Episode 11: Breaking News

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Though I've touched on this topic a bit in past episodes, with Episode 11: Breaking News, I've decided to create yet another sub-category, another theme that I hope to pursue throughout this series: the way that commercial money exerts influence on the act of gathering and disseminating the news.

For this first of the Breaking News series, I thought I'd touch on the major discrepancies that seem apparent when one considers how consumers are "protected" with "coverage," and how one class of business seems somehow less exposed to press investigations. Hint: in this specific case, it doesn't pay to be a small business person.

ABC News story mentioned in the episode.

The show opens and closes with portions from the opening of the James Cagney's 1959 movie, "Never Steal Anything Small."

Music: Pietnastka's eponymous song.

Episode 10: Defined By Absence

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Episode 10: Defined By Absence questions the many advertisements aired on public radio and television in the United States. Aren't these a violation of definition if nothing else? After all, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was originally formed to provide a format for programs that would not be possible under the commercial broadcast business model. Can an entity created with a sense of being different from more common entities in the business and social ecosystem really be considered in any way different if they engage in the very same behaviors as the commoners? Or should the different entity maintain a sense of purity? I'm leaning toward the latter.

We hear Steve Rendell's report on a serious public radio conflict of interest, originally aired on Counterspin and released December 27, 2013. No, a journalistic entity should never be funded by the very corporate entities it is charged with overseeing through its reporting.

Music in the episode include a performance of John Dowland's "Come again, sweet love doth now invite," Turmoil's "Drowning in the Cesspool," and the Freak Fandango Orchestra's "No Means No."

Finally, many, many thanks to my good and talented friend Susan, whom you listeners should also thank for giving your ears a needed respite from my voice. Variety is good, especially when that variety proves as excellent as Susan's contribution.

Episode 9: Carve & Polish

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Not all commercial messages are confined to the normal boundaries demarcating such messages, thanks to sneaky efforts from marketers everywhere. Episode 9: Carve and Polish takes one such case in point: consider a bad movie that was so obviously underwritten by a beverage manufacturer that silly steps were forced on the production team to avoid casting the beverage in question in a negative light. The steps are so obvious as to be laughable, and in the end the desired end—having the beverage become more culturally iconic—failed. Still, not all brand building in the movies is bought and paid for by the companies pushing product, as the second portion of the episode considers.

The two movies under consideration here are Bad Boys, a 1984 release starring Sean Penn; and David Lynch's 1986 Blue Velvet, with a fabulous performance by Dennis Hopper. Excerpts from both are heard.

Closing the show we hear "Shine, Shine, Shine" from Jupiter Makes Me Scream.

A Bit of a Delay, With Clarification

Sorry, folks, but in the confluence of events here at Attack Central—an untimely merging of family troubles, hard drive issues, extreme heat in the Studio From Which To Attack, and laundry (specifically, the noise emitted from the machines below Attack Central)—this week's planned episode will be delayed until next week. Not to worry, though, as I will be able to give July (if all goes according to the revised schedule) three full episodes, just not released according to some semblance of a schedule that can be deduced by, well, anyone.

Which leads to the clarification. Those with time to kill and a curious bent might have noticed that sometimes the episodes appear every Tuesday, and sometimes Every Other Tuesday. Which is it? Well, it's neither and it's both. I launched this endeavor on April Fools Day which happened to be a Tuesday, so I thought I would at least honor that coincidence throughout the project. Whether to post once a week or once every two weeks was the only detail to iron out.

Ah, but then come the details that bedevil. My podcast hosting plan allows X amount of content every month. My episodes, even with some pretty generous compression (which is lossy), dictate I could release three per month and still maintain what I consider a follow-able format in listen-able form. Ah, but sometimes months have four Tuesdays, and sometimes they have five! Even with maximum compression and a maniacal editorial policy that limited episodes to between 17 and 32 sentences, I couldn't fill a weekly schedule without doing some serious host plan upgrading . . . and bearing the subsequent expense. Until I figure out what I'm doing here, for this little diversion to continue I need to keep to the budget my wallet will allow.

On the other hand, waiting every other week left me with too many finished episodes sitting on the hard drive. I realized I would have absolutely no timely content whatsoever. That would have been acceptable, were it not for a few episodes (like #2) which were too timely to delay too much.

My solution was to fill the Tuesdays as much as possible without exceeding my upload budget. Sometimes they were every week, sometimes every other, and for Number 9 three weeks will pass. Only this three week delay is unintentional.

Perhaps once I get the so-called hang of this production thing, I will settle on a more discernible pattern of episodic release; that, though, will depend on some equipment upgrade and some soundproofing of the tiny cabinet of recording excitement that is Attack Central. Until then, Gentle Listeners, I do beg your allowance of my unpredictability, and thank you for your continued patience.