Prometheus 6

I almost hate to admit it, but I'll be watching this.

...though is has real potential to inspire some breakout stupidity.

In a commentary on "The Tom Joyner Morning Show," Tavis Smiley, host of "Tavis Smiley" on PBS, announced plans for a discussion in Chicago on March 20 entitled "We Count: The Black Agenda is the American Agenda." As part of his comments, he opined that “a chorus of black leaders have started singing a new song,” saying that the president doesn’t need a black agenda.
“I must have missed that choir rehearsal, because I don’t know the words to this new hymn,” Smiley said. “We have asked some of these lyricists to show up who apparently wrote this new song to explain why they penned these words. It’s time for a choir rehearsal so that we all are singing from the same page.”

What Mr. Smiley got for his trouble was a total bitch-slapping by Rev. Sharpton. You can tell because of Tom Joyner's follow-up blog post.

When the  family preacher, Rev. Al Sharpton, called in, he had to check Brother Tavis - in love. I know you couldn’t really hear the love, but it was there.

When I stopped laughing, Tom also wrote

You can try to keep the fire going if you want to. You can fan the flames by talking about what Tavis’ motives are or aren’t or whether Rev. Al  let his ego get the best of him. You can keep it going for as long as you want. But don’t let it distract you so much that you lose sight of what’s really important. The economy, the job market, the rising cost of health care, and the war have a bigger impact on us than it does any other group.

True dat. So I'm not going to say anything about either of the gentlemen EXCEPT that when Mr. Smiley decided to stand athwart the political intent of over 90% of the Black community, he lost the audience that gave him credibility as a spokesman rather than a media personality. However, I may know what got him worked up, which I will explain this evening.

The benefit for the part-time, but highly paid, pundits is clear: it increases their visibility....The benefit to the viewers is less clear.

Politicians as News Analysts Raise Questions on Their Goal
By BRIAN STELTER

Sarah Palin. Mike Huckabee. Newt Gingrich.

Today, that is a list of paid Fox News political analysts. Two years from now, it could be a list of Republican presidential candidates.

A former Fox analyst, Angela McGlowan, entered a House race in Mississippi last week. Over at MSNBC, Harold E. Ford Jr. was on the payroll until a few weeks ago, when he told his boss that he was seriously contemplating a run for the Senate from New York. TV names are also constantly being run through the candidate rumor mill. There is a “Draft Larry Kudlow” movement. There is also talk of a political bid by Lou Dobbs, who left CNN last fall.

EXCLUSIVE: Roland Emmerich Plans 'Foundation' As 3-D Motion-Capture Epic
Posted 2/11/10 2:00 pm ET by Eric Ditzian

Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" trilogy is a pillar of the science-fiction community, and director Roland Emmerich is planning to model his three-picture adaptation of the tome after the biggest movie in the history of cinema.

MTV News has exclusively learned from Emmerich himself that "Foundation" will be a 3-D epic using technology similar to the CG motion-capture techniques used in "Avatar."

"The 'Avatar' technology applies to 'Foundation,' " Emmerich said. "It has to be done all CG because I would not know how to shoot this thing in real."

When asked if that meant 'Foundation' would be in 3-D and mo-cap, Emmerich replied, "Yes."

If they screw this up, I will hunt down the person responsible and bite out his throat.

Sarah Palin magazine hits newsstands and convenience stores
By Garance Franke-Ruta

One of the things Sarah Palin has sought to do since stepping down from the governor's office in Alaska is seize control of her image. So it is perhaps a sign of how difficult a task that remains for the GOP's former vice presidential nominee that a new single-issue magazine has hit newsstands and convenience stores around the country. It claims to present "Sarah Palin: The Untold Story...in her own words!" -- and it was produced, according to its publisher, without her knowledge or participation.

Retailing for $8.99, the 100-page glossy magazine, titled "Sarah Palin: Faith, Family, Freedom," hit newsstands in mid-January and was jointly published by a fashion-publishing subsidiary of international marketing firm IMG and Imagine That Publishing. It will remain on sale through April 30.

