Did you catch that radio program carried by Aisling Broadcasting here in Boone that dared to question the recent bizarre statements issued by Dr. James Dobson (pictured at right, of course)? You didn't?Three in one day has got to be some sort of record, even for these enlightened cultural leaders-- and for the other fine folks (Aisling Broadcasting) who bring this tripe to us each day.On his radio show, James Dobson falsely suggested that Sen. Barack Obama claimed Dobson "wants to expel people who are not Christians" from the United States. Dobson was referring to a 2006 speech in which Obama actually asked: "And even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools? Would it be James Dobson's, or Al Sharpton's?"
Rush Limbaugh asserted, "Hamas has endorsed Obama. ... Why do you think they've endorsed Obama? Because they want a very strong ally for Israel in the White House?" In fact, Obama stated his support for Israel in a speech June 4 speech in which he said: "Those who threaten Israel threaten us. ... And I will bring to the White House an unshakeable commitment to Israel's security." Hamas reportedly responded to Obama's remarks by saying, "Hamas does not differentiate between the two presidential candidates, Obama and McCain, because their policies regarding the Arab-Israel conflict are the same and are hostile to us, therefore we do have no preference and are not wishing for either of them to win."
After being asked by a caller: "I want to know how the Republicans don't need Christians and conservatives, and they think we're 30 percent. Twelve percent black people in the population. Ten percent -- they claim -- homosexuals in the population. Rush, honey, when did 30 percent get to be a small number?" Rush Limbaugh responded, "Let me see if I can get your question right. You want to know why the Republicans are willing to say, 'Screw you,' to 30 percent or more of their voters and yet Democrats will bend over, grab the ankles, and say, 'Have your way with me,' for 10 percent and 2 percent of the population?"
Q: What prompted you to weigh in on media ownership and diversity at an FCC field hearing in Chicago (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6480419.html) last year?
A: I strongly favor diversity of ownership of outlets and protection against the excessive concentration of power in the hands of any one corporation, interest or small group. I strongly believe that all citizens should be able to receive information from the broadest range of sources. I feel that media consolidation during the Bush administration has had the effect of eliminating a lot of the diversity of information sources available to persons who have to rely on more traditional information sources, such as radio and television broadcasts and newspapers.
Q: What ill effects has the country suffered from media consolidation, if any?
A: This country’s media ownership rules that both chairman [Michael] Powell and chairman Martin have wanted to dismantle protect us from excessive media concentration. However, even under current rules, the media market is dominated by a handful of firms. The ill effects of consolidation today and continued consolidation are well-documented -- less diversity of opinion, less local news coverage, replication of the same stories across multiple outlets, and others. We can do better.
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Q: You co-sponsored the Dorgan bill to block the FCC’s media-ownership change, which Martin has argued was a moderate compromise that took into account the input of opponents to consolidation. Why block it?
A: Chairmen Martin and Powell both argued that their previous effort to deregulate the media market was moderate, as well. Both the courts and a majority of the Senate disagreed the first time. And a few weeks back, the Senate disagreed with chairman Martin again. While he argues that the rule is no longer in the public interest, the public response has heavily weighed in against him. And common sense tells us that the consolidation of outlets in local markets will lead to fewer opportunities for diverse expression of opinions.
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Q: How would communications policy be different under your administration compared to the current president?
A: I think communications policy must be more focused on the public interest, more inclusive of nonindustry voices and analysis, and maximize opportunities for the expression of a diversity of views. These issues go beyond simple economics to involve a set of core principles of an informed and empowered citizenry that need to be recognized in government’s approach to this important segment of our society.
Goodness, gracious. But what about radical cleric James Dobson, heard locally on WATA 1450 AM--seemingly all day long.
Two years ago, 55 percent of evangelicals younger than 30 called themselves Republicans. Now, just 40 percent do, according to a recent Pew survey. The study found that they are more likely than their parents to champion environmental causes, less concerned about gay marriage and more interested in improving health care and combating poverty. According to the Pew study, more than 60 percent of evangelicals younger than 30 say it is worth the cost to do more about environmental pollution and climate change. Only 52 percent of older evangelicals think so. ... Perhaps the cleric knows that he is watching his own passing into irrelevancy. Again, pity.
"[W]hy is it that the people who are being affected by the floods in Iowa and the upper Midwest, why is it that they seem to be so much more capable of taking care of themselves and handling this disaster than were the people of Katrina in New Orleans?" Boortz continued, "I think the answer's pretty clear, is that up there in that part of the country, you find a great deal of self-sufficiency. Down there in New Orleans, it was basically a parasite class totally dependent on government for their existence."
