NPR parody: "In the Know" (comedy)

In The Know; Brooke Gladstone, On the Media; CC Liu, Sheldon S. (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

In The Know | official trailer | Peacock original

(Peacock) Jan. 4, 2024: In The Know is streaming Jan. 25th on Peacock: pck.tv/3vuBPly. SYNOPSIS: Lauren Caspian is NPR’s third most popular host. He’s a well-meaning, hypocritical nimrod, just like you and me. He’s also a stop motion puppet. Each episode follows the making of an episode of Lauren’s show In the Know, in which Lauren conducts in-depth interviews with real world human guests. Lauren collaborates with a diverse crew of NPR staff. They are also puppets and nimrods.

ABOUT: Peacock is a go-to for hit movies, TV, live sports, and more. With the streaming service from NBCUniversal, you can watch new movies from theaters, current hits from NBC and Bravo, nonstop action from WWE, Premier League, Big Ten, and tons of other sports. Plus, stream exclusive originals, NBC News, and faves like The Office, Suits, Modern Family, and Yellowstone. Peacock is currently available to stream within the United States. #Peacock #OfficialTrailer #InTheKnow

• AUDIO: "On the Media" with Brooke Gladstone

You boys should listen to NPR. - What's that?

In the Know On the Media (1/26/24): Hear about the new parody of National Public Radio (NPR) by the maker of Beavis & Butt-Head, Idiocracy, and Office Space Mike Judge and the team Woods and Gardner, two guys whose idea it was.

3. Zach Woods, an actor best known for his role of "Gabe Lewis" on The Office, and improviser and writer Brandon Gardner [@BrandonJGardner] talk about their new Peacock show In the Know, which parodies public radio and reflects our current culture wars. LISTEN

Plus, what gets lost in the blow-by-blow coverage of Trump's idiotic legal woes -- losing civil suits and facing four felony criminal trials.

After New Hampshire and Iowa, the GOP field is narrowing to Donald Trump's benefit once again. DeSantis' failed campaign has lessons for the political press: How did Florida Governor DeSantis go from right-wing media darling to loser and party outcast?

2. Dahlia Lithwick [@Dahlialithwick], lawyer and writer at Slate, on how our legal system isn't designed to save our democracy, and what's wrong with mainstream media's coverage of Trump's legal losses and upcoming trials. Listen.

1. Nick Nehamas [@NickNehamas], politics reporter for the New York Times, Mary Ellen Klas [@MaryEllenKlas], opinion writer at Bloomberg and former capital bureau chief for the Miami Herald, and Tom Scocca [@tomscocca], creator of the Indignity newsletter, on the rise and fall of Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign and the lessons it offers about how to cover elections. Listen.

Ed Snowden: UFOs, ETs are real, not attacking

Our views are controlled by the mainstream media, but few of us realize that to avoid it.

What Snowden said about UFO’s is terrifying and a concern. They're real but being used as a distraction

(Redacted) NSA whistleblower and American hero Edward Snowden agrees with Redacted that all of this UFO talk is [true but] a distraction to take our minds off of what else is going on. Ignore Seymour Hersh’s bombshell report that the U.S. secretly blew up the Nord Stream pipeline to blame the sabotage on Russia. Don't pay attention to the coming WW III that NATO is actively pulling us into. #claytonmorris #redacted #news

Obey, submit, don't protest...watch football

The Associated [Propaganda] Press (via mail.com); Pat Macpherson, Pfc. Sandoval, Seth Auberon, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Further A.M. (video); NFL.com

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police militants ready for war stand guard in front of Bank of America Stadium before an NFL football game between the Carolina Panthers and the Minnesota Vikings in Charlotte, N.C., Sunday, Sept. 25, 2016. Increased security is in place for the game after five nights of demonstrations over Tuesday's murder of Keith Lamont Scott by police (AP).

Pres. B.S. Obama: Everyone's comin' over tonight. "Are you ready for some football?"

The Latest: Charlotte mayor lifts curfew

CHARLOTTE, NC (A[P]P) - The Latest on pro civil rights rebellions in Charlotte, North Carolina, over the murder by fearful/hateful police of a black man (all times local):

7:00 pm: The mayor of Charlotte has lifted the curfew on the city after days of peaceful demonstrations over the senseless killing of a black man by police.

I told him to move, he moved, I shot him.

(Sept. 25, 2016) There have been demonstrations every day since Charlotte police shot 43-year-old Keith Lamont Scott to death by on Tuesday. In a statement Sunday evening, Mayor Jennifer Roberts says that effective immediately the curfew imposed is terminated. A midnight to 6:00 am curfew has been in effect since Thursday after the protests turned violent, and National Guardsmen have been stationed throughout downtown each night. Demonstrators remained peaceful outside the Carolina Panther's football game against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday afternoon.

• Football, football, football, what more do you need?

(SNL) Beavis & Butthead watch the Bounce Channel to see Chris Farley as Hank Williams. Philadelphia Eagles vs. Chicago Bears Monday Night Football skit, Season 23, Episode 4, 430th show.

