July 3, 2006 Issue

Cover art by: Cover design by Peter Ahlberg, photograph by Mic Burns

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Feature

Hey Guys, It’s Just a Game

Soccer’s not for wimps, but Team America and its fans have brought a decidedly militarist mindset to the World Cup.
Dave Zirin and John Cox
The Death of News

The press that once went hoarse over Monica Lewinsky’s dress is largely silent over the Bush regime’s vast abuses of power.
Mark Crispin Miller
The National Entertainment State, 2006

After a decade of strategic mergers, impulsive couplings and messy divorces–the birth of new media–this chart shows that national media landscape still bears the oversized footprints of a handful of giant corporations.
The Nation
A Ten-Point Plan for Media Democracy

With Congress poised to pass legislation that rewrites the Telecom Act, here are ten action items for a media reform agenda.
Jeffrey Chester
Mega-merger Mania

Americans overwhelmingly oppose media consolidation, but the FCC is poised to further relax media ownership rules.
Eric Klinenberg
Bush World

In the guise of giving us what we want, media giants have created a culture defined by untrammeled greed, the worship of power and a ruthless disregard for the public good.
Lakshmi Chaudhry
Use the Tools

The fight over media consolidation is anachronistic. Progressives should focus instead on mastering the tools of new media–it’s here, not in the corporate boardroom, where the new media wars will be fought and won.
Markos Moulitsas
Stealth Media

Corporations used to disguise their attempts to masquerade as “indie,” but now they’ve become invisible to the naked eye.
Ana Marie Cox
Local Media Left Behind

National media are increasingly catering to the highly mobile, globalized, mostly white middle class, leaving those who can’t afford access to slip into a separate and unequal world of second-class information.
Ethan Michaeli
Digital Music Revolution

The music industry lives in fear of downloadable media, but artists have the vision to re-engineer our collective psyche.
Paul D. Miller
The Self-Expression Sector

New forms of participatory media have changed public discourse, enabling people to publish, share and disseminate their own media creations. But will only the affluent be able to play?
Rebecca MacKinnon
Co-opting Consumers of Color

Fewer minority-owned outlets means fewer minorities in the media. With such threats to public discourse, what will become of our voices, points of view and interests?
Makani Themba
Fight for a Free Press

The collapse of journalism and the rise of commercialism is sparking a reform movement that will fight to ensure the First Amendment endures in the digital age.
Robert W. McChesney
Access of Evil

Compliant coverage of the Iraq War proved the news business is morally compromised, no longer driven by creative people with something to tell but by global corporations with something to sell.
Amy Goodman
Brave New Media

We don’t need to buy a network to get our message out–just creatively use an array of low-cost tools from the Internet to iPods, cellphones and whatever comes next.
Robert Greenwald
The National Entertainment State (Forum)

If the promise of new media is to be fulfilled, progressives must chart a course of activism that confronts the increasing concentration of ownership among the Big Media powerhouses.
The Nation

Editorial

Danger in Paradise

It’s hard to tell whether the US is conducting a war against terror or against Native Hawaiians, as the military uses parts of the Waianae coast as a live-fire training ground.
Mindy Pennybacker
Burning Cole

Politics trumped academic integrity when a neocon network torpedoed the appointment of Mideast scholar and blogger Juan Cole to a faculty position at Yale.
Philip Weiss
Bunkum From Benador

The debunking of a PR agency that circulated a bogus story about persecution of Jews in Iran exposed the moving parts of a media machine bent on preparing the American public for another war.

Larry Cohler-Esses
The UN Bites Back

If the Bush Administration is serious about UN reform, it should replace Ambassador John Bolton and stop linking payment of dues to action on reform.
The Editors
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Column

Hillary’s Hypocrisy

Hillary Clinton’s dissembling on Iraq has become a fatal embarassment for her presidential ambitions and for anyone who looks to her for leadership.
Robert Scheer
Bush’s Baghdad Palace

The United States has made no headway quelling the insurgency or rebuilding Iraq, but one secret project is on target: construction of a palatial US Embassy inside the Green Zone. What kind of exit strategy is this?
Nicholas von Hoffman
Rebels With a Cause

A new generation of student activists is flexing its muscles, rolling back employment rules in France, demanding education reform in Chile and fighting for immigrant rights in the US.
Gary Younge
Prairie Grass Roots

In South Dakota, prochoicers are fighting back with a bipartisan initiative challenging the abortion ban and a grassroots effort that has put progressive Native American women on the ballot.
Katha Pollitt
The Hot Air Factory

Under Karl Rove’s deft hand, Bush has been maneuvered from one catastrophe to another. Why is the left obsessed with him?
Alexander Cockburn
After Forty-one Suicide Attempts at Guantánamo Bay, Three Prisoners Manage to Kill Themselves

