Episode 257: Here Today…

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When we chronicle the efforts businesses have made to influence how the public feels about the government, into Propaganda’s Hall of Fame must go the National Association of Manufacturers. I'll share some of their efforts in this Episode 257: Here Today…

In this episode, I read from: the Wikipedia entry on the Goon Show; a blog focusing on comic strips; and Naomi Oreskes and Eric Conway's book The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us To Loathe Government and Love the Free Market.


"Your" Town!

I play: A bit of the Goon Show's Xmas episode from some unknown year^*; then-Prince Charles showing off his Goon voice chops; a bit of a Daffy Duck cartoon; excerpts from two episodes of The American Family Robinson; selections from the 1940 short movie Your Town: A Story of America; the robot from the original version of Lost In Space (which I forgot to mention when reading the credits); and Sydney Greenstreet's evil soap-manufacturing character from the 1947 movie The Hucksters.

Clark Gable complains about radio advertising in the opening, backed by KMFDM; and I close with Julie & Rolf & The Campfire Gang doing "Over The Rainbow".

^*I'm sorry, but I forgot to record the link. The BBC runs the old Goon Show episodes on a rotating release schedule, sadly, so I couldn't get that episode if I wanted to.

The New Episode Is… Where?

Hey, Dear Listeners. Jim here with an explanation on my tardiness (this time). The next episode is "in the can," as they say; just not finished with the editing, which is the thing that takes the most time. Seriously, ask any podcaster. It's all in the editing. Why? It's cold. In our industrialized world, that wouldn't be a problem but for one detail: the Attack Ads! Studio is mostly unheated. The little space heater simply can't provide the oomph needed to keep my fingers from going numb while editing. I learned the hard way that pushing through the pain into the numbness makes ones editing fingers little error sausages. So please, bear with me. I'll kick out the jams as soon as I can feel the mouse and keys. Later! —Jim, Your Ad Attacker