Archives for March 2005

By Jan Herman Covering National Public Radio’s flank in the David D’Arcy case, NPR ombudsman Jeffrey A. Dvorkin has effectively backed NPR management’s decision to dump D’Arcy (below) after the Museum of Modern Art complained about his report on an ownership dispute over a painting by Egon Schiele. Well, take it from an insider who […]

I intended to write a fuller item than yesterday’s about The Message Machine, which gives an extraordinary rundown on how the Bush regime has propagandized the American press through the use of Video News Releases (VNRs). The piece, which started out on the front page of Sunday’s New York Times and jumped to a huge […]

Absolutely essential reading: The Message Machine, this morning’s story by David Barstow and Robin Stein about the propagandizing of the American free press, often through the collusion and ignorance of the free pressers themselves. More about this tomorrow. EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

By JAN HERMAN Just to wrap up yesterday’s item: Leave it to the Vienna Philharmonic to treat not only its critics with contempt but also its allies. It backed out of a discussion on WNYC’s VPo-friendly Soundcheck about the orchestra’s discrimination against women and minorities after saying a representative would appear (provided he didn’t have […]

The latest Pentagon report on torture says there are new rules defining how the U.S. military should treat captives. But as a New York Times editorial, “Abu Ghraib, Whitewashed Again” pointed out yesterday, “Don’t ask what they are, because they’re classified.” And certainly don’t ask the Navy inspector general who wrote the report that approved […]

The classical music editor of The New York Times, James Oestreich, has backed out of this afternoon’s WNYC Public Radio Soundcheck broadcast, “The Naked Nexus of Music and Politics,” about the Vienna Philharmonic’s discrimination against women and minorities. He was scheduled to discuss the issue with composer Bill Osborne and musician Abbie Conant (below), outspoken, […]

Hammond Guthrie reflects: Then & Now (Again) Then we had: Zen inspired Beatitudes& Now we have: Wanna-be-Attitudes Then we had: FM — rock & roll and hot rods& Now we have: AM — talk radio and road rage Then we had: intellectual discovery& Now we have: video poker machines Then we had: free speech& Now […]

Question 1: What’s wrong with this picture? Answer 1: Nothing, unfortunately. It’s an undoctored photo in need of a Newsweek alteration. Question 2: Which part of Dear Leader’s anatomy is Ms. Mushroom Cloud measuring? Answer 2: His brain. (Shame on you vulgarians.) EmailFacebookTwitterReddit

So I was reading Eric Alterman’s blog item “Wolfowitz on the record, about a cocktail party Tina Brown threw in Washington the other night, and I kept getting the creepiest feeling. The author of What Liberal Media? had just outdone himself, proving once and for all there really is no such thing as the liberal […]

After Dear Leader’s nomination of U.N.-abuser John Bolton as the American ambassador to the U.N., what’s next? “Donald Rumsfeld to negotiate a new set of Geneva Conventions? Martha Stewart to run the Securities and Exchange Commission? Kenneth Lay for energy secretary?” That sneering question comes not from some sarcastic blogger like myself but from the […]

National Public Radio has caved in to pressure from the Museum of Modern Art and dumped a highly regarded arts reporter, artnet.com reports. The story, which has yet to appear in the print media, begins: Veteran art-news reporter David D’Arcy has been taken off the air by National Public Radio (NPR) after the Museum of […]

Finally something worth reading in TIME magazine. Have a look at this week’s cover package. It’s a story by Jeffrey Sachs, “The End of Poverty,” excerpted from his forthcoming book. But wouldn’t you know it? TIME offers a mere online tease. Access to the complete story is limited to the magazine’s subscribers. Sachs is trying to […]

With the arrival of the Vienna Philharmonic on Friday for three concerts at Carnegie Hall, the orchestra’s historic exclusion of women (not to mention its racist ideology) is to be discussed that afternoon on Soundcheck, the WNYC New York Public Radio talk show about music and culture. Invited to air their views about the orchestra’s […]

Hammond Guthrie points out that the Guardian in London has a weeklong series, beginning today, about Robert Crumb. And Robert Hughes explains his continuing relevance. “It was always such a treat when Crumb would appear late night al fresco at Enrico’s in San Francisco,” Guthrie messages. “If he knew you or recognized you from the […]

I’ve had my say about neocon Sufi Stephen Schwartz, and several Straight Up readers have had theirs. So here’s his say. It arrived in an email message. The header began: “I thought you were dead.” The message itself continued downhill from there. On the evidence I’ve seen, Schwartz has a faith-based belief in wishful thinking — […]

A reader who wrote earlier that the right-wing media has tried to sabotage “Million Dollar Baby” by giving away the ending sends this message: I sent a copy of my comments about the Weekly Standard article on “Million Dollar Baby” to a friend whose brother’s neck was broken in a classic diving board/swimming pool accident […]