Palin talking to the press? Why would you think that?
September 5, 2008
Lest there be any doubt about Palin’s complete inadequacy to be Vice President of the United States, TIME’s correspondent found out that Palin won’t be dealing with the press. Check out this piece I pulled from Jay,
According to Nicole Wallace of the McCain campaign, the American people don’t care whether Sarah Palin can answer specific questions about foreign and domestic policy. According to Wallace — in an appearance I did with her this morning on Joe Scarborough’s show — the American people will learn all they need to know (and all they deserve to know) from Palin’s scripted speeches and choreographed appearances on the campaign trail and in campaign ads.
Wallace’s bash-the-media exercise has its merits as a campaign tactic. It certainly rallies the base. But the base won’t lift McCain to 50% in November. More importantly, in her smug dismissal of the media’s role in asking questions of the candidates, Wallace was really showing contempt not for reporters, but for voters. I bet there are a lot of undecided voters out there who were intrigued by Sarah Palin last night, but who don’t yet know enough about her — what she believes, what she knows — to be comfortable with the idea of her as vice president of the United States. It’s important to them to know if Palin can handle herself in an environment that isn’t controlled and sanitized by campaign image makers and message mavens. Maybe she can, maybe she can’t. As far as Wallace is concerned, it’s none of their — or your — business.
God help us,
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
A guide to watching the DNC Convention
August 26, 2008
Just when I think that MSM can’t get worse, I am disgusted at the gross coverage of the DNC National Convention. You are truly missing out on some great speeches because you would think that no one is on stage save for the keynote speakers. Right now, my main man Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer is talking and he is one of the most dynamic politicians I have come across but you wouldn’t know that by watching CNN or MSNBC. For anyone interested in actually watching the convention and not talking heads, watch C-SPAN or listen to NPR instead of supporting MSM.
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
Over 600,000 Petitioners Call for an End Fox News Racism
July 24, 2008
The SuperSpade’s partnership with Color of Change, Brave New Films, MoveOn.org, and Nas to outline just how racist Fox News climaxed yesterday.
600,000+ signed petitions were delivered to Fox HQ by Color of Change and Nas. The rapper also spoke to the crowd about why they were there and what they wished to accomplish.
Art & Activism
Artists are important to movements.Their creativity gives movements vibrancy. Their notoriety gives movements visibility. Their passion makes movements inspiring.
Here’s a video of the event:
Nas was also on The Colbert Report talking about this action:
Why this is important
The myth of the post-racial society is becoming more and more pervasive. The problem is that it is itself based on a conservative, racist mode of thinking about race in America that equates progress with individuals. Using this as a measuring stick, makes it possible for the Fox News’ of the world to attack individuals and Black folks collectively.
If instead we saw that progress can only be meaningfully defined as collective improvement, we would focus on solving the root causes that lead to individuals making the choices that look stereotypical. Who knows, maybe CNN will go at it like that? I doubt it.
One Love. One II.
McCain feels disrespected by NYT - Black on Black Thought
July 23, 2008
This is part of the bi-weekly Black on Black Thought feature
What’s up fam, this week James Dickson ripped into The New York Times (NYT) for their not publishing an article on the conflict in Iraq penned by Senator John McCain. For context, McCain’s piece was a defense of his supporting the conflict in Iraq and it was a response to an article written by Senator Barack Obama that was published the week before.
James said,
Rather than the nation ignoring McCain’s piece, as it almost certainly would have, the NYT has made it the first must-read political tract of 2008. Rather than bypass the piece when it would’ve run in the NYT, I instead read the piece — which, admittedly, was the typical “BUT THE DEMOCRATS ARE WORSE!!!1″ Republican attack line — on CNN.com, a site that, if it has lower circulation than NYT, isn’t by much.
I actually disagree that McCain’s piece is now a must-read political tract. This type of analogy is is akin to people buying NWA’s music solely because it was banned. And not for nothing, Obama is a really good writer and it is painfully obvious that he wrote his article while it appears that McCain’s article was written by the Communications staff and quite frankly, it read like it went through the campaign filter about ten times before they sent it to the NYT.
James himself admitted that McCain’s piece was lackluster which begs the question, why does the NYT editors have to publish bad journalism? Regardless, James went on to point out that decisions like the one made by NYT serve to highlight the growing prominence of the blogosphere and the decline of mainstream media. I think this claim is a bit overblown because the vast majority of political blogs react to articles in the mainstream media via commentary/analysis. (like we are doing right now)
The larger issue is that McCain is losing in the marketplace of ideas and by that I mean that his ability to paint an inspiring vision of a better America is similar to the article he submitted to the NYT; lackluster. And while the notion of fair and balanced news analysis is seductive, it is fleeting, which is why you can get more in-depth analysis by reading Black on Black Thought.