"The system that conveys art has changed," says Kinshasha Holman Conwill, deputy director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. A globalized art world now provides a whole new set of international venues for black artists to make it big in, she explains. Compared with the situation today, there was barely a world stage for Catlett or Bearden to tread.

Yet more has changed than that. When Catlett and Bearden were admired in the larger art world, they were often being judged as makers of "black art" -- a category apart, like ceramics or stained glass. Now, race is no longer "a premise for judging or dismissing," Conwill says. Instead, it is "part of the package" that lets black artists take their place among artists of all colors. Ligon and company aren't making it big despite their skin color, or in a separate field that's all and only about being black. They are using race as a potent force that moves them from the sidelines to the thick of things.

Race issue a two-edged sword for black contemporary artists
By Blake Gopnik
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 24, 2010; E01

They are called "knowledge cards" -- a glossy picture on the front of each, some factoids to explain it on the back -- and museums sell them in packs of 48, on all kinds of basic subjects: nature, the American presidency, the great buildings of Washington. The shop at the Smithsonian American Art Museum has added a new basic subject to the roster: It now sells a pack that features great works by black artists. The classic names are there: Henry Ossawa Tanner, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett. There are also a few more recent figures: Sam Gilliam and Alma Thomas, both abstractionists from Washington, as well as the New York expressionist Frederick Brown. The cards "celebrate the loves and passions of a people," according to their packaging, and tacitly assert that art by African Americans has become a new field of cue-card-worthy knowledge.

The pack may need to grow. So far, it leaves out an entire younger generation of black artists that may be the most important yet: Glenn Ligon, Kara Walker, Stan Douglas, Steve McQueen, Isaac Julian, Yinka Shonibare and Lorna Simpson are just a few of the figures who have become major players in contemporary art over the past decade or two. These artists make regular appearances in the world's most important museums, and at such career-making events as the Venice Biennale and the twice-a-decade Documenta survey in Germany, showing complex art that often mirrors the complexities of race. What still needs sorting out is whether the kind of art they make will ever be the kind that people want to buy a pack of cards about. Can huge success in the world of contemporary art lead to Bearden-style recognition in the world outside it?

"We've moved from the margin to the center," says Leslie King-Hammond, founding director of the new Center for Race and Culture at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. Last fall, her center sponsored an entire conference on the "Transformations" these new artists represent. King-Hammond compares their arrival on the scene to a transporter moment from "Star Trek." "You say to yourself, 'How did that happen?' They are certainly making a critical impact."

High court shows it might be willing to act boldly
By Robert Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 22, 2010; A04

The Roberts court ended its term last summer avoiding a constitutional showdown with Congress over the Voting Rights Act. But its first major decision of the current term might signal a new willingness to act boldly.

And is "boldly" a code word for "like a right wing extremist"?

Get your plagiarism in while you still can!

The Times to Charge for Frequent Access to Its Web Site
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA

The New York Times announced Wednesday that it intended to charge frequent readers for access to its Web site, a step being debated across the industry that nearly every major newspaper has so far feared to take.

Starting in early 2011, visitors to NYTimes.com will get a certain number of articles free every month before being asked to pay a flat fee for unlimited access. Subscribers to the newspaper’s print edition will receive full access to the site without extra charge.

But executives of The New York Times Company said they could not yet answer fundamental questions about the plan, like how much it would cost or what the limit would be on free reading. They stressed that the amount of free access could change with time, in response to economic conditions and reader demand.

My attitude toward deep discussions of Avatar is well expressed by Rebecca Keegan:

Ms. Keegan said that it was possible to read “The Terminator,” his breakthrough 1984 movie, as an anti-technology polemic, an anti-war film or a modern gloss on the birth of Jesus.

“Or,” she said, “ you could just watch it as a movie where Arnold Schwarzenegger stomps around like a robot.”

Guess which way I watched The Terminator?

What makes the decision so agonizing for Sulzberger is that it involves not just business considerations, but ultimately a self-assessment of just what Times journalism is worth to the world. This fall, Keller told the Observer that at some point, the decision is a “gut call about what we think the audience will accept.”

