MetaFilter posts tagged with media and USA

Advertising in the public interest

Rhaomi — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:54:54 -0800

"What if America wasn't America?" That was the question posed by a series of ads broadcast in the wake of the September 11th attacks, ads which depicted a dystopian America bereft of liberty: Library - Diner - Church. Together with more positive ads like Remember Freedom and I Am an American, they encouraged frightened viewers to cherish their freedoms and defend against division and prejudice in the face of terrorism (seven years previously). The campaign was the work of the Ad Council, a non-profit agency that employs the creative muscle of volunteer advertisers to raise awareness for social issues of national importance. Founded during WWII as the War Advertising Council, the organization has been behind some of the most memorable public service campaigns in American history, including Rosie the Riveter, Smokey the Bear, McGruff the Crime Dog, and the Crash Test Dummies. And the Council is still at it today, producing striking, funny, and above all effective PSAs on everything from student invention to global warming to arts education to community service.

Additional resources: A-to-Z index of Ad Council campaigns - Campaigns organized by category - Award-winning campaigns - PSA Central: A free download directory of TV, radio, and print PSAs (registration req'd) - An exhaustive history of the Ad Council [46-page PDF] - YouTube channel - Vimeo channel - Twitter feed

Japan's Media Environment

armage — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 22:21:13 -0800

Japan -- Media Environment Open; State Looms Large (August 2009, PDF) A detailed, 67-page overview and analysis of Japan's traditional and new media environment published by the Open Source Center, an office of the Director of National Intelligence.

"Are we in the midst of a coup?"

homunculus — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:50:14 -0800

2009: A True Story. "My name is Sara Ford and I am 18 years old. I moved to California at the end of last year. Before the first attacks... before everything changed." [Via] On YouTube: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6, Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10, Episode 11, Episode 12, Episode 13. NSFW.

Schaffer Library of Drug Policy

daksya — Sat, 20 May 2006 10:06:13 -0800

Schaffer Library of Drug Policy - read the transcripts of hearings held on the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act, or the text of court decisions regarding drug policy, or the well-researched Consumer Unions report on licit and illicit drugs, or the differences between beer and drugs, according to Anheuser-Busch. A huge archive of materials, admittedly compiled from a pro-reform perspective.

Brewing "Briefing" blogging brouhaha

ibmcginty — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 07:36:39 -0800

Newsfilter: Washington Post columnist/blogger Dan Froomkin writes the "White House Briefing," an online "daily anthology of works by other journalists and bloggers," which is often critical of the administration. This past Sunday, the new Post ombudsman wrote that the paper's White House correspondents worried that Froomkin's column creates an appearance of bias at the Post. Froomkin responsed, and hundreds of commentors offered their support. Then Post national politics editor John Harris weighed in, to somewhat less acclaim from commentors. Harris expanded on his views in this interview. The whole affair raises issues about allegations of a subservient, stenographic press, how the media deals with charges of liberal bias, the perceived vindictiveness of the Bush administration, and the relationship between in-house bloggers and the traditional media.

Don't Bomb Us.

edverb — Sat, 26 Nov 2005 09:59:48 -0800

Don't Bomb Us. In response to credible reports that Bush wanted to bomb al-Jazeera's HQ in allied Qatar (discussed here and here on MeFi), Al Jazeera staffers start their own English-language blog. Their site contains remembrances of their fallen colleagues, firsthand accounts of US attacks on their offices, links to relevant reports on the controversy, Flickr photosets of protests calling for an official investigation, and al Jazeera's code of ethics. Also, a quick note to Tony Blair: " P.S. Thanks for talking Mr. Bush out of bombing our offices!" Not surprisingly, their blog is generating some comments.

Fighting the Liberal Media Bias

Pretty_Generic — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 08:28:50 -0800

In 2001 America destroyed the Kabul offices of al-Jazeera with two smartbombs; officials said it was an accident. In 2003 America destroyed the Baghdad offices of al-Jazeera with missiles; officials said it was an accident. Now, two British civil servants are on trial for leaking a memo revealing that Bush intended to bomb al-Jazeera... at their headquarters in allied Qatar.

17 Minutes

sjvilla79 — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 07:24:59 -0800

17 Minutes is a performance and video blog project by new media artist Chris Barr. It's about suicide. [MI]

Old Newspapers and their coverage of American events

Gyan — Sat, 09 Apr 2005 14:59:05 -0800

HistoryBuff - facsimiles of old newspapers that covered important events in American History.

Who care what happened 25 years ago

mojohand — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 16:33:32 -0800

"Any day in which Bush's Nat'l Guard service is the dominant news story is a lost day for the Kerry campaign." As another round of media yadayada (see below) is about to emerge over President Bush's National Guard service or lack thereof, Noam Scheiber explains why this is probably very bad news for ... Kerry. We know who Bush is. The election is about the future, not the past. Scheiber's point may have been made in the MeFi thread referenced above, but I'm afraid I lost consciousness after a screen or so.

The best PR ends up looking like news. You never know when a PR agency

Eloquence — Tue, 13 Jan 2004 10:03:56 -0800

"The Media vs. Howard Dean." Salon (subscription or Flash ad viewing required) observes that the media have been doing everything in their power to attach negative labels to US presidential candidate Howard Dean. Will the adage that "there's no such thing as bad publicity" prevail? Meanwhile, the Internet is increasing in relevance as a news source, according to a recent survey. Which websites do you peruse for political coverage, if any?