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
Barack Obama rejects Fox News on his Middle East trip
July 23, 2008
There is one good thing that I do see about Barack Obama’s trip overseas. It turns out that his campaign actively refused to include Fox News as a part of his media entourage.
Why this matters
This is important because how candidates and Presidents deal with the media is indicative of how they will deal with the people at large. By Obama rejecting Fox News, he is rejecting their practices as an organization,which is a win for tolerance and open-mindedness. I fervently applaud such actions, and you should too.
On Obama’s Trip
I haven’t said anything about Barack Obama’s current trip to Europe and the Middle East for a few reasons:
- Everyone else is talking about it, so there’s not a lot of new news to share
- It is reactive action. Obama has been very good about taking ownership of issues, national defense in particular, away from the Republicans. For a generation, it has been true that if the debate was about national security, then Republicans & conservatives automatically won. Obama has done quite a bit to change that, but this trip was a step backward because the action was based on the acceptance of John McCain’s completely idiotic premise for critiquing Obama’s war policy. The premise is that Obama is “naive” and that he “doesn’t really know what’s going on”, both of which are wrong. The critique was that he needed to “see things for himself”. By taking the trip, he accepted these. Instead, I would have liked for him to define a different narrative that shows how strong he is and has been in terms of the correctness of his judgement, one that exudes pride in America taking the position as the worlds wisest diplomat with Obama as President. I digress…
I want Progressives and Democrats to stop accepting Republican/Conservative frames of issues. This is the reason that we are always on the defensive. It’s time to go on offense.
One Love. One II.
Race Talk in America
July 9, 2008
This is part of the bi-weekly Black on Black Thought feature.
What’s up fam,
I am happy to kick off Black on Black Thought. This week, James wrote about CNN’s Black in America special (that will highlight life in Black America in all its complexity) and considers whether or not this series will over saturate America with “race talk” and its possible impact on the 2008 election. James basic conclusion is that we are reaching a saturation point in our “race-talk.” I think we are far from the point of saturation.
NCMR Panel: Where we’ll take it
June 12, 2008
Free Press has put up the audio of my panel from the National Conference for Media Reform. It’s 1 hour and 15 minutes long.
Enjoy.
One Love. One II.
National Conference for Media Reform 2008 Wrap-up
June 9, 2008
I’m not back in Seattle after attending the Free Press National Conference for Media Reform in Minneapolis, MN this past weekend.
There were lots of interesting panels and compelling speakers, my favorite of which being:
- How Independent Media Creates Change, which featured my friend and Brave New Films founder, Robert Greenwald.
- Power in Your Pocket: Cell Phones and Social Change, which I loved because it talked about how cell phone technology can be used as an organizing tool.
- News for the People: Can Black Radio provide the News we need? because it featured my friend and mentor Bruce Dixon‘ along with the brilliant Dr. Jared Ball.
But the most valuable part of the conference was the opportunity to meet so many great people in the hallways, at the parties, and around the city. I met folks I’d only worked with online, and others for the first time. These people I met and interacted with for the first time in person included:
- Friend and fellow Black blogger Baratunde
- Black blogging pioneer Chris Rabb of Afro-Netizen
- Veteran activist and writer Bruce Dixon
- Feminist blogger Samhita Mukopadhyay of Feministing
- Freelance journalist Kristal Brent Zook
- Award-winning journalist George Curry
- Popular liberal blogger Atrios
- Many, many more…
I also was on a panel Sunday morning called Where We’ll Take It: Young Leaders on the Future of Media. I was on the panel with Jenny Lee from Detroit Summer and 2 other young activists (I was actually the oldest member of the panel). It was a very passionate discussion, and one that was extremely well received by the large audience that attended. I spoke mainly on the importance of localization and new media focusing more on local news and stories, as well as the rise of Black activism online. As soon as Free Press sends me the audio and the video, I’ll put it up on the site. (UPDATE: The audio is here.)
I enjoyed myself, I enjoyed my panel, and I enjoyed interacting with all of the great people I met. This conference has great energy, even better than last year’s. Though it still has a long way to go as far as having more people of color in attendance, they better on that than they did last year as well. All in all, this was a definite step in the right direction.
Throughout the coming year, I’ll be doing more media reform work with Free Press, and I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.
One Love. One II.
Michael ‘crab bucket’ Baisden attacks of Color of Change
November 12, 2007
Popular talk radio host Michael Baisden should be commended for his efforts raising attention to the
Barack Obama: The FCC should care about minorities
October 22, 2007
Cross-posted at the Brave New Films Blog.
Minority owned and operated newspapers and radio stations play a critical role in the African American and Latino communities and bring minority issues to the forefront of our national discussion.
I am glad to see Obama be explicit here about the impact of media consolidation on minority communities. It is clear that the interests of minorities are not a particularly high priority in this administration, I hope that everyone's interests matter to the next President.
One Love. One II.
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