Rob Williams's blog

Censored!
The Top 10 Big Stories American Mainstream Media Missed in the Past Year

Here are the top-10 most underreported or ignored stories of the past year, from ACME partner Project Censored.

Visit Project Censored for the complete list of 25.

And see ACME's home page for our Project Censored classroom guide - ways to use this annual book in your civics, journalism, social studies, communications, history, or language arts classroom.

1. Good-bye, habeas corpus

ACME advisory board member and independent Canadian journalist/author Naomi "No Logo" Klein, whom I first heard speak on "No Logo" at the NMMLP-sponsored Taos Talking Picture Festival almost a decade ago, is back with a brand-new book called "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism."

I've read all four excerpts online - the book will no doubt pack a tremendous wallop - seeking to expose the new post-9/11 "military/industrial/terror" complex that is re-making corporate globalization using radical free market "shock doctrine" techniques.

At the risk of opening up a box of Pandoras:

Today is, of course, the 6th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Big Media has been strangely quiet on this front. The past few years have been devoted to constant re-hashing of the events of six years ago.

We remember all those who lost their lives on that day, and all those who stepped up and sacrificed their time, life energy, and hard-earned wealth to assist the citizens of New York and Washington, DC in their time of need.

Hold on to your Barca-Loungers, friends - the new fall TV line-up is upon us, and it is time to invoke the dreaded "C" word.

Consumerism?

Nope, you knee-jerk TV watchers - product placement and Tivo will take care of all those pesky commercial interruptions any week now. Seamless advertising, embedded in the narrative - commercial interruptions are so... last millennium.

Today's word is "class." I know, I know, we live in a class-less society.

Remember "the Honeymooners," "All in the Family," and the Cleavers?

Move it on over and make way for the "Cashmere Mafia."

We're ramping up the REEL ACTION film series here at Champlain College.

Our second film of the fall series - REEL BAD ARABS, based on Jack Shaheen's work - is a tour de force.

Here's our e-press release - you can show this film, or others like it, in your school or community!

Happy week-end,

Rob

ACME/Champlain is pleased to announce the second in a series of fall 2007 REEL ACTION film screenings.

OK, here's the deal. I haven't owned or watched television in twenty years.

I watched 1-2 hours a day as a kid. PBS stuff, and Star Trek (the original) when my Mom wasn't looking. I think I am OK.

But it is a different world now.

What worries me more than "teenage problems" - see article below - is the vast amount of hype, spin, distortion and hyperbole that accompany so-called "serious" TV programming.

Like the "news."

And yes, the quotes are there for a reason.

I am shocked - SHOCKED - to hear that FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin is hiding regulatory/policy information from the American public.

Again.

Maybe we should rename the agency the Federal Communications Co-Mission (FCC), for the important work they are doing on behalf of Big Media multinationals.

Vive Copps and Adelstein - would there were three more Commissioners like them.

See John Dunbar's article below - read the whole article here.

By JOHN DUNBAR, Associated Press Writer

Happy post-Labor Day, friends.

Here's a provocative editorial focused on online gaming. As always, the question of "trade offs" intrigues me - if one spends hours a day in online worlds, what is one missing in the real world?

And does this matter?

Certainly, all of us who live, work and play in Cyberspace maintain relationships, of sorts, there. And some online games demand problem-solving skills, exhibit nuanced narratives, and so forth.

Here's the editorial:

A fascinating article on blogs, blogging, and the emergence of blogs as popular communications media. Enjoy.

8 Of 10 Americans Know About Blogs; Half Visit Them Regularly
by Adrienne W. Fawcett, Wednesday, Aug 29, 2007 5:00 AM ET

Read the whole article here.

According to an exclusive Marketing Daily study, eight out of 10 Americans know what "blog" means, and almost half have visited the blogosphere--some as often as daily.

In the spirit of making this blog about media we like, speaking personally, here's an interview I conducted with my neighbor Grace Potter and her band the Nocturnals.

This band has got a BIG sound, and well worth a listen.

Check 'em out at Grace Potter and the Nocturnals.

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals:
“This Is Somewhere” – The Interview