Another winning strategy for Team Bush and its war on terror.
Calvin Trillin

Books & the Arts

The Poet and the Muse

A new collection of letters between Rainer Maria Rilke and Lou Andreas-Salome reveals an intimate portrait of a poet and his muse.
Mark M. Anderson
Short Takes

Reviews of novels by Anne Tyler, Chris Abani, and Rodrigo Fresan.
Ruth Baldwin and Christine Smallwood
We Are the World

When liberals and conservatives discuss the United States’ role in the world, they are really talking about the narcissism of small differences. Two new books show how both sides share a conviction in American exceptionalism.
David Rieff
News of a Kidnapping

Reviews of The Road to Guantanamo and Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul.
Stuart Klawans
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Letters

Letters

RAGE AGAINST THE (BUSH) MACHINE

Lawrenceville, Ga.
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July 3, 2006 Issue

Feature

Soccer’s not for wimps, but Team America and its fans have brought a decidedly militarist mindset to the World Cup.

The press that once went hoarse over Monica Lewinsky’s dress is largely silent over the Bush regime’s vast abuses of power.

After a decade of strategic mergers, impulsive couplings and messy divorces–the birth of new media–this chart shows that national media landscape still bears the oversized footprints of a handful of giant corporations.

With Congress poised to pass legislation that rewrites the Telecom Act, here are ten action items for a media reform agenda.

Americans overwhelmingly oppose media consolidation, but the FCC is poised to further relax media ownership rules.

In the guise of giving us what we want, media giants have created a culture defined by untrammeled greed, the worship of power and a ruthless disregard for the public good.

The fight over media consolidation is anachronistic. Progressives should focus instead on mastering the tools of new media–it’s here, not in the corporate boardroom, where the new media wars will be fought and won.

Corporations used to disguise their attempts to masquerade as “indie,” but now they’ve become invisible to the naked eye.

National media are increasingly catering to the highly mobile, globalized, mostly white middle class, leaving those who can’t afford access to slip into a separate and unequal world of second-class information.

The music industry lives in fear of downloadable media, but artists have the vision to re-engineer our collective psyche.

New forms of participatory media have changed public discourse, enabling people to publish, share and disseminate their own media creations. But will only the affluent be able to play?

Fewer minority-owned outlets means fewer minorities in the media. With such threats to public discourse, what will become of our voices, points of view and interests?

The collapse of journalism and the rise of commercialism is sparking a reform movement that will fight to ensure the First Amendment endures in the digital age.

Compliant coverage of the Iraq War proved the news business is morally compromised, no longer driven by creative people with something to tell but by global corporations with something to sell.

We don’t need to buy a network to get our message out–just creatively use an array of low-cost tools from the Internet to iPods, cellphones and whatever comes next.

If the promise of new media is to be fulfilled, progressives must chart a course of activism that confronts the increasing concentration of ownership among the Big Media powerhouses.

Editorial

It’s hard to tell whether the US is conducting a war against terror or against Native Hawaiians, as the military uses parts of the Waianae coast as a live-fire training ground.

Politics trumped academic integrity when a neocon network torpedoed the appointment of Mideast scholar and blogger Juan Cole to a faculty position at Yale.

The debunking of a PR agency that circulated a bogus story about persecution of Jews in Iran exposed the moving parts of a media machine bent on preparing the American public for another war.

If the Bush Administration is serious about UN reform, it should replace Ambassador John Bolton and stop linking payment of dues to action on reform.

GET UNLIMITED DIGITAL ACCESS FOR LESS THAN $3 A MONTH!

Column

Hillary Clinton’s dissembling on Iraq has become a fatal embarassment for her presidential ambitions and for anyone who looks to her for leadership.

The United States has made no headway quelling the insurgency or rebuilding Iraq, but one secret project is on target: construction of a palatial US Embassy inside the Green Zone. What kind of exit strategy is this?

A new generation of student activists is flexing its muscles, rolling back employment rules in France, demanding education reform in Chile and fighting for immigrant rights in the US.

In South Dakota, prochoicers are fighting back with a bipartisan initiative challenging the abortion ban and a grassroots effort that has put progressive Native American women on the ballot.

Under Karl Rove’s deft hand, Bush has been maneuvered from one catastrophe to another. Why is the left obsessed with him?

Another winning strategy for Team Bush and its war on terror.

Books & the Arts

A new collection of letters between Rainer Maria Rilke and Lou Andreas-Salome reveals an intimate portrait of a poet and his muse.

Reviews of novels by Anne Tyler, Chris Abani, and Rodrigo Fresan.

When liberals and conservatives discuss the United States’ role in the world, they are really talking about the narcissism of small differences. Two new books show how both sides share a conviction in American exceptionalism.

Reviews of The Road to Guantanamo and Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul.

The stakes are higher now than ever. Get The Nation in your inbox.

Letters

RAGE AGAINST THE (BUSH) MACHINE Lawrenceville, Ga.

RAGE AGAINST THE (BUSH) MACHINE

Lawrenceville, Ga.