things consumed 2

Video 279
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Posted 6 months ago

Can you imagine that there was a time when people believed what they heard on the radio? ;-)

“A Fine Play” or a Public Nuisance? Conflicting views on The War of the Worlds

On October 30, 1938, the popular Mercury Theater broadcast a radio play directed by Orson Welles, entitled “Invasion from Mars.” This adaptation of H.G.Wells’ novel “War of the Worlds” dramatized a surprise attack on a town in New Jersey. Many took the radio play to be real — causing widespread panic. Not everyone took to the streets however, and many, like the writer of the first letter, felt that others were overreacting.
(via DocsTeach)

via todaysdocument

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Posted 9 months ago

Chick-Fil-A Debuts New Homophobic Sandwich | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Considering the company’s actual ads, this is not far from reality. (The comments posted to Literally Unbelievable, a catalog of people mistaking the Onion for reliable news, suggest that it’s too close to be parody.)

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Posted 11 months ago

Group Of Hunky Cardinals Appeals To Pope To Relax Celibacy Requirement

The Onion’s week in review is such a relief.

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Posted 1 year ago

With Hitler later brazenly making it clear that no Jewish athletes would be part of the German team, the US seriously considered boycotting the event. Only disingenuous campaigning by Brundage – who having cosied up to the Führer, contended that each nation had the right to pick whoever they wanted, and that the IOC should not get involved in a piffling “Jew-Nazi altercation” – ensured the States agreed to send over a team. Even then, Brundage could not find the strength to keep out of it: during the Games, he put pressure on the US coaches to remove two Jewish runners from the 4x100m team, ensuring Hitler would not be embarrassed should they win.

Pleasingly, the Games proved to be a thundering PR disaster for Hitler, with Brundage inadvertently doing his bit to kibosh Adolf’s gig. One of the men ordered to replace his Jewish team-mates in the US 4x100m team was Jesse Owens; his gold in that event would be one of four meaty slaps in Hitler’s supposedly superior Aryan face.

The Joy of Six: sporting events that should never have been held | Scott Murray | Sport | The Guardian.

With the Bahrain Grand Prix going forward while Bahrain’s doctors and civil rights activists languish in jail, the Guadian saw fit to revisit other sporting events taking place in… let’s just say non-ideal human rights host countries. This story of unintended consequences is a complete delight! (The others are also quite interesting - go have a read.)

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Posted 1 year ago

By contrast, China’s leaders believe they are bringing development and modernisation to backward Tibetan areas. “The Tibetans here earn more than I do,” said one senior Jiuzhaigou official, surnamed Zhou.

His claim might be true, but Mr Zhou did not want the BBC checking it out by actually speaking to any Tibetans. We were followed, and once more detained for questioning.

BBC News - China lock-down seals off Tibetan unrest (bbc.co.uk, February 9, 2012). I’m glad that the English-language media I read has more frequently been acknowledging the media censorship it has to contend with in areas controlled by China, rather than just quoting China’s media spokesmen, as was more common just a few years ago.

The popular recent custom of presenting two conflicting opinions, one from people who had fled after years of torture, being “balanced” with an official statement that everything is FINE, and pretending that is journalism was not credible!

The reporter of this piece reports on several incidents, including one that included being threatened by officials, and observes that this level of censorship belies public statements about the government’s alleged successes, which no one is permitted to actually see. This kind of reporting, even when the journalists are foiled in their efforts to investigate conditions in specific regions, is highly informative in its own right.

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Posted 1 year ago

The French journalist Baptiste Fallevoz, of the television station France 24, and his Chinese assistant Jack Zhang were on their way to the scene when their car was hit by another vehicle. They were then attacked by thugs in plain clothes. Zhang, whose camera was smashed, received a severe blow to the head. Both were put aboard a plane for Wenzhou. Police attributed the incident to village rivalries.

“Village rivalries?” “VILLAGE RIVALRIES?” How the hell did they get from ‘we hate media that doesn’t serve our propaganda interests’ to THAT?

There are more stories of foreign journalists being roughed up, and of the extreme censorship in regions where Chinese government authority is not proud of its behavior, here: Authorities tighten grip, isolating Tibet even more from the outside world - Reporters Without Borders (en.rsf.org).

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Posted 1 year ago

State report blasts UC-Davis over pepper spray incident - CNN.com

Just in case you were wondering, the State of California agrees with pretty much everyone in the world that the spraying of peaceful demonstrators on the UC Davis campus in those now-famous videos and images was wrong.

It just took a while to come out and say so in a calm, bureaucratic fashion, so as not to look… hasty. Or to be seen as bandwagon jumping, or playing to sentiment.

Also: the pepper spray can wasn’t authorized, and wasn’t standard issue. If you were wondering.

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Posted 1 year ago