The wall to wall coverage of Russert's passing reminds us of Chevy Chase's classic parody of the corporate media's coverage of Generalissimo Francisco Franco's death back in 1975:Disaster in Iowa:
Iowa under curfew because of flooding disaster
State officials in emergency underground bunker
24,000 homeless due to flooding
It looks like Katrina
Bush MIA, againTaliban Prison Break:
Kandahar locked down after 870 prisoners escape (you remember the Taliban don't you?)
NATO declares Taliban jail-break a tactical successKosovo Independence:
Constitutional democracy begins?
Russia says not-so-fastAmerican dead and the "War on Terror":
US military deaths as of Saturday, 4, 098
UK "ghost" forgets intel documents on Al-Qaeda, found on train
Al Qaeda branch claims recent attacks on Algeria (Bush is really winning the war of terra)
...Larisa's article here. Wikipedia here.
On slow news days, United States network television newscasters sometimes noted that Franco was still alive, or not yet dead. The imminent death of Franco was a headline story on the NBC news for a number of weeks prior to his death on November 20.
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From that point on, Chase made it clear that SNL would get the last laugh at Franco's expense. "This breaking news just in", Chase would announce - "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead!"[3] The top story of the news segment for several weeks running was that Generalissimo Francisco Franco was still dead. Occasionally, Chase would change the wording slightly in order to keep the joke fresh, e.g. "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still valiantly holding on in his fight to remain dead."[4]
Award-winning journalist Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is touring the United States with her latest film, “The Lost Generation," a documentary on Iraq’s refugee children produced for Great Britain’s prestigious TV station Channel 4. So far, Obaid-Chinoy has been unable to find a U.S. station to televise the documentary. “A few of them have expressed reservations about showing this,” she says.Full article here. Sharmeen's site here.
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The first non-American journalist to win a Livingston Award, the Pakistani filmmaker has a relentless eye for reality—perhaps too relentless for a media looking for stories molded to a commercial frame. She traveled throughout Jordan and Syria to find the war’s youngest victims. Her subjects, often mutilated in body and soul, exhibit a calm lethargy one usually sees in those well advanced in years.
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Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy describes the situation in Iraq as “one of the greatest humanitarian tragedies in the Middle East since 1948.” Her film would help mobilize the support so desperately needed—if only the world could watch it on TV.
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People feel differently? You mean Rush totally made up all that stuff about Ms. Obama? Huh.
FREE SPEECH RADIO NEWS IN CRISIS
Funding Cuts Bring Popular Grassroots Newscast to the Brink
BERKELEY, California - June 6, 2008 - One of the most important alternative news outlets in the country is facing closure after its major supporter substantially reduced funding.
Free Speech Radio News, which broadcasts a half-hour, worker-run daily newscast on more than 100 stations nationwide, has long been a beacon in the global media justice movement. By regularly highlighting the voices of marginalized communities most affected by social and economic policy changes, the newscast challenges old models of media access and media control. Thanks to the more than 150 reporters worldwide who live and work in the communities they report from, FSRN has re-shaped the way critical issues are represented in the news. Headlines editor Shannon Young says that FSRN is an unmatched model. "Our international network of community-based reporters is unique for a US-based news outlet."
FSRN has been given notice by the financially-strapped Pacifica Foundation that it will be cutting its funding by more than $13,500 a month – effective immediately. The reduction represents about a 25% cut in income for the grassroots news collective. Since FSRN is barred from on-air fundraising, it must seek to offset the cut with income from affiliates, foundations and individuals.
A massive cut in funding from Pacifica on a moment's notice will make it impossible for Free Speech Radio News to produce a daily half-hour newscast.
YOU CAN HELP KEEP FSRN ON THE AIR: DONATE NOW!
Andalusia Knoll, Administrative Coordinator, Free Speech Radio News
Millsaps and Groothuis found that skiers spent $67.7 million combined on skiing, lodging, meals and on other expenses last season. By using an economic tool known as a multiplier, they estimate that the industry had a total economic impact of almost $120 million as skier dollars were spent and re-spent throughout the local economy on wages and purchases made by workers or ski area operators.
Millsaps said that the ski industry also brings lodgers to area hotels and motels during what otherwise is the lowest time of their season. "Hotel occupancy rates during ski season hovered around 40 percent," he said. "If the ski industry wasn’t there, the restaurants, lodges and shopping centers would be adversely impacted during these months," he said.
A total of 544,219 skiers visited N.C. slopes in 2002-03. They spent an average of $124 a day on skiing, lodging, meals and other expenses. Spending at area resorts alone totaled $23.5 million, compared with $5.7 million spent in the 1976-77 season when 338,000 skiers visited the slopes.
Skiers spent $14.5 million on lodging, while restaurant spending was estimated at $7.3 million. They spent $6.2 million on clothing and equipment outside the ski resort, and $3.6 million on food and beverages consumed away from the resort and not in restaurants. Retail shopping totaled an additional $3.4 million.
