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The Death of the Daily

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“People don’t actually read newspapers. They step into them every morning like a hot bath.”

– Marshall McLuhan

The Detroit Media Partnership, which manages the operations of Detroit’s two daily newspapers, has announced that beginning in March of next year the papers will limit delivery to just three days a week. Other daily newspapers in major cities are sure to follow this lead, as the economy continues to batter the newspaper industry. 

Are we witnessing a media revolution? In the same way that icons and oral stories gave way to Gutenberg’s printing press, is the printing press now the victim of the new media? Obviously the PC revolutionized the way we communicate. But when the first bulky PCs made their way to our desktops 30 years ago, did we ever anticipate using them for minute by minute communication the way we do today via Twitter and Facebook?

With the death of the daily newspaper, the death of the printed book cannot be far behind. The majority of Americans (Earthlings?) now receive information and news electronically. The information we exchange on Facebook and Twitter has arguably more influence on us than anything on a printed page we have read today. Have you even read anything on a printed page today?

And what kind of world are we entering where information is consumed in blog or Twitter-size bites rather than through a leisurely perusal and serious consideration of the issues? Could Watergate have ended a presidency if Woodward and Bernstein were Twittering the story rather than submitting thousands of words in a daily pursuit of the truth (as perceived by the WAPO)?

What effect is Twitter having on our capacity to process facts and sort truth from error? Could this explain why Barack Obama seems to so easily deflect any real probing of his numerous relationships with persons of ill-repute? Reporters are looking for the story in 140 characters or less, when getting to the truth requires a whole lot more than that. Yet readers no longer have the capacity for any more than a Twitter-size bite of information, then it’s on to the next thing.

The death of the daily newspaper may portend the death of the book. And the death of the book may portend the fulfillment of everything ever written by Orwell, Postman and McLuhan.

The future of the book is the blurb.  – Marshall McLuhan

Five Favorite Albums of ’08, plus some other things

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Five Favorite Albums of 2008:

Bob Dylan – Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased – 1989-2008

Only Bob Dylan would leave masterpieces unreleased. The songs on these two songs showcase why Dylan is the greatest songwriter of all time. Songs like “Red River Shore” and “Cross the Green Mountain” tell stories full of painful memories and regret. Add in a couple of fantastic live tracks and covers and you have yourself another modern-day masterpiece from Mr. Zimmerman.

Sun Kil Moon – April

No one can write a long song quite like Mark Kozelek. This is an album full of songs so beautiful and painful and personal, it’s like listening to your best friend read his diary out loud to you. “Lost Verses” opens the album with the singer wandering through the streets of San Francisco after his death and watching all his friends and family. This leads into a journey through the interior of a mind haunted by memory and past regrets. With every song being a ballad and weighing in at nearly 80 minutes, this is not an album for the impatient.

Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

This is one of the most wonderful debut albums I have ever heard. Full of expert songwriting and gorgeous harmonies, songs like “Meadowlarks” will leave you crying with their tranquil and simple beauty, while tracks such as “White Winter Hymnal” and “Ragged Wood” will take your breath away with their extravagance and power.

My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges

This is probably the album I’ve listened to most in 2008. It features some of the most fantastic instrumental and vocal performances I’ve ever heard. Try to listen to the breakdown in the title track without headbanging (or something similar), or the coda in “Smokin From Shootin” without leaving your mouth agape in astonishment. Even though it wasn’t all to warmly received by critics (thanks mostly to “Highly Suspicious”), that won’t stop me from calling this my favorite rock album of 2008.

She & Him – Volume One

She is actress Zooey Deschanel. He is producer M. Ward. Together they make an album that chronicles the history of popular song that’s very near perfect. Zooey is a wonderful singer, and M. Ward produces and arranges in a way reminiscent of the pop songs of the 50’s and 60’s. It’s an album you can sing along with over and over again without getting sick.

Great Movies of 2008:

Wall-E

The Dark Knight

Synecdoche, New York

U2 3D

One Movie From 2007 That’s Still Worth Talking About:

There Will Be Blood

One Album From 2007 That’s Still Worth Talking About:

Arcade Fire – Neon Bible

Albums to Look Forward to In 2009:

Andrew Bird – Noble Beast (January 20)

U2 – No Line On the Horizon

Jars of Clay

Wilco

Derek Webb – Stockholm Syndrome

Radiohead (?)