New York Times Ready to Charge Online Readers

New York Times Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. appears close to announcing that the paper will begin charging for access to its website, according to people familiar with internal deliberations. After a year of sometimes fraught debate inside the paper, the choice for some time has been between a Wall Street Journal-type pay wall and the metered system adopted by the Financial Times, in which readers can sample a certain number of free articles before being asked to subscribe. The Times seems to have settled on the metered system.

One personal friend of Sulzberger said a final decision could come within days, and a senior newsroom source agreed, adding that the plan could be announced in a matter of weeks. (Apple's tablet computer is rumored to launch on January 27, and sources speculate that Sulzberger will strike a content partnership for the new device, which could dovetail with the paid strategy.) It will likely be months before the Times actually begins to charge for content, perhaps sometime this spring. Executive Editor Bill Keller declined to comment. Times spokesperson Diane McNulty said: "We'll announce a decision when we believe that we have crafted the best possible business approach. No details till then."

The Times has considered three types of pay strategies. One option was a more traditional pay wall along the lines of The Wall Street Journal, in which some parts of the site are free and some subscription-only. For example, editors and business-side executives discussed a premium version of Andrew Ross Sorkin's DealBook section. Another option was the metered system. The third choice, an NPR-style membership model, was abandoned last fall, two sources explained. The thinking was that it would be too expensive and cumbersome to maintain because subscribers would have to receive privileges (think WNYC tote bags and travel mugs, access to Times events and seminars).

From the "God DAMN, I wish I had said that!" department.

David Ikard at Nation of Cowards

Quiet as its kept, there is a razor thin line between subverting the status quo and reinforcing it. Spike Lee captures this reality quite well in his controversial film, "Bamboozled," as does Aaron McGrudger in his wickedly acid parody of Martin Luther King's legacy in his "Boondocks" cartoon series. Gettin' paid at the direct expense of upholding the status quo, reinforcing racial stereotypes, or, worse, exploiting black communities, is not sexy or glamorous. To the contrary, it renders blacks complicit in destroying their communities.

So, alas, the time has come for us to start "hatin'" on the playa as well as on the game. Though we may ultimately be powerless to change the racial calculus that informs the dynamics that Williams outlines above, most of us can choose the terms upon which we participate in this racial theater. One thing's for sure, we can't cash the check of racial accommodation and expect for our racial realities to change. If you believe otherwise, I have a flashy purple zoot suit and a outsized necklace clock I can sell you cheap.

For the record, that's Mark Anthony Neal's blogroll.

We raised the issue of the darker side of the coverage of the earthquake in Haiti...I really should have jacked David Brooks again for his terminal provincialism...

Third, it is time to put the thorny issue of culture at the center of efforts to tackle global poverty. Why is Haiti so poor? Well, it has a history of oppression, slavery and colonialism. But so does Barbados, and Barbados is doing pretty well. Haiti has endured ruthless dictators, corruption and foreign invasions. But so has the Dominican Republic, and the D.R. is in much better shape. Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the same island and the same basic environment, yet the border between the two societies offers one of the starkest contrasts on earth — with trees and progress on one side, and deforestation and poverty and early death on the other.

As Lawrence E. Harrison explained in his book “The Central Liberal Truth,” Haiti, like most of the world’s poorest nations, suffers from a complex web of progress-resistant cultural influences. There is the influence of the voodoo religion, which spreads the message that life is capricious and planning futile. There are high levels of social mistrust. Responsibility is often not internalized. Child-rearing practices often involve neglect in the early years and harsh retribution when kids hit 9 or 10.

We’re all supposed to politely respect each other’s cultures. But some cultures are more progress-resistant than others, and a horrible tragedy was just exacerbated by one of them.

...but I actually have to do the stuff I get paid to do, totally apart from my blogging here. I planned to do a kind of round-up this weekend.

No point in doing that now. Though I like my explanations really concise, I must bow before the completeness of this review, as well as the manifestation of intestinal fortitude that was necessary to assemble it.

What an ass.

Limbaugh generated criticism during his Wednesday afternoon radio broadcast by saying Obama would seek to score political points with African Americans by getting out in front of the relief effort.