Big impact. We get that. But what would happen if that snowfall the ski industry here relies on suddenly got a little more finicky? Or slowed to a trickle due to global warming? What would that be like? Some folks are already finding out:
Alpine skiing and snowboarding may be under greater threat from climate change than scientists have previously thought, new research suggests.
A study of snowfall spanning 60 years has indicated that the Alps's entire winter sports industry could grind to a halt through lack of snow.
It found a dramatic "step-like" drop in snowfall at the end of the 1980s which has never recovered, New Scientist magazine reported. The average number of snow days over the last 20 winters is lower than at any time since records began more than 100 years ago.
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Has snowfall in the High Country also been declining? Have temperatures been on the rise here?
But, hey--no worries you might say. We'll just make artificial snow. That should take care of it--we do it all the time, right?
Artificial snow may help Alpine ski resorts to fight the effects of climate change, but it also creates environmental problems of its own. Is summer tourism the only thing that can save the struggling resorts?For amateur skier Ulrich Strasser, artificial snow is a good thing. "It's thicker and firmer, and therefore better for carving," he says.
But in his role as a scientist, he takes a very different view of the artificial white stuff. Covering entire slopes with manmade powder consumes an enormous amount of energy and water. And for Strasser, a geographer at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, that's a mountainous problem in a time of climate change.
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"Everything under 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) is hit first," says hydrologist Carmen de Jong of the University of Savoy in France. Then areas above 1,200 meters start getting problems, she explains. Winter sport resorts don't have many options for coping with climate change. "The entire infrastructure, for example the lifts, would have to be rebuilt higher up the mountain -- and that's extremely expensive," de Jong says.
At lower altitudes, the only hope is snow cannons, which in some areas run non-stop as soon as the temperature hits minus 3 degrees Celsius (27 degrees Fahrenheit). To avoid running out of snow, they pump out as much of the white stuff as possible. "Snow cannons have become more and more intelligent," says de Jong. For example, when it's cold enough but the wind is blowing too hard, the machines stay off -- perfect artificial-snow management.
But the effects of the massive artificial snow output are worrying scientists. "Artificial snow melts two to three weeks later (than normal snow)," says Christian Rixen of the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research. Adding to the worry is the fact that artificial snow melt contains more minerals and nutrients than regular melt water. One consequence of the different composition is an alteration of the natural ground covering, as plants with higher nutritional requirements suddenly begin to dominate.
The use of artificial snow also interferes with the millennia-old Alpine water table. Water for snow production has to be collected in manmade reservoirs over the course of the entire year. A considerable amount of that water evaporates over time or when the artificial snow is produced -- and is therefore lost. Moreover, manmade reservoirs created in the mountains change the underground water table, as their bottoms are watertight and do not allow water to seep back into the ground. Not only this, but because artificial snow takes longer to melt, the flow of water into the valleys is postponed.
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The question of whether to produce snow artificially or not is also an economic one. "It takes 15 to 20 years for snow cannons to pay for themselves," de Jong says. Researchers should therefore calculate the limits of artificial snow production, ideally for the entire Alpine region, she says. However, she admits she doesn't know what the results of those calculations would look like. "A cost-benefit analysis is difficult," she says, explaining that one reason is the uncertainty regarding exactly what the actual rise in temperatures in the coming decades will be.
One might also question the ability of water cannons to make snow if there is very little water around:
While no counties are now in the exceptional drought status that they suffered last year, Buncombe, Avery, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, Mitchell, Transylvania, Polk, Rutherford and Watauga counties remain in extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
So how 'bout it? Will the High Country be impacted? Or is there some sort of magical weather shield protecting our mountains? Maybe we can all put skis on our mountain bikes.
Links here, here, here and here.
NewsTalk 1200 WXIT is a favorite of upscale, educated, involved people. Listen live to Roten in the Morning, The Sports Page with Jeff Fancher, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Medved, and more.
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Rush Limbaugh asserted that the Democratic Party was "go[ing] with a veritable rookie whose only chance of winning is that he's black." As Media Matters for America noted, Limbaugh said on his May 21 broadcast that "Barack Obama is an affirmative action candidate" and asserted during his May 14 broadcast that "[i]f Barack Obama were Caucasian, they would have taken this guy out on the basis of pure ignorance long ago."
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[W]hile referencing a May 26 column written by John Lott Jr., Limbaugh stated, "John Lott Jr. has this theory. He's done some research and found out that the growth of government can be traced to when women got the vote." Limbaugh later asserted, "The one observation you can make about this whole business, because he proved it. I mean, it's -- the growth of government started like crazy when women got the right to vote. Which just proves: Size does matter to 'em."
