Tag: media

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’06: Was it so Horrorble?

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members and ex-members of Mara Salvatrucha

The Annenberg School at USC is hosting the Getty/TNT/Canon/LATimes World Press Photo Award-Winning Images of ’06 thru Feb. 1 and it’s bloody horrifying. And not just because TribCo axe-man David Hiller is in town (photo below — James O’Shea was on hand but held fire, er, I mean he didn’t speak). Matter o’ fact, USC’s Annenberg School is the only host of this traveling Dutch-based show in the U.S. other than the United Nations building in New York (on arguably international soil).

This is the third consecutive year that the Annenberg School has hosted this event and it may be the last — Dean Geoffrey Cowan is set to depart at semester’s end and quite frankly, the subject matter displayed is rather alien to the American media’s penchant for truthiness.

The exhibit is open to the public, and unfortunately, only until Feb. 1, at which point the Annenberg lobby will again be flooded with plasma-vision “Situation Room” action — where fake boobs are born with Wolf Blitzer’s blessing. For directions, use this GMap.

OMG hiller

More photos of the photos after the jump. Continue reading “’06: Was it so Horrorble?”

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Is Nat’l Lampoons Punking the Media?

As I chuckle over today’s headlines, I can’t help but think that someone must be syncing this bizarro made-for-the-Onion events for a movie they are making that ridicules the decrepit state of media and its “breaking news” ethos.

1) ‘Mystery smell settles over Manhattan‘ — It stinks in Manhattan, like rotten eggs, and nobody can figure out why? Meanwhile, no need to hire Leslie Nielsen to drop the punchlines as our own civil servants were on the scene: “Mayor Michael Bloomberg said there was no indication the air was unsafe. ‘It may just be an unpleasant smell,’ he said.” Watch WCBS report on “that smell.”

2) ‘Bird deaths shut down downtown Austin‘ – 63 pigeons were found dead in downtown Austin leading to a shutdown of 10 blocks. Nobody has a clue as to how this occurred. For the movie crews (assuming they were on it), “Workers in yellow hazardous-materials suits tested for contaminants in a cordoned-off section near the state Capitol.”

3) ‘Miami package was harmless‘ — “The Port of Miami was hit by its second terrorism scare in two days Monday when a package that was to be loaded onto a cruise ship tested positive for plastic explosives. Authorities later determined it was just a box of sprinkler parts.” — Watch Miami breaking news cov’g.

4) Court drops charges against Saddam — The fact that the Kurds won’t be trying to put a dead man in prison is top news??? Am I missing something?

dead birds in Austin
Made-for-TV dead bird scene in Austin?

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2006 Year in Review Podcasts and Lists

I’ve listened to so many over the past week I don’t even know what to do with myself! Perhaps I should aggregate stuff throughout the year on my del.icio.us and tag appropriately but I’m not in the business of providing lists and certainly don’t believe in “best ofs.” I will, however, list below some of the year-end roundups that best examine how recent events and developments provide a window into the future and the trends that are making today’s “best” only as good as what may come tomorrow. Here are a few I appreciated more than others (I know I’m leaving a ton out):

Podcasts

This Week in Tech: TWiT Year in Review: Leo Laporte, John C. Dvorak, Wil Harris, Andy Ihnatko, and Michael Arrington look back at the stories that made 2006, and what’s ahead for 2007. Listen to the podcast.

Sound Opinions: Best of 2006: listen.

PBS Newshour: New Media Develops Rapidly: Nicholas Lehmann, Adam Clayton Powell III, and Mary Hodder discuss. Listen to the podcast.

Slate.com: The Five Best Political Moments of 2006.

Video: YouTube – Keith Olbermann’s “Special Comments.” His first of ’07, “on Sacrifice,” was especially moving.

Columns:

Slate: The 10 Most Outrageous Civil Liberties Violations of 2006, by Dahlia Lithwick.

CNET: Social Networking Year in Review

Read/Write Web: 2006 Web Tech Trends

Lists
Fimoculous: Best of Best of 2006 Lists

Large-Hearted Boy: Guide to 2006 Year End Music Lists.

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Hussein-o-vision: Citizen Video Undermines State Rhetoric

saddam hussein is hangedIn a backhanded testament to the usefulness of citizen journalism as a voice of dissent, the Iraqi government announced the arrest of (up to three?) two guards and an official who supervised the hanging in connection with the unauthorized videorecording of Saddam Hussein’s execution. The video, apparently made by cellphone, was posted to the Internet on Saturday.

While it appears that a low level guard stands to be charged (name[s] of the arrested have yet to be released), Will Bunch and others find reason to believe the guilty party to be none other than Iraq Nat’l Security advisor Mowaffak Al-Rubaie, the virtual equivalent of the White House’s Stephen Hadley. Oh, the irony of an investigation of a sensitive and untimely leak — this time, not Bush needing to point his finger away from Hadley, but al-Maliki needing to find a scapegoat for his rebel with or without a cause.

While al-Rubaie was installed mostly at the discretion of the U.S. — al-Maliki’s insistence on interrogating and bringing justice to whomever posted the video is yet another example of his unwillingness to cooperate with U.S. interests and to foster his own independence from being the partner that the Bush Administration has so fervently tried to create. It’s now crystal clear that Maliki has little interest in appeasing the U.S. — after all, he has his own life and family to protect while posing as a crucial figure in a civil war and, as the BBC reports, he just wants his nightmare term as PM to end.

Josh Marshall is tracking all developments on this story at Talking Points Memo.