In comment #2, Greg Hume, Nick Kertz, Don Chaney, Silbi Stainton, Roberta McGowan, Mark Thomas, Barry Crook, Lanette Smith, Teri Hamilton, Jeff Wertz and a cast of thousands respond to the Con Man's blog on "Glenn Beck's Miracle Cure." The results, as you might expect, are not exactly black and white. "Michael," comments Nick Kertz in this Facebook thread, "it's sad that 47 years after Dr. King's speech, you are still judging people by the color of their skin rather than the content of their character as you have above in your comments above. Just because people disagree with you does not make it OK to draw conclusions based on race. I think Dr. King would agree with me there...."
In comment #1, Post blogger Teledog One points to the awkward situation facing News Corp., all because its second largest shareholder funds "radical madrassas all over the world."
Aspen president and CEO Walter Isaacson is being interviewed about media new and old Sunday night at the Thunder River Theatre by "Con Games" host Michael Conniff. "How can we possibly get out of this disasterous state of media, Mr. Isaacson?" asks Silbi Stainton in this Facebook thread. "Can corporate-owned media produce real news? Can govt.- subsidized media? Can philanthropists save it or will they have an angle they insist is inserted? I us...ed to mock BBC for being owned by govt. but how anyone can really watch/read any major news outlet in the U.S. owned by profit-driven people who are in a race to the bottom of the barrel to appeal to fear in humans is beyond me. Is there any hope to real news ever being reported by a major American journal?"
Posts filed under 'Media'
How can we possibly get out of this disasterous state of media, Mr. Isaacson? Can corporate-owned media produce real news? Can govt.- subsidized media? Can philanthropists save it or will they have an angle they insist is inserted? I us...ed to mock BBC for being owned by govt. but how anyone can really watch/read any major news outlet in the U.S. owned by profit-driven people who are in a race to the bottom of the barrel to appeal to fear in humans is beyond me. Is there any hope to real news ever being reported by a major American journal? Interview sounds interesting, Michael.
Continue Reading August 8th, 2010
The Roaring Fork Cultural Council (RFCC) is bringing Aspen Institute President & CEO Walter Isaacson to the Thunder River Theatre in Carbondale to address questions about the future of journalism and the media:
Aspen Institute CEO Walter Isaccson interviewed by Michael Conniff
Sunday, August 8, 2010 at 7:30pm
Thunder River Theatre, Carbondale, Colorado
Continue Reading August 3rd, 2010
The anchors on Fox News—both male and blonde—are quite happy to bloviate non-stop when they beat the “left-wing” competition in the ratings hands-down.
Now we know how they do it: by all but eliminating blacks from its viewing audience, Fox has been able to deliver a white demographic not seen on television since the last NASCAR race. Advertisers haven’t been this happy since “Mad Men” did an Emmy double-dip.
In case you missed the latest breaking bulletin from the culture wars—ka-ching!—Fox attributes its success to blacks who constitute just 2 percent of its viewing audience not counting Shirley Sherrod, their latest African-American scalp—but including Michael Steele, the foot-in-mouth chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC).
Continue Reading July 30th, 2010
I’ve seen some lousy reporting at the Aspen Daily News—including the one this year about a drunken editor trying to bribe a cop—but some of the worst ever can be found in Brent Gardner-Smith’s coverage of the resignation of Hugh Zuker, a candidate for Pitkin County Sheriff.
Continue Reading July 20th, 2010
My good friend, Terry Anderson (the self described "Prisoner of South Central Los Angeles), has passed away. Terry was interviewed and provided comment on illegal immigration on Con Games on three occassions. See Roy Beck's (www.numbersusa.com) comments on Terry: http://www.numbersusa.com/content/nusablog/beckr/july-8-2010/death-terry-anderson-radio-host-champion-black-americans-against-unfair-i
In spite Terry's seeming bombasity, he was a lovely and gentle guy.
I miss him greatly.
Mike McGarry
July 8th, 2010
President Barack Obama may be President of the United States of America but he looks for all the world like the stereotype we have of aliens from movies. Most of them are long and wiry with outsized heads and beautiful skin. They have longs arms and long legs and long fingers and a thin torso.
Aliens, like Obama, are invariably tall, remote, distant, and very smart. Like the President, they seem to spend an ungodly amount of time thinking things through. How weird is that?
The President of the United States of America, according to Dorothy Rabinovitz of the Wall Street Journal in a piece about terrorism, is “The Alien” because of his “ideological core.”
Now Rabinovitz is one of my top-five journalists of all time, so what follows does not emanate from anything but admiration for her. She is thoughtful, precise, peace-loving, thought-provoking—and dead wrong because she mis-reads “ideological core” as the root cause of Obamanation’s Alienation.
Continue Reading June 13th, 2010
Nobody flinched to hear Rush Limbaugh was decamping down the aisle for the fourth time. Nor would anyone but an alien be surprised to hear America’s favorite talk show host might one day embark on the marital quinella.
He’s rich and she’s a babe descended from John Adams, star of the HBO mini-series—end of story.
Not so fast, Kemosabe. In the cocksure, cockamamie world of the Conservative Bowel Movement, the fourth time El Rushbo swore his fealty to his latest newly beloved the ceremony arrived with a peppermint twist. Rather than a siren song from the Evangelicals fooled into thinking he was one of their own, America’s favorite talkmeister turned to the tune of $1 million to piano man Elton John, last seen in the pages of Architectural Digest showing off his Los Angeles pied a clouds with his longtime and very male partner.
Continue Reading June 12th, 2010
My Kindle died a toddler. May he/she/it rest in peace.
Continue Reading June 5th, 2010
The virtual world can get a little too real some days, and one of those days came last week when a couple I know—one-half of the couple to be precise—declared their marriage to be over.
In public. On Facebook. For all the world to see.
I saw the husband just yesterday—my sympathies are with him—he looked for all the world like someone had just thwacked him with a two-by-four upside his face, a public humiliation so swift there was no time to respond. Suddenly, everyone in the world knew the worst had happened—because of her—and there was not a damn thing he could do about it ever.
He had been Facebooked.
Continue Reading May 11th, 2010
Yes, it’s true: my “Con Games with Michael Conniff” show is no longer on KNFO FM and that saddens me greatly. But it also true that the program will continue and will remain widely available, with links to Huffington Post, Aspen Post, Aspen Public Radio, FaceBook, Aspen’s GrassRoots TV, and other sites. We will also begin streaming audio and video of the program and make it available on national sites as well, not to mention putting together an iPhone/Pad app for the show. Finally, we are talking to local radio and television stations about further distribution. That could also be in the cards.
KNFO, of course, said not a word about my departure Thursday morning other than the news that there will be “exciting new changes” at KNFO. What’s the biggest change? A fourth hour of the interminable “Imus in the Morning” program where I used to be from 8-9 AM, an hour now miraculously devoid of original content—a compendium of laborious Imus interviews already heard moments before on the program.
Continue Reading April 9th, 2010
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