“PROPAGANDA ALWAYS WINS…IF YOU ALLOW IT.” British investigative journalist John Pilger quotes Leni Riefenstahl, whose World War II era movies helped smooth the way in public opinion for the rise of Hitler. She credits a form of “liberal fascism” of that time that succumbed to her form of propaganda. Just so, the main stream [...]
THE DARK NIGHT OF A VIOLENT SOCIETY IS RISING IN AMERICA; AND VIOLENT VIDEO GAMES AND HOLLYWOOD MOVIES ARE CONTRIBUTING TO THAT. Movie critic Mick LaSalle comments on effects of movies like “Dark Knight Rises” and the possible causal connection between it and other media products in promoting events the likes of a movie [...]
BLACK EMANCIPATION: LINCOLN’S HORSE-TRADING OR FREDERICK DOUGLAS’S STRUGGLE? Louis Proyect deconstructs the message behind the Stephen Spielberg movie “Lincoln” based on a screenplay by Tony Kushner. While ostensibly about the 16th U.S. President, the Kushner/Spielberg effort seems more like an indirect ode to the present one, depicting Lincoln as, like Obama, a wheeler-dealer [...]
AUSTERITY-PROTESTING CHAOS IN STREETS OF SPAIN, PORTUGAL AND GREECE—AND NEW YORK TIMES CHOOSES MOSTLY THE FACT THAT MARKETS “FALTER” IN THESE COUNTRIES AS THE NEWS “THAT’S FIT TO PRINT.” As European central bank demands austerity measures cutting benefits to people as condition of buying up their bad debts, riots occur across southern Europe and [...]
THOSE AFGHAN PROTESTS: PRESS COVERAGE TO THE CONTRARY, IT ISN’T JUST ABOUT THE “INADVERTENT” BURNING OF SOME KORANS. (Salon) News coverage tends to marginalize as religious fanaticism the grievances of Afghans against the United States, covering the fact that the U.S. is perceived as an invader of their country and that it is their duty [...]
AMIDST THE OSCAR NARCISSISM OF CELEBRITIES, A GLIMMER OF BRILLIANCE IN THE BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM WINNER. (Asia Times) Middle Eastern writer Pepe Escobar so views the choice of Ashgar Farhady’s “A Separation” for this award. In Escobar’s view, this was actually the best film in ANY language, the exactly needed antidote to the Islamophobia [...]
IS THERE A CRISIS IN GLOBAL CAPITALISM? DEPENDS ON WHERE YOU LOOK AND AT WHOM YOU ARE LOOKING. (Global Research) Sociologist James Petras does a deconstruction job on the thesis that “the world” is in economic crisis. Actually, the current recession is confined mostly to the European and North American continents, as economies in Asia [...]
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