On the one hand, there is the Columbia Review of Journalism taking the position that the journalism industry could do better and on the other you have (here's that word again) volunteers contributing to Project Censored producing work that proves that Lazy Journalism is alive and thriving in the USA.
While attending the Project Censored annual awards ceremony, this columnist got involved in a discussion about current cultural values and it was noted that a shift back to hippie values might deserve a trend spotting report story. We have observed that there is a noticeable increase in the fund raising efforts of the Sierra Club and Greenpeace. Information about "running away to join a hippie commune" will bring a steady trickle of new readers to a personal blog.
Is it time to recycle some of the "back to nature" stories from the Sixties?
Recycling old issues, in turn, reminded this writer that we might extract a good column from the effort to read Rex Weyler's book "Blood of the Land" (Vintage Books paperback 1982). That then reminded us that some hard nosed website plantation owners might think that only new books should be purchased, read, and reviewed. Does the Internets version of Charles Foster Kane think that just because the plight of the Native Americans isn't given air time on Faux News, it doesn't exist?
Doesn't the idea that volunteer writers can be fired repudiate all the hard efforts of past pro-labor activists to establish a fair and balanced work relationship with management? Isn't reestablishing superiority through intimidation of the workers, exactly what the Republicans want? Will the Rove-conservative gang owe a political favor to a "liberal" who helps achieve that goal at her website?
If a tyrannical publisher holds the threat of a pink slip over the heads of her staff (like the sword of Damocles?), doesn't that mean that it will be up to writers for rival publications to express the grievances of the exploited folks on the content plantation?
Americans tend to think that the Native American and Muslim cultures are homogenized groups. Don't they realize that the Native American culture ran the spectrum from the Sioux, who believed (like most Republicans) that women should be kept pregnant in summer and barefoot in winter, to the Cheyenne tribe which had women warriors?
Has the Huffington Post ever run an unbiased (let alone critical) story about the Pasqua Lama gold mining controversy in South America? Isn't it only those gosh darn scientists who say that the gold mining process can produce toxic waste? Who wants to risk their gig by sounding like they are fellow travelers with the guys who compete for inclusion in the Mad Scientists Hall of Fame?
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
