Episode 245: Don't Trust Mainstream Media

Play Now!

Too many grapple today with common but un- or poorly-defined terms, especially "mainstream." What is mainstream? When it comes to mainstream news, I've got a simple suggestion, which I give you in this Episode 245: Don't Trust Mainstream Media.

In this episode, I read from: Tim Wu's book The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads; Upton Sinclair's book The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism; Robert W. McChesney and Ben Scott's 2004 book Our Unfree Press: 100 years of Radical Media Criticism; and Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols 2010 book, The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media Revolution That Will Begin the World Again.

I played: Matt Taibbi from the November 30, 2022 Munk Debate; and Jeffry Dvorkin from his appearance on the podcast Canadaland. Musically, Bernie Sanders opened the show backed by KMFDM; and I'm closing today with Mistle Thrush.

Episode 244: Adam Smith's Invisible Handjob

Play Now!

All political philosophy is propaganda, an attempt to describe both the way things are and proscribe the way things should be. Let me give you an example written over a quarter of a millennia ago in this Episode 244: Adam Smith's Invisible Handjob.

In this episode, I read from: David Graeber's book, Debt: The First 5,000 Years; from Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments; from Brian Merchant's Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech; and from my quickie dictionary.

I play: a new intro featuring Douglas Rushkoff in the opening, noting that tech giants of every age do not do the things they do in a complete vacuum devoid of other people, backed as usual by KMFDM. I close the show with Julie & Rolf and the Campfire Gang doing "Over the Rainbow".

(Also, I played but neglected to mention two audio snippets, the first from the short-lived television cartoon Dilbert; and the second from then Senator Ted Stevens "describing" the inter-tubes. I also neglected Podington Bear's musical backing provided by a tune called "Quatrefoil". I forgot to mention those bits in the audio credits. Oops. Sorry.)