Is it live or is it Memorex? Out there in the Matrix, life is one big movie.
A few PR Watch highlights remind us how celluloid we have become.
FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES source
U.S. Congressman Maurice Hinchey says the Food and Drug Administration's chief counsel "is aggressively intervening against the public on behalf of drug companies and medical device manufacturers" and this "pattern of collusion" has "corrupted [the FDA's] mission to protect the public health." Daniel Troy, who lobbied for drug and tobacco companies before being appointed as USDA counsel, reportedly told drug companies to inform him of lawsuits so that the FDA could strengthen their defense. "Make it sound like a Hollywood pitch," he advised. Troy has filed USDA briefs on behalf of former client Pfizer, SmithKline Beecham Consumer Products and GlaxoSmithKline.
U.S. Congressman Maurice Hinchey says the Food and Drug Administration's chief counsel "is aggressively intervening against the public on behalf of drug companies and medical device manufacturers" and this "pattern of collusion" has "corrupted [the FDA's] mission to protect the public health." Daniel Troy, who lobbied for drug and tobacco companies before being appointed as USDA counsel, reportedly told drug companies to inform him of lawsuits so that the FDA could strengthen their defense. "Make it sound like a Hollywood pitch," he advised. Troy has filed USDA briefs on behalf of former client Pfizer, SmithKline Beecham Consumer Products and GlaxoSmithKline.
Indeed. As that always works.
The big production right now, of course, is the Democratic National Convention.
(Why is MTV calling Kerry's wife "Heinz Kerry"? Heinz was a married name. And Mr. Heinz is dead.)
DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL RITUAL 2004 source
In his essay, "A Cultural Approach to Communication," Columbia University journalism professor James W. Carey identifies two views of communication -- "transmission" and "ritual." ...A ritual view of communication is directed not toward the extension of messages in space but toward the maintenance of society in time."...Rosen, who is covering the Democratic Nation Convention on his weblog PressThink, suggests journalists keep Carey's essay in mind while covering the convention. Why? "Because if you try to understand a political ritual with a transmission view in your head, you will miss much of what's going on...
In his essay, "A Cultural Approach to Communication," Columbia University journalism professor James W. Carey identifies two views of communication -- "transmission" and "ritual." ...A ritual view of communication is directed not toward the extension of messages in space but toward the maintenance of society in time."...Rosen, who is covering the Democratic Nation Convention on his weblog PressThink, suggests journalists keep Carey's essay in mind while covering the convention. Why? "Because if you try to understand a political ritual with a transmission view in your head, you will miss much of what's going on...
ASKING FOR TROUBLE source
"Fear has increased in every newsroom in America," said CBS's Dan Rather during a discussion of "The Press and the Election" at Harvard University. That's fear of "a torrent of e-mails and phone calls" complaining about media coverage of controversial issues. Rather said journalists might think, "when you run this story, you're asking for trouble. ... Why run it?" ...ABC's Peter Jennings added, "I hear more about conservative concerns than I have in the past. ... I feel the presence of anger all the time."
"Fear has increased in every newsroom in America," said CBS's Dan Rather during a discussion of "The Press and the Election" at Harvard University. That's fear of "a torrent of e-mails and phone calls" complaining about media coverage of controversial issues. Rather said journalists might think, "when you run this story, you're asking for trouble. ... Why run it?" ...ABC's Peter Jennings added, "I hear more about conservative concerns than I have in the past. ... I feel the presence of anger all the time."
CONVENTIONAL COVERAGE source
PBS anchor Jim Lehrer blasted the major TV networks for limited coverage of the political conventions, since "we're about to elect a president of the United States at a time when we have young people dying in our name overseas, [and] we just had a report from the 9/11 commission which says we are not safe." NBC's Tom Brokaw countered, "These conventions are so managed, so over-managed" there's not much to report. Brokaw complained about Kerry campaign media control, saying, "There is a politburo running this convention." For a joint CBS/NBC interview, campaign "staff wanted the questions to concern Mr. Kerry's expectations for the convention, nothing more" - a request that was "swiftly denied."
