Recommended Reading
Salon.com just posted a transcript (opens in a new window) of a speech by Bill Moyers at the National Conference for Media Reform in St. Louis, Missouri. Moyers has been under attack lately by conservative pundits for covering stories that they don't want to be heard. Unfortunately, it looks like the mainstream media isn't functioning the way it is supposed to. So read this NOW. And don't get all your news from just one source.
Some other news/op-ed sites:
Alternet
Slate
The New Republic
The Weekly Standard
And some Not-So-Recommended Reading:
GQ asked Natalie Beach, 12½, to review The O'Reilly Factor for Kids: A Survival Guide for America's Families, by Bill O'Reilly. The review appears in their October 2004 issue (Yes, the one with Lindsay Lohan on the cover. What????) Anyway, I can only hope that my book reviews, if I ever get around to them, would contain this much wit and wisdom.
I'm sure that typing in the entire article is illegal, so I'll just quote some of the better parts:
"This is the most boring book I've ever read in my entire life. It's supposed to be a survival guide for teenagers, but you'll need a survival guide just to get through it."
"For some reason, he tells us about every minute of his life today: getting up at seven to read newspapers, going to the TV studio just before 6 P.M. to host The Factor, heading home to his family. Why am I reading this?" (bold emphasis, mine)
"The only reason kids would read this book would be if they were forced to - like I was."
What I'm listening to now: Kronos Quartet Plays Philip Glass, Kronos Quartet, Nonesuch Records
I always find it amazing that short musical motifs played repetitively could be something that I could enjoy listening to. Yet somehow, Philip Glass (and other minimalist composers of his ilk, like Steve Reich, John Adams) manage to compose music that can be riveting and emotional. Highly recommended recording. And the Kronos Quartet is pretty good, too.
Some other news/op-ed sites:
Alternet
Slate
The New Republic
The Weekly Standard
*******
And some Not-So-Recommended Reading:
GQ asked Natalie Beach, 12½, to review The O'Reilly Factor for Kids: A Survival Guide for America's Families, by Bill O'Reilly. The review appears in their October 2004 issue (Yes, the one with Lindsay Lohan on the cover. What????) Anyway, I can only hope that my book reviews, if I ever get around to them, would contain this much wit and wisdom.
I'm sure that typing in the entire article is illegal, so I'll just quote some of the better parts:
"This is the most boring book I've ever read in my entire life. It's supposed to be a survival guide for teenagers, but you'll need a survival guide just to get through it."
"For some reason, he tells us about every minute of his life today: getting up at seven to read newspapers, going to the TV studio just before 6 P.M. to host The Factor, heading home to his family. Why am I reading this?" (bold emphasis, mine)
"The only reason kids would read this book would be if they were forced to - like I was."
*******
What I'm listening to now: Kronos Quartet Plays Philip Glass, Kronos Quartet, Nonesuch Records
I always find it amazing that short musical motifs played repetitively could be something that I could enjoy listening to. Yet somehow, Philip Glass (and other minimalist composers of his ilk, like Steve Reich, John Adams) manage to compose music that can be riveting and emotional. Highly recommended recording. And the Kronos Quartet is pretty good, too.
posted by Mikey at 9:56 AM
3 Comments:
An mp3 file of the speech can be downloaded at:
http://www.freepress.net/conference/audio05/moyers.mp3
I'm listening to it right now.
Where to begin? This P-BS Watcher fellow, if you couldn't tell by his username, is a bit of a blowhard.
1. He comment-spammed any blog he could find that provided a link to a transcript of Moyers' speech. You can do a search on Technorati.com for 'moyers', 'media', and 'reform' and click on any of the blogs around mine and find that he put the exact same comment on no less than a dozen other blogs.
2. If you don't like the message, shoot the messenger, huh? The point of Moyers' speech was that the mainstream media, especially that inside the DC Beltway, is now lazy and simply reports talking points from both sides. You can come up with examples to counter this viewpoint, but you simply ignore the substance and attack his choice of words. Another misleading tactic refined by the unapologetic right wing.
3. (I readily admit that this point is a logical fallacy: Guilty by Association.) I'm all in favor of gathering information from multiple sources with multiple viewpoints, but you hurt your own credibility by linking to the blogs of Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter. People like this attempt to win the argument by concluding that whoever asks questions of the administration is obviously a traitor and therefore an America-hater. If you want to nitpick someone's choice of semantics, I suggest you start with these two.
4. I find the idea of a supporter of the conservative media pointing out hypocritical behavior in someone (who happens to carry an opposing view) to be LAUGHABLE. For reference, Google 'Rush Limbaugh and drug addiction', 'Bill O'Reilly and sexual harassment', 'Tom Delay and morality', and 'Ann Coulter and logic'.
tsSSSsss! that's the sound of the burn!
go get em mikey!
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