Where is "Nation"? / "Anti-Globalization" movement

Archer.Todd at ic.gc.ca Archer.Todd at ic.gc.ca
Fri Aug 3 05:59:39 PDT 2001


Doug said:


>Hmm, so why does Mr Naomi Klein ignore such comments, do you think?

I'd argue his basic reason is one of time and specificity: his show only goes for an hour, commercials included, so he doesn't have the leisure to allow one person the time to do a big complex critique involving capitalism and how it affects the topic of the night. The one time that stands out in my mind when he cut off the beginning of such a critique I'm fairly sure was on one of his older thirty-minute (commercials included) shows. Some of his shows, such as the one he hosted in Quebec City about the protests, involved capitalism so basically that it would have been rather pointless to go into an analysis of it anyway.

I'm not attacking the guy or his leftie credentials (whatever they are); I think what he's doing is great and helps the left. However, the form of media lots of people pay attention to, and in which Lewis works, functions best in sound-bites. Hence my choice of words for coalitions of lefties to use when interviewed, especially on the spot, would be something like what I (and Ken) suggested: "We are critiquing capitalism." It's quick, fits in a sound-bite, uses the dreaded "c-word", and implies the protesters are doing something rather innocuous.

Todd



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list