she was terribly naive and unfocused. Plus she has a huge amount of debt.
All she has archived is to prove almost all of her critics right and paint herself as a "greedy political bitch from hell".
Too bad.
But what’s even worse is that the Democrats are once again keen to kill themselves over internal politics instead of focusing on McCain. So I am afraid that we will have a third Bush term if the DEMs don’t sobber up.
Photoshop and a great operator can greatly improve your career, even when you are already old and wrinkled. Hotness is no longer in the eye of the beholder, but based on the right image manipulation.