<HTML><HEAD> <META charset=US-ASCII http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1106" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff"> <DIV> <DIV>In a message dated 4/7/2004 3:34:06 PM Eastern Standard Time, dperrin@comcast.net writes:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>I've spent the better part of this afternoon watching the cable news nets, something I rarely, if ever, do, and I don't know how any informed person can stand it. The relentless pro-state propaganda, the constant refrain that the US is always Right, always Good, no matter how much blood drips from its hands, is mindblowing to me. Maybe it's age, but I do not remember it being this bad when I was a media activist from the mid-80s through the mid-90s. Perhaps because I was immersed and thus conditioned to the chest-beating is why it seemed less offensive than it is now. But after a few hours of CNN, Fox, & MSNBC, I'm convinced that our information elite is seriously crazy -- and dangerous. Thank God for the Web.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT face=Arial>DP</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV> <DIV>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.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>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 <STRONG>to her</STRONG>, 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.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Marion</DIV></BODY></HTML>