[Media-watch] ColdType

[Tony Sutton]

COLDTYPE.NET / March 16


Check out the latest from our Columnists:

1. GEORGE MONBIOT
The fruits of poverty
Every year the list is the same, but every year it still comes as a shock.
Of the 10 richest people on Earth, five of them have the same surname. It¹s
not Gates, or Murdoch, or Rockefeller, but Walton. They are the heirs and
trustees of the supermarket chain Wal-Mart. And between them they are worth
$100bn. Considering how the media fawns on the ultra rich, we hear
remarkably little about them. Perhaps this is because their position is
rather embarrassing. The company that enriches them trades on the idea that
it is the friend of the common man and woman, distributing rather than
concentrating wealth.
http://www.coldtype.net/columns.04.html

Starved of the truth
The question is as simple as this: do you want a few corporations to
monopolise the global food supply? If the answer is yes, you should welcome
the announcement that the government is expected to make today that the
commercial planting of a genetically modified (GM) crop in Britain can go
ahead. If the answer is no, you should regret it. The principal promotional
effort of the genetic engineering industry is to distract us from this
question. GM technology permits companies to ensure that everything we eat
is owned by them. They can patent the seeds and the processes that give rise
to them. They can make sure that crops can¹t be grown without their patented
chemicals. They can prevent seeds from reproducing themselves. By buying up
competing seed companies and closing them down, they can capture the food
market, the biggest and most diverse market of all.
http://www.coldtype.net/columns.04.html

2. MICHAEL I. NIMAN
Standing up for Martha
Fasten your seatbelts. This cynical anti-consumerist columnist is about to
defend the queen of K-Mart, that prissy woman-turned-brand, Martha Stewart.
But bear with me. This isn¹t an errant detour into an abyss of triviality.
And no, I¹m not going to follow this up with a piece on Janet Jackson¹s
breast or Britney Spears¹ short-lived marriage. The crucifixion of Western
New York¹s least favorite daughter embodies what¹s wrong with American
politics.
http://www.coldtype.net/columns.04.html

Bush strikes out in Haiti
The Boston Globe article begins like this: ³Thousands of Demonstrators
chanting anti-American slogans encircled the US Marine-occupied National
Palace here yesterday.² Reuters news service cites protestors exclaiming,
³We¹re going to burn down the palace with the Americans inside. We have
weapons and we are ready to fight.² Knight Ridder news service reports that
5,000 protestors marched on the national palace ³shouting anti-Bush slogans²
and protesting the US occupation of their country. Does this sound like just
another day in Iraq? Or maybe perhaps it¹s Afghanistan, except for the fact
that they really don¹t have anything that can realistically pass for a
national palace. If you guessed either Iraq or Afghanistan, you¹re wrong.
http://www.coldtype.net/columns.04.html

3. NORMAN SOLOMON
They shoot journalists, don¹t they?
To encourage restraint in war coverage, governments don¹t need to shoot
journalists ­ though sometimes that¹s helpful. Thirteen journalists were
killed while covering the war and occupation in Iraq last year, says a new
report by the Committee to Protect Journalists. The deaths were a subset of
36 on-the-job fatalities related to journalistic work across the globe in
2003. CPJ¹s annual worldwide survey ³Attacks on the Press,² released on
March 11, indicates that some of those deaths in Iraq were not just random
events in a hazardous war zone. Journalists who were ³embedded² with the
American military tended to be safer.
http://www.coldtype.net/columns.04.html

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And don't miss this month's cover story
BRINGING HELL TO HAITI
A 20-page essay by David Edwards, of Britain's Medialens puts the events
into perspective
Have you noticed how stupid you feel when you watch the news? Hands up
anybody who understands what¹s going on in Haiti? The media is good at
repeatedly broadcasting footage of armed gangs roaming in trucks, and at
quoting senior officials. But the absence of meaningful context and informed
analysis ­ and above all the unwillingness to question the official version
of events ­ means that it is often literally impossible for viewers to make
sense of what is happening. For all their satellite communications and
computer-generated studios, the news media often do not give us news at all
­ they give us noise.
http://www.coldtype.net

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