mediageek

Category: examining the mainstream

  • You Get What You Pay For

    Well, not necessarily YOU exactly, unless you happen to have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to congresspeople this year. But if YOU are AT&T, then you’ve gotten a pretty good return on the $1.7 million you’ve donated to federal candidates this year. 67% of AT&T’s donations have gone to Republicans, and as a result…

  • OH, the Tubes! or, Why I Don’t MySpace.

    Thanks to everyone’s fake anchorman, Sen. Ted Steven’s tubular understanding of the workings of the Internets is gaining much more popular recognition. Now the NY Times has taken note, as well as the LA Times, and the Washington Post. But one blogger apparently got his MySpace account temporarily suspended because he posted a parody song…

  • Catching Up with the Radioshow: The Yes Men Spoof Halliburton, Bringing Transmitters to Central America, Musicians Support Internet Freedom

    If you don’t normally listen to the mediageek radioshow, you should consider checking out the last two programs. Yesterday my guests were Bill Taylor and Adrienne Bauer from the Primary Communications Project, talking about their plans to bring a 1 kilowatt AM radio transmitter to the Lenca people of Honduras. I also played part of…

  • Broadcast Industry Journal on Jon Stewart Mocking Nexstar’s Duane Lammers Critique

    Somewhat belatedly, Broadcasting and Cable picks up on the Daily Show taking aim at WTWO’s weather attack ads and Nexstar’s Duane Lammers (by the way, it’s pronounced “lamers,” as in “lame” – “ers”).

  • The SurvivaBall Solution for Global Warming, on Today’s Mediageek Radioshow

    On Tuesday a forward-thinking engineer from Halliburton presented the company’s newest invention to help solve the problems associated with global warming, the SurvivaBall: “The SurvivaBall is designed to protect the corporate manager no matter what Mother Nature throws his or her way,” said Fred Wolf, a Halliburton representative who spoke today at the Catastrophic Loss…

  • Jon Stewart Calls Out Nexstar and VP/COO Duane Lammers

    And I believe that he called them “pussies,” for not airing “Book of Daniel” earlier in the year. Kudos to the Daily Show research department. But the real point of the segment that aired on tonight’s Daily Show was to follow up on a piece he did a couple nights ago making fun of Nexstar‘s…

  • Political Economy by Any Other Name Is Apparently a Fresh, New Idea

    Perhaps this is nothing new, but I’m starting to really notice a severe lack of awareness of critical traditions within the A-list blogosphere/digerati culture. Back in March, Andrew took note of a proposal to create a new “interdisciplinary discipline’ of Critical Information Studies, which he concluded, “sounds very like the areas covered by Political Economy…

  • Is There Another, Grassroots Way to Network Neutrality?

    I am always a bit uneasy with policy campaigns, especially those in which the only option for positive political action seems to be, basically, “call your Congressperson!” So, as concerned as I am about the real threat that AT&T and Verizon are about to tier off and filter our internet, I am also uncomfortable thinking…

  • Godcasters Making a Mint by Trafficking in Free Low-Power Radio Licenses

    Last year I was tracking the apparent trafficking in low-power FM translator stations by several Christian broadcasting groups. Translators are stations whose only legal purpose is to rebroadcast the programming of a full-power parent station. John at DIYmedia has an update on the traffickers and their spoils from laundering licenses that come free-of-charge from the…

  • FCC To Start Issuing Backed Up Indecency Fines

    It’s been rumored for a while, but apparently now it’s official — the FCC’s Media Bureau is going to start issuing broadcast indecency fines from 2005. They’ll be done in packages which will each be signed off on by the FCC’s Commissioners, and are supposed to provide a little more guidance on what the FCC…