Comments for interjunction.org

Comment on ‘As in life, so on keyboard’ by Doc Kuster

Doc Kuster — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:59:39 +0000

I am one of those “few” who have listened to Stephen play,both live and of course, “Modal Soul” This is a great interview. I’ve learned more about Stephen and his music from this interview than I have from talking to him numurous times and e-mails. We learn a lot about people from who they say their heros are. Stephen has said a lot about himself by the people he sites as important. I was very intrigued by the last part of the interview where he talked about the intrinsic worth in any artistic endeavor. One of my next e-mails to him was going to be about this. I wanted to know from him what he wanted from his music. I’ve sat there and listened to him play in an almost cafe, one guy asleep, another typing on his laptop and a girl ordering coffee to go. He’s playing these great compositions in a most talented and wonderful manner and I’m thinking of running out in the street and grabbing ahold of people and saying “Jesus f…..ing Christ, you got to come in here and listen to this guy. One time I hadn’t heard him play in a month or so, I’m away on business a lot, and he tells me “Hey Doc, I wrote a couple of songs while you were gone”. He then plays these “songs” that are freaking suites. I’m just dumbfounded in how he wrote these in less than a month. He seemed so happy playing at this place and never seemed depressed that almost no one was listening. I had to wonder what it was he wanted. Did he want to be heard, did he want to be a star? Or, did he just want to play. A little of each, I suppose< reading the last part of the interveiw. Thanks for having him your space here.

Comment on ‘Maoist rebels are mirrors of our own failings as a nation’ by Dr PRITAM SINGH

Dr PRITAM SINGH — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:55:00 +0000

Excellent interview with the author of a book that is unusual in its insight and intellectual courage in evaluating critically India’s development

Comment on NUJ seeks sensitive reports on immigrants by Cath Squires

Cath Squires — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:37:00 +0000

This article reminds me of similar “guidebook” approaches to diversity in journalism. I guess my question is, what is the accountability mechanism here? What oversight (if any) is there to see if journalists begin the surface work of using different lingo to describe asylum seekers? What about matters beyond labels and sourcing? Does the NUJ have plans to periodically check in on whether the guide is making a difference in how reporters describe immigrant populations? I wonder if anyone else out there has seen that type of follow-up in action.

Peace,

Cath

Comment on The road not taken by Syeda Lubna

Syeda Lubna — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:38:22 +0000

Brilliant Analysis!

“Had the media stood their ground, perhaps our administration would not have engaged in policies that have resulted in the deaths of over half a million Iraqis as per the figures provided by the medical journal Lancet estimate, 4,000 of our men and women, and a cost of anywhere from 1 to 2 trillion dollars.”

Many hold this opinion, but very rarely does anyone dare to voice it out!

Comment on How the media fails India by Matt Hanson

Matt Hanson — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 09:40:04 +0000

Good writing. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed my Google News Reader..

Matt Hanson

Comment on Making media matter by Catherine Squires

Catherine Squires — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 15:39:55 +0000

I agree wholeheartedly with your piece, and will be sharing it today with my grad and undergrad students.

Comment on PR eats into quality journalism: UK study by rp

rp — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:57:37 +0000

This has been a rather common trend in recent years. I did read of a study that claimed that lacking funds, media outlets have begun to try and increase output while cutting staff. If this is true, it makes it easier for PR firms to peddle their pieces to journalists.
But it is a vicious downward spiral. The less reliable your stories the fewer readers/viewers you get, and the looser your standards become.

Comment on Scapegoat Sabrina by rp

rp — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:49:23 +0000

This really helps. Keep it going.
And do include smaller news updates from other parts of the world, too.
Cheers

Comment on PR eats into quality journalism: UK study by David McQueen

David McQueen — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:20:14 +0000

Good article Amy. Interesting to see even the rabidly right Spectator gave Flat Earth News a good review - a recently published book precisely on this theme.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/books/476801/the-vile-behaviour-of-the-press.thtml

Cheers,

David

Comment on Missing Marx by David McQueen

David McQueen — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:29:22 +0000

Rohit,

You give an excellent critique of the danger of any totalising explanatory framework and I agree with the thrust of your argument that issues around gender, race, sexual orientation, and colonialism, for example, have been enriched by fresh perspectives since the 1980s. My main point is that class-based analysis of the media of the kind common in the 70s and 80s seems to be ‘out of fashion’ at a time when class divisions in Britain have widened to quite stunning levels. The idea that we can just ditch Marxist perspectives as outdated or plain ‘wrong’ is to me equivalent to reaffirming belief in a flat earth. It is a denial of the reality of a ruling class controlling the vast bulk of our media and using for their own class interests.

Hugh says I simplify between ‘good’ public service broadcasting media and ‘bad’ commercial media. In broadcasting I think that PSB has simply created a space that is far less constrained by the profit motive. I would argue that is why the BBC is still regarded as the best broadcasting institution in the world. It is the envy of other nations and having lived abroad for ten years I appreciate it more than most, although by no means uncritically. We also see this in legislative terms in the PSB requirements that fostered Channel 4 - at its best when in its first decade it was relatively free to cater to minority interests. Current affairs programming suffered dramatic cuts as soon as PSB commitment to screen in prime time were dropped. TV shorn of PSB ideals would be catastophic and the British public realise this. Even after the Hutton whitewash trust in the BBC remained fairly firm while trust in Tony Blair’s government declined dramatically.

Finally I would like to stand by John Pilger and Michael Moore. Was Pilger ‘wrong’ to report on the appalling nature of the war in Vietnam? Few other journalists were exposing the reality on the ground. Is Moore ‘wrong’ to show how disastrous gun culture is in the US, or how the Iraq invasion and war on terror were built on so many deceptions, or wrong to expose the ruinous state of private health care in America. When journalists take a highly critical look at powerful institutions or challenge private poiwer they are always accused of being biased, unbalanced, selective in their use of evidence, polemical. Yet mainstream journalism commits the same faults on a daily basis and do not receive the same ‘flak’. That is a double standard that media academics need to expose.