"This will play right into Obama's hands -- humanitarian, compassionate," Limbaugh said. "They'll use this to burnish their, shall we say, credibility with the black community, in both the light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country. It's made to order for him."

The "light-skinned" and "dark-skinned" remarks were apparently alluding to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) reference before the 2008 campaign that Obama's light skin would make him palatable to more voters....

He added, "Besides, we've already donated to Haiti. It's called the U.S. income tax."

Actually, a commenter at Kurtz' column (I figure I'd name him since it's been half a decade since I linked him) said it best:

You could see this coming as clearly as Sarah could see Russia from her front porch.

Palin signs on with Fox News
By Howard Kurtz

Sarah Palin, who regularly rips the media, is becoming a television pundit at a place where she's likely to feel at home.

A Fox News executive says the network will shortly announce that the former vice-presidential nominee is signing on as a contributor.

Palin, who resigned as governor of Alaska last summer, will appear as a commentator on various Fox shows. She will also host an occasional program that will examine inspirational tales involving ordinary Americans.

Palin will join Mike Huckabee as a Fox contributor who was also involved in the 2008 campaign. The exposure can only help Palin if she decides to pursue a 2012 presidential bid.

Word via email is they are "out of the woods for now." I am not clear what that means because a debt like that doesn't just disappear. So if you're in San Francisco or Oakland and in the market for books by and/or about Black folks (and Black History Month is coming) check out Marcus Books.

Didn't they refuse to let him speak this summer? Or maybe he's talking about one of the corporate brands of teaparty.

Considering the way corporate interests spent their political media money last year, my reaction to this has a light dusting of despair, like powdered sugar on a jelly donut.

Courts Roll Back Limits on Spending in Election Law
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

WASHINGTON — Even before a landmark Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance law expected within days, a series of other court decisions is reshaping the political battlefield by freeing corporations, unions and other interest groups from many of the restrictions on their advertising about issues and candidates.

Legal experts and political operatives say the cases roll back campaign spending rules to the years before Watergate. The end of decades-old restrictions could unleash a torrent of negative advertisements, help cash-poor Republicans in a pivotal year and push President Obama to bring in more money for his party.

If the Supreme Court, as widely expected, rules against core elements of the existing limits, Democrats say they will try to enact new laws to reinstate the restrictions in time for the midterm elections in November. [P6: Pass a law to limit the money outside groups can spend on elections, when that is the Republicans' only hope? Are you on drugs? You think you saw obstruction on the health insurance bill?] And advocates of stricter campaign finance laws say they hope the developments will prod the president to fulfill a campaign promise to update the presidential campaign financing system, even though it would diminish his edge as incumbent.

Many legal experts say they expect the court to use its imminent ruling, in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, to eliminate the remaining restrictions on advertisements for or against candidates paid for by corporations, unions and advocacy organizations. (The case centers on whether spending restrictions apply to a conservative group’s documentary, “Hillary: The Movie.”)

Even if the court rules more narrowly, legal experts and political advocates say that the 2010 elections will bring the first large-scale application of previous court decisions that have all but stripped away those restrictions. Though the rulings have not challenged the bans on direct corporate contributions to parties and candidates, political operatives say that as a practical matter the rulings and a deadlock at the Federal Election Commission have already opened wide latitude for independent groups to advocate for and against candidates.

“It will be no holds barred when it comes to independent expenditures,” said Kenneth A. Gross, a veteran political law expert at the firm of Skadden Arps in Washington.

via email...

The Rise and Fall of Marcus Books

Marcus Books is in foreclosure, the victim of a sub-prime loan scam and ponzi scheme. An auction is scheduled to take place next week, unless lawyers delay matters. It is $900,000 in debt on their mortgage. Because of hubris, the family did not disclose their situation to the pubic or more specifically to the black community until the eleventh hour. Several options are being attempted as we write, including having their property in San Francisco declared a historical monument, since Marcus is no doubt the oldest black book store in America.

Paul Cobb, publisher of the Oakland Post, is leading the charge to save Marcus Books. No matter the cause, the primary objective is to save this historical black business that has meant so much to Bay Area black consciousness. Thanks to Marcus, the little light of blackness is still shining in the Bay. So we want to save Marcus at all costs, even if 100 black writers must post themselves in front of the property on auction day, even if we go to jail.

