Blogs

Retired ACME board member and father-to-be Josh Golin of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood throws down a fine keynote at the sold-out ACMEVermont conference this fall.

Don't miss it.

Watch Josh's keynote here.

Good morning Everyone,

Today, my paper, the Albuquerque Journal, put the conviction of corrupt Republican Senator Ted Stevens on the last page of the front section. Where did your paper put the story? Last night CBS and NBC featured the story.

This is important. This kind of corruption is not only history making, but our media need to feature public governmental corruption in order to keep public informed and the system honest.

In April I warned about the economic danger of hedge funds and associated financial instruments, most importantly called derivatives and credit-default swaps(CDS). Sadly, the warning was prophetic, and our economy is falling apart, and not because of problem mortgages. Bad mortgages we could have handled; hedge funds we are struggling with.

Interestingly enough, in our current financial catastrophe the mainstream news (MSN) still refuses to discuss the role of hedge funds, derivatives and CDS. More importantly, the Presidential candidates are not talking about them either.

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What do you name a seven-piece power string band with enough acoustic groove to set the fjords on fire?

How ‘bout, well…

“Frigg?”

Stay with me here.

Yes, this band’s name is Frigg.

I know.

A bit strange, perhaps, until you consider their home turf: Scandinavia.

Frigg, as any self-respecting Scandinavian will gently remind you, is the Norse goddess of love and fertility.

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“A truly gifted performer, full of enchanting songs,” gushes The New Yorker.

“The troubadour of modern city folk,” exclaims The Boston Globe.

“As warm and tasty as cinnamon tea, as hopeful as daybreak,” proclaims Rolling Stone.

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Booking the Empire: “Why We Fight” Filmmaker Makes His Case In Print

What happens when an award-winning documentary film producer turns to a print monograph to make his case?

If you are Eugene Jarecki, the answer (to borrow a baseball metaphor) is: you hit a solid triple, with an eye towards home plate.

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AN INVITATION . . . to affirm the role of news in the classroom
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The Media Giraffe Project at UMass Amherst, the Media Education Laboratory at Temple University and other collaborators invite you to to Philadelphia for some or all of Oct. 23-25 for a short, strategic convening of journalists, teachers, educational administrators, public policy researchers and engaged citizens. The topic: News literacy.

A former Los Angeles Times reporter has launched what he calls "an innovative program to help secondary-school students sort fact from fiction in the digital age." Alan C. Miller plans pilot projects in 2009. The "News Literacy Project" is backed by funding from the Ford Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The idea for the project arose from Alan Miller.s experience talking about his work and why journalism matters to 175 sixth graders at his daughter's middle school in Bethesda, Md. The first pilots will be in schools in New York City and Montgomery County, Md.

These are unusual times, and the mainstream media are still not reporting much about the financial crisis, including that inflation is a tax and this financial crisis was predicted by the previous one in the '80's.

Some facts about the financial crisis.

All of the following is true, not exaggerated and non-partisan. Check it for yourself.

Most folks who’ve ever listened to the blues casually assume that this time-worn and much-appropriated musical genre is more or less focused on all things depressing – cheatin’, lyin’, stealin’, boozin’, lustin’, heartbreak, and life’s many other sorrows and woes.

While this is certainly true, there is an often-overlooked playful aspect to blues music, as well, and few blues musicians capture the clever side of blues better than Massachussetts blues veteran Chris Smither.