Z Nightly Commentaries
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Recent Z Nightly Commentaries
Schechter: Speaking Back to the Media
Aug 20, 2000
There used to be something called equal time and the right to reply to TV editorials and coverage. I am reminded of this by the publication, in a thin booklet called Poems for the Nation, of the text of a previously unpublished television address delivere
Solomon: HOLY SMOKE AND MIRRORS: THE RISE OF CENTRIST THEOCRATS
Aug 12, 2000
It's always dangerous when politicians claim to be doing God's will. So, as the novelty fades from Al Gore's selection of Joseph Lieberman, journalists should ask some probing questions about the ticket's conspicuous piety.
Said: Dark at the End of the Tunnel
Jul 25, 2000
From Al-Ahram Weekly / Issue No. 491 The media has been bursting with all sorts of rumours, speculation, and some news about the Camp David summit, its progress, outcome, and meaning. Whatever happens as an immediate result of the negotiations, one thin
Schechter: Long Live Chairman Levin!
Jul 23, 2000
A long time ago, in the days when evil empires threatened freedom-loving peoples everywhere, there were a few men we were taught to fear. They led massive, top-down international networks of true believers committed to infiltrating our minds and way of li
Schechter: MBEKI's MUDDLE South Africa's Aids Debate
Jul 13, 2000
Durban, South Africa: What was Mbeki going to say? That's what the press and the crowd packed into the Kingsmead Cricket stadium were buzzing about as they waited May 9th under an African sky threatening rain for South Africa's second democratically elect
Solomon: THE CASE FOR CORPORATE-GIVEN NAMES
Jul 11, 2000
A public-interest group is urging sportswriters to resist a free-enterprise wave of the future. "Corporations are seizing the names of our beloved parks and stadiums, and replacing these with their own," Commercial Alert complains in a letter that arrived
Shalom: Crash of the Osprey
Jul 03, 2000
On April 8, a hybrid helicopter-airplane known as the V-22 Osprey crashed in Arizona, killing all 19 Marines aboard. It was, said Air Force Magazine, "one of the worst accidents in the history of Marine Corps aviation and one of the deadliest military cra
Solomon: VIRTUAL COMMANDMENTS OF THE DOT-COM FAITH
Jun 19, 2000
Inside the temples of true believers, ardent faith has a way of prevailing. And so, in the Dot-Com year of 2000, vast numbers of followers seem eager to fulfill a sacred digital future.
Schechter: Newman's Own PR War (On Nuclear War)
Jun 11, 2000
When he took off his sunglasses, you knew it was screen star Paul Newman. Those blue eyes always give him away. One day last week, I found myself staring into them from behind a video camera, as Newman recorded a message beginning with a recollection of "
Solomon: AD INDUSTRY: GIVING WOMEN SPECIAL TREATMENT
Jun 09, 2000
Last fall, when Jean Kilbourne's new book "Deadly Persuasion" was arriving on shelves, Publishers Weekly praised it as "a wake-up call about the damaging effects of advertising in our media-saturated culture." But six months later, the mass media's finger
Solomon: U.S. NEWS MEDIA: A SECURITY ZONE FOR ISRAEL
Jun 03, 2000
One phrase -- "security zone" -- sums up an entire era of media spin about Israel's 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon.
Solomon: OVERCOMING THE HAZARDS OF MEDIA
May 22, 2000
After the "Love Bug" virus struck millions of computer hard drives, many news outlets attributed the magnitude of the damage to overwhelming reliance on the same type of software. Suddenly, in the digital world, steep downsides of technical conformity wer
Schechter: Rescuing The Children: Elián, AIDS, South Africa and Media
May 16, 2000
I can just hear some Hollywood exec wondering if it has "series potential" while watching the dramatic showdown in the latest episode of the Elián González tug-of-war. On April 22 federal agents in a long overdue and overdrawn response "rescued" the six-year-old from a politically driven soap opera and family feud. He was reunited with his father, a reunion that enjoyed support from the majority of people living outside the Castro-hating hothouse of Miami's Little Havana.
Schechter: Rescuing The Children: Eli‡n, AIDS, South Africa and Media
May 16, 2000
I can just hear some Hollywood exec wondering if it has "series potential" while watching the dramatic showdown in the latest episode of the Eli‡n Gonz‡lez tug-of-war. On April 22 federal agents in a long overdue and overdrawn response "rescued" the six-y
Solomon: THE POWER AND LIMITS OF PHOTOJOURNALISM
May 04, 2000
Despite all the emphasis on new media, photography has never lost the power to move us. Some recent photo essays in major American magazines, focusing on the poor and dispossessed, are efforts to break through abstraction and indifference. They tell us a
Shah: Social Alienation and the School of Fish Theory of Social Change
Apr 30, 2000
Did you miss me? YouÕve been busy, with world-shaking, front-page social change happenings. In my sleep-deprived fog even I noticed that things were getting exciting, and I missed you. My six-month leave from work to look after my 2 kids, aged 3 and 10 we
Schechter: The News Dissector In Berlin: Media Mergers And Personal Memories
Apr 29, 2000
In my travels to the "Old World," I often discover how "old" some of my own ideas are. In Berlin last week to speak at a media conference, I learned about Tobias Peucer who, as a student at the University of Leipzig, wrote what may have been the world's f
Solomon: FROM THE NEWS MEDIA TO ELIAN, WITH LOVE
Apr 15, 2000
Oh Elian, we love you! We're the News Media. And you're incredibly special. Many politicians, legal experts, psychologists, celebrities and pundits have wanted the world to know that they fervently desire what's best for you. We've been glad to put you on
Solomon: SELF-CENSORSHIP IS SHADOWING THE NEW MEDIA ERA
Apr 04, 2000
Months have passed since America Online and Time Warner announced plans to merge. Big news at the time, the formation of the world's largest media firm is already old hat. And so it goes: Like the rest of us, journalists quickly get used to the latest con
Sep 06, 2000
Don't say independent media analysts can't get on the air. On Wednesday might, hours before Joe Lieberman would speak to the Democratic Convention, Seth Ackerman was invited to have his say. Seth, who works with Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR),