Wednesday, August 21, 2002

Murdoch's Grand Wishes for Net Control News Corp. has done more to bring down the level of journalism and entertainment than perhaps any other organization on the planet. These are the people responsible for much of the tabloidization of the press. These are the owners of the putrid Fox TV network. [Dan Gillmor's eJournal] 5:53:03 PM     I heard Studs Terkel on MSNBC the night before last. It's good to hear a cogent, articulate, liberal voice - particularly one whose life spans multiple cycles of history (a 90 year old can certainly draw comparisons of this economy to the Great Depression better than a 30 year old.) Studs was black-listed in the McCarthy era which provides a great background to look at John Ashcroft and the rest of the Talibush. He questions blindly following the crowd simply to avoid being marked as an "evil-doer". so-I said, suppose commies come out against cancer? Do we automatically have to come out for cancer? And he said, that's not very funny. And anyway, I didn't recant. All you have to do is say you were dumb, you didn't mean it, you were duped. And to this day, people say, oh, Studs, you were so heroic. I wasn't. I was scared-if you don't mind my saying, I was scared crapless I think his comments on the experience point out the gutless-ness in the current media. Studs concludes that there is a silent majority of people who disagree with polls and what is presented by the media and politicians as the majority opinion. He also believes that those silent folk are becoming less silent. Take a look at the transcript. It's a refreshing break from insta-pundits on TV. 7:08:15 AM

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