This item has been corrected to show that the NFL team's name is the Carolina Panthers, not the Charlotte Panthers.

 

4:00 pm: Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence says the American people deserve a full investigation of the shooting death of a black man by a Charlotte police officer.
 

Robocop androids (AP)

The Asheville Citizen-Times reports that Pence addressed the shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott when he spoke Saturday to a Christian coalition of about 200 members of the House School Legal Defense Association in Black Mountain. More

• Gustavo Dudamel's Jazz Age Gershwin Gala (LAPhil.com)
• VIDEO: 4th night of demonstrations in Charlotte, N.C.

1984: Orwell Rolls in His Grave (watch free)

Now it is 1984

“A marvel of passionate succinctness, Robert Kane Pappas’ documentary critically examines the Fourth Estate, once the bastion of American democracy. [It] asks, “Could a media system, controlled by a few global corporations with the ability to overwhelm all competing voices, be able to turn lies into truth?” - Variety (To purchase)

• Good karma? The Fisker electric sports car (Karma)

Mainstream News: "Police are troublemakers"

Wisdom Quarterly

(bYarlboro)

MSNBC is a corporate outlet. It purports to represent the "liberal" side as a ridiculous counterpart to Fox News' "conservative" extremes. It is part and parcel of the mainstream media.

This piece is important only because it is mainstream coverage of the protests. It is surprising that the powers that be allow MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnel to go this far in getting at the truth.

• Livestream.com/globalrevolution
  

This may seem an insignificant report compared to all the video out there and all the injustice (most police crimes are not videotaped). But this is where reform starts.

The protests are filled with individuals who will no longer condone how corrupt our government, banks, military-industrial complex, and other corporate bodies have become. The Fed (The Federal Reserve Bank, Inc.), which is a private bank serving its own interests not the government's, is the lynchpin.

It is not the only corrupt body on Wall Street. The other private banks use it to rob the country blind with political help and blessings.

Many protesters have additional messages to be heard. There are many injustices, many causes, many routes to freedom. Most American only know that they are unhappy and in danger. Most of us want to create a better world, better society, better states.

In the beginning there was a mainstream media blackout on the Occupy Movement. Long before that the corruption of the Fed was avoided. The bailouts, the political maneuvering by Obama, Bush II, Clinton, Bush I is what we want to bring to light.

The Fed has handed out over $16 trillion ($2 trillion more than the national debt that took over two centuries to rack up) to private banks and corporations in the past four years. As suffering people not given a voice have increasingly "acted out," the military-industrial complex has funded a police state. We are spied on, and the constitutional protects and civil rights have been disregarded, rewritten, or simply violated.

• A "trillion" is a thousand billion, a billion is thousand million.
• A million seconds is about 12 days, but...
  
• A trillion seconds is 32 thousand years.
  

But none of this was addressed by the mainstream media because that media is owned by the very corporations it fails to report on. The people did not elect the news staffs or editors, the oil ("energy") corporations or executives, the PR firms, nor were they approved of by the people.

These are red flags! Even "reputable" links prove what is being said. No special interpretation is necessary. Let us all make sure the current protests make these secrets known.

• Forbes article on the $16 trillion bailout
• Unelected.orgs reporting on the $16 trillion
• Senator Bernie Sanders report on the $16 trillion
• GAO report on how funds were allocated (p. 131)
• The full GAO (Gov't Accounting Office) report

Bank (economic) crimes lead to unthinkable war (military) crimes. Because of poverty, brought on by corporate greed, members of society turn on themselves then turn on others in the greater world. We, the USA, are the empire to fear. Before long another empire will ascend. Just as we make others suffer, so we will suffer. Of course, only some of us are doing it. Therefore, it is the job of the rest of us to stop it. People (whistle blowers) defect from being part of the problem to contributing to the solution. Meanwhile, others (the media) deny there is any problem at all.

Rupert Murdoch attacked with pie (cartoon)

Wisdom Quarterly

ENGLAND (July 19, 2011) - Multi-billionaire Rupert Murdoch was attacked by a protester wielding a shaving foam on paper plate pie as he gave evidence at the Culture Media and Sport committee on phone-hacking. His Yale graduate Chinese wife Wendi Deng [in pictures], who is often accused of being a gold digger and is 38 years his junior, was quick to retaliate and attack pie man attempting to take her husband down a peg. Murdoch is in the center of a British super-scandal revealing police corruption, phone hacking, media blackmail of politicians and others in public view. Murdoch is a hateful figure who owns Fox News and supports campaigns then, it is alleged, exerts undue influence on world politics, monetary policy, and the modern media landscape.

Murdoch gets pied while answering for his misdeeds (Sky News )

Custard for Justice
Comedian Jonnie Marbles threw a custard [-like shaving foam] pie in Rupert Murdoch's face during the phone hacking hearing today.

The media tycoon's wife Wendi leaped to avenge the insult, first pushing the protester away then smacking the plate full of shaving cream over the demonstrator as he was led away by police officers.