I want to save Marcus in spite of my personal relationship with the family which has been shakey from time to time, but Julian Richardson was my mentor, so I will fight to save it because of his contribution to black liberation in the Bay and throughout America, since writers, artists and activists from around the world came through Marcus Books, either in person or with their books, and shed light on a people who walked in darkness.

If you want to help, I suggest you call Paul Cobb at the Oakland Post Newspaper. 510-287-2800.

We cannot allow another legendary business to fail. Most recently, we saw the disappearance of Your Black Muslim Bakery, no matter the reason. So let's save Marcus, no matter the reason. [P6: let me say I understand this sentiment, but I really wish he hadn't invoked Your Black Muslim Bakery.]

The Obama Disconnect: What Happens When Myth Meets Reality
Micah L. Sifry | December 31, 2009 - 11:42am

But the question raised by Plouffe's book is, given the grassroots base he helped develop in support of Obama and how powerful it became by the fall of 2008 (raising $150 million in the month of September alone, including more than $10 million the night of Sarah Palin's acceptance speech), why he didn't do more to keep that muscular organization going into Obama's presidency? To put it another way, why did Plouffe discount his own grassroots strategy in favor of the dusty old playbook used by White House insiders for decades? Why wasn't more done to extend that sense of ownership meaningfully into the life of the Administration? If you could trust your volunteers to carry the campaign in all sorts of important ways, why not also give them a real say in how they could shake up Washington?

The hard-fought negotiations over Fox are part of a larger renewal of the News Corporation’s contracts with the cable operator. Cable channels like FX and the Speed Channel are also affected, although the News Corporation’s most popular cable channel, Fox News, is not.

And, of course, Fox News is their most dangerous, damaging property so they're not holding that one back.

Come on, Time Warner...use the legal monopoly you have and hammer those reality-warping &@#!&$(#s.

Time Warner and Fox Extend Talks Overnight
By BRIAN STELTER

A contract governing retransmission rights for Fox stations expired at midnight on Thursday, but the News Corporation and Time Warner Cable agreed to extend talks for several hours overnight and were still talking Friday morning.

The News Corporation is demanding higher subscriber fees for its Fox stations from Time Warner Cable.

On Thursday afternoon, the Federal Communications Commission urged the feuding companies to keep negotiating into the new year.

Early Friday, Scott Grogin, Fox senior vice president for communications, said that the two sides were still negotiating, according to The Associated Press. An executive briefed on the talks said the extension indicated that the companies were making progress, although hurdles remained. The extension also and seemed to indicate that the stations would continue to remain on the air while the talks continued in Los Angeles.

Earlier in the week, the News Corporation warned that its stations could disappear from the cable operator’s systems in New York, Los Angeles, Orlando, Fla., and other markets after the contract ended on Thursday.

If Fox disconnects the signals, subscribers in those markets would be left scrambling for other ways to watch the Sugar Bowl on Friday and the Cotton Bowl on Saturday, among other programs. Some households are likely to switch to over-the-air signals temporarily, assuming they have the necessary digital TV receiver.

Contact: Kim Thurler
kim.thurler@tufts.edu
617-627-3175
Tufts University

Nonverbal communication of race bias on TV influences viewers' own bias
Tufts study finds white characters on popular shows elicit more positive responses

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. -- Subtle patterns of nonverbal behavior that appear on popular television programs influence racial bias among viewers, according to research from Tufts University to appear in the December 18, 2009, issue of the journal Science.

"Today, racial bias is often revealed via more subtle means than outright racial slurs," said first author Max Weisbuch, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the psychology department at the School of Arts and Sciences at Tufts. "We wanted to know how frequently people were exposed to those subtle patterns of racial bias via TV and what influence such exposure might have. Sadly, we observed that nonverbal race bias is a typical pattern on scripted television shows. White characters are treated better across the board and this has an impact on viewers."