It's leaking all over my democracy

dejah420 — Thu, 16 Oct 2003 14:16:21 -0800

Bush orders officials to stop the leaks. News of Bush's order leaked almost immediately. And speaking of leaks, two U.S. officials are the primary sources of information about Israel's Harpoon cruise missiles which may or may not be used to attack Iran.

Big FCC rollback vote this Tuesday.

skallas — Mon, 15 Sep 2003 13:24:52 -0800

Big FCC rollback vote this Tuesday. I know a lot of mefites are passionate about this issue and it looks like Senators Byron Dorgan (D–ND) and Trent Lott (R-MS) are doing something about it. More info, free faxes, etc at the ACLU. Read S.J. res 17 here.

FormlessOne — Mon, 15 Sep 2003 11:25:49 -0800

"Given the choice, it's better to be viewed as a foot soldier for Bush than a spokeswoman for al-Qaeda." This quote, captured in a USA Today article, came from Fox News spokeswoman Irena Briganti in response to allegations that CNN "was intimidated" by the Bush administration and Fox News, which "put a climate of fear and self-censorship."

Franken O'Reilley

thedailygrowl — Fri, 06 Jun 2003 00:21:40 -0800

In this corner Fox's Bill O'Reilly in the other corner Al "Stuart Smalley" Franken. Away from the safe confines of Fox News studio no microphone switch could be found for O'Reilly to shut Franken up as he was conveniently able to do earlier this year to anti-war protester Jeremy Glick

Antitrust Time?

kablam — Tue, 03 Jun 2003 17:15:39 -0800

The Big Ten Media Corporations and Clear Channel Communications control most of the major media already. This includes print media, film archives, movie and television production, and the largest Internet Service and News Provider. Right now is the argument is to prevent further consolidation. But should it instead be to break up these mega-corporations instead? Should anti-trust law cover horizontal as well as vertical market ( and employee) domination?

FCC commissioner Michael Copps seeks indecency definition overhaul.

mikrophon — Thu, 21 Nov 2002 12:05:12 -0800

FCC commissioner Michael Copps seeks indecency definition overhaul.
The current definition of indecency to me should be capturing for enforcement purposes some of these programs and it is not. We are only having a paucity of enforcement actions against programming that is palpably and demonstrably indecent.
Is it really time to redefine indecency, or to reexamine why exactly it is we are defining indecency to begin with?

owillis — Fri, 30 Aug 2002 15:04:03 -0800

Bubble Wrap: The Nation vs. The Weekly Standard "Back in the '60s, the left was the home of humor, iconoclasm, pleasure. But over the last two decades, the joy has gone out of the left -- it now feels hedged in by shibboleths and defeatism -- while the right has been having a gas, be it Lee Atwater grooving to the blues, Rush Limbaugh chortling about Feminazis or grimly gleeful Ann Coulter serving up bile as if it were chocolate mousse"

nofundy — Mon, 19 Aug 2002 06:08:47 -0800

The Washington Post follows an agenda. There truly exists a bias in the press and here's an example. Metatalk had a thread on there being so many NYT links, perhaps this helps explain why. Many many more examples of the Post's biases can be found at SpinSanity and other such sites but this one comes from "next door" in Baltimore.
!Only MetaFilter is trustworthy!

( P.S. Looking for an example of "liberal bias?" This isn't it.)

justlooking — Thu, 25 Jul 2002 03:01:12 -0800

On media darlings. Do you think this was deliberate or a coincidence? Who do you think are the other darlings of the mainstream media in USA and elsewhere (i.e. if you accept Slate's premise)?

salmacis — Fri, 17 May 2002 01:22:44 -0800

US media cowed by patriotic fever claims Dan Rather. As a non-American, I have no idea what news broadcasts have been like in America since September 11th. Is Rather correct?

busbyism — Wed, 20 Mar 2002 10:50:53 -0800

White House media advisor spins the war in London. President Bush has sent "military advisors" to Yemen, Georgia and the Philippines to help with the war on terrorism. Did anyone know he sent his #2 media man, Tucker Eskew, to London as a "media advisor" to Tony Blair's #1 media man, Alastair Campbell, to help spin the war to the Brits?

Do you think a U.S. administration would ever agree to a foreign government rep "advising" them on how to talk to their citizens? Or do they already?

BarneyFifesBullet — Tue, 20 Nov 2001 21:40:12 -0800

Clinton speaks, pundits spin: The Washington Times and the spread of a media myth Yep, the loony right-wingers obsession with hating all things Clinton continues.

ice_cream_motor — Wed, 12 Sep 2001 06:08:03 -0800

Special editions Poynter.org has begun posting pdfs of newspaper front pages from around the country. Oddly, the San Fran Examiner's special edition front isn't up. Does anyone else have a link to it? How has your local paper handled it?

Rastafari — Sun, 05 Aug 2001 08:57:50 -0800

CNN & FOX: Birds of a feather? In an effort to improve his network's image with conservative leaders, new CNN chief Walter Isaacson huddled with House and Senate GOP leaders last week to seek advice on how to attract more right-leaning viewers to the sagging network.