Cockburn does that snotty English news guy really well. Which reminded me I have to re-up the subscription for LBO.
I love the news, but I can't get any, so I've switched to AJE, Counterpunch, Democracy Now, RT and occasionally France 24. And then there is Juan Cole, Behind the News, and random searchs on this or that.
It's sad to hear, what has been obvious for a long time, journalism in professional media sucks. During the 2008 Gaza atrocity, AJE had a little shack just outside in Egypt where they coordinated their feeds and wrote up their stories. For some reason a camera man and reporter went inside to show the place and news people were coming and going. They were mostly refugees from the old BBC. It was a fascinating little piece. But even AJE is slowly morphing. It is a corporate sponsored affair and goes light on neoliberal atrocities, which its concrete news are pushing against, less and less successfully. Qatar was a strong supporter of the Libyan revolt, so AJE was embeded with the `rebels'. But what choice did they have. I am pretty sure Jackie Roland in a hotel in Tripoli was counting her hours before the Q bad guys showed up to take her away.
On the good side, AJE has a lot of stringers who call in with often stunning work on the ground, something long lost from the US and EU.
Marwan Bishara still keeps it up on Empire. His panel this week on Empire is worth a few minutes:
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/empire/
It may not be news to LBO, but it's nice to read and listen to in a mass media outlet...
``Greek Protestor
Wherever the IMF gives aid the measures it imposes lead to deep recessions and great unemployment. Already the problems here are great. They will become greater.
The anger towards the Fund isn't restricted to Greece. It's taking place right across Europe in nations at the economic periphery.
Portuguese protestor
For each Euro they are lending us they are taking two and so we are rejecting this plan of austerity and we are rejecting the intervention of the IMF.
Irish protestor
We don't want the IMF in here. The IMF create the situation and they're in for money and they don't care about the future. They don't care about Ireland.
The problem lies in the fact that the plan put forward to remedy the Eurozone crisis is designed to protect banks and major financial institutions first and foremost. Not the taxpayers. And this plan is partially funded and fully endorsed by the IMF. What makes it worse is that these economic interventions are often justified in profoundly arrogant ways.''
Then back to LBO and Behind the News. The union guy was good on Wisconsin and it was nice to hear a little confirmation, that in someways, things are looking up a little on the union front.
He was sure right about wading through warm syrup in the non-profit orgs. Yesterday, I watched a 13,000 dollar washing machine clean a bath transfer bench, while I had to bring my own tools to prepare a wheelchair for its wash. Where are my fucking shop tools, asshole! I submitted a 12k tool list back in April so we can start working. Nada. Wednesday night I found a fantasic deal on a new table saw and router combo. I needed 300 dollars in cash, a truck and two guy for Friday morning. I was prepared to take the cash out of my bank and bill for a reimburstment just to get this done. Then I stopped. Check with the boss and show him why we need a system to take advantage of these deals when they arrive. It was an issue that I faced from the start. The whole org is set up to do nothing but write proposals and collect funding without providing much service.
Nice show, very relevant...
CG