> I'm not sure focusing on a single asshole will do much. I've been
> skimming through Brock's _Republican Noise Machine_ which I'd seen on
> the shelves at the library, so I figured what the hell. (someone I
> respect says Brock was a lying asshole and remains a lying asshole....)
> I've mostly been skimming through it, but Brock outlines the
> conservative effort to shift the center of debate by taking over the media:
Somebody donated that book to our bookstore the other day and I was browsing it. It had a bunch of good observations.
> 4. demanding equal time in the media by first claiming that the media
> represented the left and excluding anything right of center
This is something I think that liberal media reformists need to organize around. A national campaign for a new "fairness doctrine" could really turn the debate around and put the right wing on the defensive.
> Of course, a lot of these folks were former marxists and heavy users of
> marx, some disaffected Liberals. They claimed, especially Kristol, they
> were using Communist agit prop techniques (as if agit prop is the domain
> of a particular ideology. whatever)
Once a Stalinist, always a Stalinist.
> I don't know. Fahrenheit 9/11 is agit prop, good agit prop. I've argued
> before that I think Bowling for Columbine was bad agit prop.
Bowling for Columbine is the better movie. Fahrenheit 9/11 involves a rather shallow political analysis about the Bush regime. Bowling is an effective look at a more difficult concept to film: the American fear factory as an instrument of social control and how racism is used as part of that system.
> It seems to me that it involves, at the very least, embracing our own
> forms of lying by omission and manipulation.
As much as I'd prefer for us to be an army of Chomsky's, I think that we will need to fight dirty in order to carve out some space for long term political change.
> I've been pondering your media projects, actually. Ever thought about
> putting together some sort of media education handbooks. Something that
> teaches people how to spot logical fallacies. You know, take an article
> a day and pick it apart to expose the fallacies?
Yes, I think about this all the time and have a few projects in the pipeline. After re-examining my life and my activism last year, I decided that my best contribution would be in the realm of publishing DIY information for activists and pissed off working people.
Exposing logical fallacies? I think that teaching people critical thinking skills, media literacy and how to develop a working bullshit detector is an important task for activists to undertake right now.
http://www.infoshop.org/critical_thinking.html
> Maybe I'll win the lottery and I can start funding my own think tank.
> Funny, before I even knew about the rightwing spin machine history, I've
> always wanted to do that: start a think tank. Hmmm. We should work on a
> business plan. Maybe we can get the Heinz foundation to fund it. heh.
You aren't the only one with those fantasies.
Chuck