Films to Look Forward to In 2009:

The Road

Up

It Might Get Loud

Best Songs of ’08

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List made by Joel Edwards

Seeing as this year is pretty much over, I figured that a best songs list was in order. I wouldn’t be able to make a best albums list, because that would be to hard. These are the songs that have moved me or made me dance the most this year. No order other than alphabetical (by artist):

Anathallo – The River

Ane Brun – Changing of the Seasons

Apollo Sunshine – 666: The Coming of the New World Government

Aterciopelados –  Ataque de Risa

B.B. King – See That My Grave Is Kept Clean

Ben Folds – You Don’t Know Me

Blind Pilot – Oviedo

Bon Iver – Skinny Love

Calexico – Two Silver Trees

Cold War Kids – Every Valley Is Not A Lake

Conor Oberst – Cape Canaveral

Deerhunter – Microcastle

Derek Webb & Sandra McCracken – Valentine

Dungen – Satt Att Se

Emilina Torrini – Gun

Ezra Furman And The Harpoons – We Should Fight

Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal

Girl Talk – Play Your Part (Pt. 1)

I’m From Barcelona – Music Killed Me

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan – Salvation

Jars Of Clay – Safe to Land

Kaiser Chiefs – Never Miss a Beat

Lambchop – National Talk Like A Pirate Day

Lucinda Williams – Little Rock Star

My Morning Jacket – Smokin From Shootin

Neil Halstead – Queen Bee

Nimrod Workman – 42 Years

Oxford Collapse – The Birthday Wars

The Pretenders – Break Up the Concrete

The Raconteurs – Carolina Drama

The Rosebuds – Border Guards

She & Him – This Is Not A Test

Sonya Kitchell – For Every Drop

Springhouse – Grateful

Sun Kil Moon – Blue Orchids

The Tallest Man On Earth – The Gardener

Theresa Andersson – Locusts Are Gossiping

The Verve – Sit and Wonder

Wovenhand – White Knuckle Grip

Covering (Up) Obama

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The main stream media’s covering for Barack Obama on his relationship with Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich is predictable, laughable, and tragic. The only reporter really doing any kind of investigative journalism on the connection between Obama and Blagojevich is ABC’s Jake Tapper.

On this morning’s edition of MSNBCs Morning Joe (Wednesday, December 10), the host, Joe Scarborough, attempted to make the connection but was roundly silenced by his own panel – liberals all – including his co-host Mika Brzezinski, and panelists Harold Ford, Jr. and Mike Barnicle.  

Ford and Barnicle characterized the relationship between Obama and Blagojevich as “a typical political relationship”: the pols smile with arms around each other in front of the cameras, but when the cameras are off they really have no relationship at all. Amazingly this defense has worked for Barack Obama with all of his questionable relationships, including Jeremiah Wright, Tony Rezko, and William Ayers. Now add the corrupt governor of Illinois to the list.

The facts bear out that Obama’s relationship with the corrupt governor of Illinois goes beyond merely smiling for the cameras.  Jake Tapper notes Obama endorsed Blagojevich in 2002 and 2006 and “served as a top adviser” to Blagojevich when he ran for the Illinois house in 2002. Obama also served as one of “the top strategists of Blagojevich’s 2002 gubernatorial victory.” Tapper quotes President-elect Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emmanuel:

[President-elect Obama and myself] participated in a small group that met weekly when Rod was running for governor. We basically laid out the general election, Barack and I and these two [an aide to Blagojevich and Blagojevich’s campaign co-chair].

In August of 2006, Barack Obama told a crowd at an Illinois State Fair:

We’ve got a governor in Rod Blagojevich who has delivered consistently on behalf of the people of Illinois.

In spite of the clear evidence for the political connection between Obama and Blagojevich, the media would have us believe that Barack Obama is above it all. How is this possible? Barack Obama cut his political teeth while immersed in the corrupt political underworld that is Chicago politics, and yet the media really expects us to believe he was “in it but not of it”? 

Beyond that, the media expects us to believe that Obama never expressed interest in who would fill his now vacant U.S. Senate seat in Illinois. Asked during a press conference (held in Obama’s CHICAGO transition office!) if he had any contact with the Illinois governor’s office about his replacement in the Senate, Obama replied:

I had no contact with the governor or his office, and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening.

But that doesn’t quite square with what his senior adviser David Alexrod told a local Chicago news affiliate on November 22:

I know he’s [Barack Obama] talked to the governor and there are a whole range of names many of which have surfaced, and I think he has a fondness for a lot of them.

Alexrod in a press release on Tuesday, December 9 retracted his previous statement, saying he was “mistaken.”
 I was mistaken when I told an interviewer last month that the President-elect has spoken directly to Governor Blagojevich about the Senate vacancy. They did not then or at any time discuss the subject.

You would think such a blatant contradiction would warrant some tough questions from the media, who would not be satisfied with a simple, “I was mistaken.”  Not so.

NBC’s chief political correspondent Chuck Todd defends Axelrod by saying it’s the job of these political spokespersons to make it look as if their boss is “on top of the situation.” From MSNBC’s Morning Joe:

Could an adviser around Obama want to always make it look like Obama was on top of the situation and may have over spoke in that way?

Can you imagine White House Press Secretary Dana Perino making such a retraction relative to a corrupt political connection to President Bush and the main stream media simply accepting it and writing it off as “her job”?

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews is on record as stating it’s his job to make sure Obama succeeds. Obviously he speaks for all of the main stream media who clearly have no intent of examining Barack Obama’s corrupt political connections. They refused to do it during the campaign. Why should we expect any less from them now.