DP The non cable American media (NBC, ABC, CBS) is even worse. I once had a job for one of them (it hardly mattters which) as an information specialist (fancy term for librarian) doing research for reporters and producers. Ocassionally, some "real" stuff got through, but what I remember most is a blur of fixations on J-Lo, MIchael Jackson's plastic surgeries, kidnappings, Pope's visits, etc. The producers made frequent use of tabloids such as the National Enquirer and fluff British periodicals tracking the royal family. (Princess Diana, may she rest in peace, was another favorite topic. During the Seattle anti-globalization protests, a reporter explicitly asked me to send her only news stories about the most extremist groups; so as to better trivialize, distort, and marginalize everyone who was there; not to mention misrepresent the issues being raised.
I'm not there now largely because my first boss (a decent, gay man who may not have been a radical but at least he had common decency and a heart) died and was replaced by the harridan (I'm a feminist and do not use this word lightly) who had been his second in command. Her idea of incisive analysis was Doris Kearns Goodwin [!] and although her daughter got into an excellent college she repeatedly harrangued about how affirmative action was disadvantaging white students! You get the idea! She was very threatened by me, and did not hide it. When one of the few producers doing some serious work complimented (to her) the research that I did for him on institutionalized racism, she wrote it off by saying that he was "not important." Well, of course he was not important to her, he's African-American. I could go on and on. The whole experience was painful and demoralizing, but it did teach me just how hypocritical and in need of fundamental change mainstream media is.
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