The News thats fit to print
This wasn't the week for decorum in the news, what week is. Decorum doesn't seem to be what people do anymore. Initially my favorite story from this week was the story behind Senate candidate Jack Ryan's dropping out of a senate race he stood a good chance of winning Illinois Republican Decides to Quit Senate Race. Over a old fashioned sex scandal with his wife. You really have to work at things to have a sex scandal in the press involving your own wife. His wife is Jeri Ryan, from the TV show Boston Public and before that one of the Star Trek franchises. Boston Public - was I the only person who watched that show? Even I found it difficult to deal with when they put it on Friday (Friday! a show about a high school). It seemed like a nice celebrity scandal, but after reading the article I found myself thinking that nothing good came out of the Chicago Tribune forcing their sealed divorce papers into the open. There was nothing in this I needed to know. Even with knowing it, I can't tell is this man Jack Ryan is a fool, a reprobate, or someone genuinely involved in some aborted process of self transformation.
Its a good thing that there were other stories in the press that made it worth the time sorting through it all. Such as Vice President Dick Cheney taking time out of his busy schedule to explain the sometimes arcane notion of compassionate conservatism to us all. It was especially instructive for the fact and both the President Yahoo! News - Cheney's Curse 'Not an Issue' With Bush and senate majority leader Frist Yahoo! News - Frist Won't Criticize Cheney for Cursing are comfortably signed on with that rich restored vision of leading all Americans together. Even the Post agreed. As far as I know there is no truth to the stories that Dick Cheney has been spotted on Metro platforms across the city attempting to take his own advice.
The other story that interested me was the third circuit court of appeals rejecting the FCC's Big Business media consolidation scheme. I had a lot of thoughts about this particularly in the wake of watching the press in this country roll over for the Bush White house like a lobotimized dog two years ago. Yet the Times quotes Michael Powell calling the ruling ``deeply troubling'' and would make it harder for the agency to limit greater media consolidation. Court Reverses F.C.C's Media Ownership Rules
New York Times. What a weed! Corporate consolidation was what that was all about. and he knows it. That statement is blatant thru-the-looking-glass hypocrisy. Alternet has an article reprinted from Nation on this
AlterNet: Big Blow to Big Media representing other possible views. Consider another Alternet post reporting on a study of NPR's interview guest list a very established group not a lot of unheard voices. This is what happens when even independent media starts looking not to sound any stray notes
AlterNet: MediaCulture: How Public Is Public Radio?
I don't like to say too much about the FCC, because the issues involved require reading the articles carefully, and because my sister works there (an anti-trust lawyer in their 'Transaction Shop'. This ruling forms the ground rules for how they evaluate the matters presented to them. My simplicity pains her, these are complex issues much of it best left to lawyers, and its hard enough to work around so many simpletons in the first place. Congress was responding to something - the concerns of the people, I suppose - when the antitrust regulations were written into law in the first place. I would remind the commisioners of the FCC, that the people are still concerned.
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