PBS anchor Jim Lehrer blasted the major TV networks for limited coverage of the political conventions, since "we're about to elect a president of the United States at a time when we have young people dying in our name overseas, [and] we just had a report from the 9/11 commission which says we are not safe." NBC's Tom Brokaw countered, "These conventions are so managed, so over-managed" there's not much to report. Brokaw complained about Kerry campaign media control, saying, "There is a politburo running this convention." For a joint CBS/NBC interview, campaign "staff wanted the questions to concern Mr. Kerry's expectations for the convention, nothing more" - a request that was "swiftly denied."
NOT-SO-DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION source
"One cannot conceive of other elements [that could be] put in place to create a space that's more of an affront to the idea of free expression," said U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock, after touring the Democratic National Convention's "free speech" protest zone in Boston. The zone is "bordered by cement barriers, a double row of chain-line fencing, heavy black netting, and tightly woven plastic mesh," with "coils of razor wire" along elevated train tracks. A lawyer for activists challenging the zone compared it to "a maximum security prison, Guantanamo Bay, or a zoo" - comparisons Woodlock called "an understatement," although he upheld the zone for security reasons.
"One cannot conceive of other elements [that could be] put in place to create a space that's more of an affront to the idea of free expression," said U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock, after touring the Democratic National Convention's "free speech" protest zone in Boston. The zone is "bordered by cement barriers, a double row of chain-line fencing, heavy black netting, and tightly woven plastic mesh," with "coils of razor wire" along elevated train tracks. A lawyer for activists challenging the zone compared it to "a maximum security prison, Guantanamo Bay, or a zoo" - comparisons Woodlock called "an understatement," although he upheld the zone for security reasons.
COMPASSIONATE CONVENTIONS source
"On Saturday, [Republican] convention officials will begin a highly organized nationwide campaign to get volunteers to donate blood, feed the hungry and operate community health fairs. Initially, it will be part of a broader effort to draw attention away from the Democratic National Convention. But the campaign - known as Compassion Across America - will continue at the Republican National Convention," reports Jennifer Steinhauer. She wonders if "here is a television image that organizers of the Republican National Convention are fantasizing about: Protesters clog the area around Madison Square Garden, inconveniencing commuters ... [while] Republican delegates [are] feeding the homeless."
"On Saturday, [Republican] convention officials will begin a highly organized nationwide campaign to get volunteers to donate blood, feed the hungry and operate community health fairs. Initially, it will be part of a broader effort to draw attention away from the Democratic National Convention. But the campaign - known as Compassion Across America - will continue at the Republican National Convention," reports Jennifer Steinhauer. She wonders if "here is a television image that organizers of the Republican National Convention are fantasizing about: Protesters clog the area around Madison Square Garden, inconveniencing commuters ... [while] Republican delegates [are] feeding the homeless."
I don't know...it all seems kind of unreal.
Meanwhile, in Iraq, their lives are all too real. And ugly. I was reading a Time magazine article in the waiting room at the eye clinic yesterday about a family in Baghdad's upper-class district. The family consists of a seventy-some pediatrician and his wife, their son and daughter-in-law, and two or three grandchildren. The son has lost his job and cannot find work. Now he escorts the women anywhere they have to go, and if they don't have to go anywhere, they don't leave the house. The daughter-in-law says that women are simply not safe in Baghdad these days without the traditional clothing covering their entire bodies, and she simply will not be subjected to the increasing conservative religious pressures since the U.S. invasion to make the Iraqis more liberated.
I wonder how much longer before she gives in. After a year of being cooped up in their house, the children are fighting and the adults are getting on each other's nerves. They have electricity for a few hours a day only, and a small generator that allows them to watch TV. The clinic where the patriarch pediatrician works is three miles from their home, and was looted and trashed when the U.S. forces took the city. People are afraid to go about the city, and so those who finally bring their children in to see the doctor have very ill children. His family wants him to quit the practice until order is restored to Baghdad, because of the danger in traveling to the clinic, but he says that more children will die if he doesn't go to work. He goes by taxi to avoid the appearance of any wealth, which he hopes will prevent him being kidnapped. Ordinary civilians are kidnapped for ransom with amazing frequency.
They have a saying in Baghdad these days about their new American-delivered freedom: the terrorists are free to kill us, and we are free to stay in our homes.
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