Black characters elicit especially negative nonverbal responses, such as facial expressions and body language, from other characters, and viewers exhibit more racial bias after exposure to such negative responses, according to the Science paper entitled "The Subtle Transmission of Race Bias via Televised Nonverbal Behavior."

Tiger's Troubles May Be Silver Lining For Sponsors
By REUTERS

Filed at 1:34 p.m. ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Nike Inc, Adidas AG and other companies may cut their spending on sports sponsorships after the unrelenting media coverage of pro golfer Tiger Woods' marital infidelity, a Credit Suisse analyst said on Wednesday.

Omar Saad said in a research note that Nike and other companies are being forced to rethink the effectiveness of the vast sums of money they spend on individual and team sponsorships. He entitled the note, "Tiger Woods Fallout: Another Nail in the Coffin of the Expensive Endorsement Era."

"We expect the Tiger media fallout to serve as a catalyst for them both to realize that they are systematically overpaying for athlete and team sponsorships, especially given the growing risks involved," Saad said of Nike and Adidas, which he said determine market prices.

Nike, which spends 5 percent to 7 percent of sales on sponsorships, could single-handedly drive down endorsement deal prices, he said. A period of endorsement deflation could translate to $1.00 per share of earnings upside over the next few years for Nike and benefit others in the industry including Under Armor Inc.

Under Murdoch, Tilting Rightward at The Journal
By DAVID CARR

Sunday was the second anniversary of the sale of The Wall Street Journal to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. At that time, a chorus of journalism church ladies (I was among them) warned that one of the crown jewels of American journalism now resided in the hands of a roughneck, and predicted that he would use it to his own ends.

Yet here we are, two years later, and The Wall Street Journal still hits my doorstep every morning as one of the nation’s premier newspapers.

But under Mr. Murdoch’s leadership, the newspaper is no longer anchored by those deep dives into the boardrooms of American business with quaint stippled portraits, opting instead for a much broader template of breaking general interest news articles with a particular interest in politics and big splashy photos. Glenn R. Simpson, who left the newspaper back in March, is not a fan of the newsier, less analytical Journal.

Crooks Hijack Facebook Accounts, Injuring Dignity
By BRAD STONE

SAN FRANCISCO — It used to be that computer viruses attacked only your hard drive. Now they attack your dignity.

Malicious programs are rampaging through Web sites like Facebook and Twitter, spreading themselves by taking over people’s accounts and sending out messages to all of their friends and followers. The result is that people are inadvertently telling their co-workers and loved ones how to raise their I.Q.’s or make money instantly, or urging them to watch an awesome new video in which they star.

“I wonder what people are thinking of me right now?” said Matt Marquess, an employee at a public relations firm in San Francisco whose Twitter account was recently hijacked, showering his followers with messages that appeared to offer a $500 gift card to Victoria’s Secret.

Mr. Marquess was clueless about the offers until a professional acquaintance asked him about them via e-mail. Confused, he logged in to his account and noticed he had been promoting lingerie for five days.

“No one had said anything to me,” he said. “I thought, how long have I been Twittering about underwear?”

The humiliation sown by these attacks is just collateral damage. In most cases, the perpetrators are hoping to profit from the referral fees they get for directing people to sketchy e-commerce sites.

In other words, even the crooks are on social networks now — because millions of tightly connected potential victims are just waiting for them there.

The whole press release is at ColorofChange, and it include the text of the retraction...in case you're as curious as you are selective about whose traffic figures you add to.

For Immediate Release

December 10, 2009

Contact: Brandon Hatler -- DumpGlennBeck@gmail.com

DefendGlenn.com Issues Public Apology for False Statements Made About ColorOfChange.org During Group's Beck Campaign
Glenn Beck Support Website Admits 'Erroneous' Accusations, Apologizes; DefendGlenn.com to Post Full Retraction of Claims on Homepage for Seven Weeks

OAKLAND, Calif. -- DefendGlenn.com, the website created and dedicated to supporting controversial Fox News personality Glenn Beck, today issued a public retraction of several erroneous statements it made regarding civil rights organization ColorOfChange.org. The site has posted the retraction on its home page -- www.DefendGlenn.com -- and, per an agreement, must keep it there for seven full weeks.