Members of the audience reported that the protester said "You naughty billionaire" to Mr. Murdoch as he was carried out after the peaceful cream puff demonstration. See full video below.

FOX: "Not racist, but #1 with racists"

Why should anyone care about this case? Corporate crimes seem somehow nicer than individual acts. The reason this case is so important is that Murdoch and his empire rule political campaigns. Those who are [s]elected to serve are pressed to vote in favor of weakening laws aimed at protecting the public and its access to a fair and balanced media.

This is exactly what they do NOT get from FOX (so naturally they use it as a Newspeak slogan). Corporate malfeasance, invasion of privacy, police corruption...this is the least of it. Someone has already been "taken care of" for whistle blowing, and the scandal is only getting started.

And David Cameron the Prime Minister is involved, too, taking direction on how to deal with the media from a former editor of Murdoch's recently defunct tabloid, News of the World, behind the phone hacking allegations.

• The Most Biased Name in News
  Fox News Channel's extraordinary right-wing tilt
  
• Rupert Murdoch: A Portrait of Satan (BBC)
• Rupert Murdoch's Fox News ran "Black Ops" department, former executive claims
• Phone hacking: News International lifts gagging order imposed on its lawyers
• Phone-hacking scandal latest: live
• Rupert Murdoch's wife Wendi's volleyball spike
• Wendi Deng becomes star of the show on Twitter
• Rupert Murdoch hit by custard pie
• Jonnie Marbles "friendly, violent attack" joke
• Rupert Murdoch attacked
• Yates "did not get Wallis's daughter job at Met"
• Serious Fraud Office considers investigation into News Corp
• John Yates: "I have done nothing wrong"
• Sir Paul Stephenson: Champneys link to Wallis "unlucky"
• Hacking: John Yates resigns over Wallis links
• Rupert Murdoch denies knowledge of phone hacking or secret payments
• Three people swept over Yosemite National Park waterfall
• Nurse questioned over murders of three patients
• The headless corpse, the mass grave, and worrying questions about Libya's rebel army
  

1984: Who's Blocking the Truth?

Wisdom Quarterly

(Based on Xomba.com) What is the largest impediment to disclosure? The mainstream media. How will natural cures, planet-saving energy technologies that already exist, and information about our place in the cosmos get out to the world?

It will not be through the White House, Congress, Parliament, or the UN. Monopoly-corporations have too much potential profit to lose. So it has to be word-of-mouth and any other form of communication that goes against the stream.

But where is the media, the "fourth estate" in this democracy? It has failed us in favor of obscenely rich interests.

There were checks and balances built into our system of government. But when they don't check, they have no power to balance.

That is when and why we need "watch dogs" to keep an ever-attentive eye on all three branches of the government (executive, judicial, and legislative).

Someone on the board of AOL Time Warner and CBS is said to have declared in 1992,"The fourth estate is dead!" A Washington Post reporter is alleged to have bluntly pointed out that nothing important will ever be published in the major media.

Why? Corporate news outlets are part of the fiction, part of the PR campaign, part of the propaganda machine. We must look elsewhere to find out what is really going on. One outlet is the disclosureproject.org.

• VIDEO: Pilot chased UFO, saw it crash, visited site
• Ignoring science: Gary Null's double blind studies
• VIDEO: Invisibility (optical suit) being used in Iraq?

What 1984 is really about
Wisdom Quarterly


People imagine that Orwell was worried about war, invasion of privacy, or torture. That was not his main concern. All of those things were going on in Buddhist Burma where imperial terrorist state England had created a police state in Southeast Asia.

Orwell imagined that given what was happening in England, Europe and the rest of the world was soon to follow the same course. He was writing in 1948 and chose the title of the book by simply inverting the last two digits. In the book, it is not possible to know what year it really is. The government has altered history, dates, the "truth."

What the book is really about is how the government got inside and altered people themselves. It was done systematically through language. By whittling down vocabulary, soon people did not have words for how they felt or what they thought. So they could no longer think it. They could no longer think of revolution, resistance, or rebellion. There was finally full-spectrum control.

This had first been achieved by shortening everything to acronyms and military-style short hand. The ubiquitous "telescreen" (all TVs, smart phones, cameras, video spying equipment) had helped this along. Today we see that texting is overcoming all other forms of communicating.

And this has affected our attention spans, ability to think critically, and watching what we say fearing we might get in trouble. What will the future be link if we continue in this way? We don't read. We won't email. We hardly speak face to face...

Tibet cuts ticket prices to boost tourism

Chinese policemen in front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa. Tibet is cutting admission fees to key attractions in an effort to boost tourism to the region after riots in March led to a dramatic drop in visitor numbers (AFP/File/Teh Eng Koon).

Tibet cuts ticket prices to boost tourism after riots: state media

BEIJING (AFP, 10/17/08) – Tibet is cutting admission fees to key attractions in an effort to boost tourism to the region after riots in March led to a dramatic drop in visitor numbers, Chinese state media said Friday.

Admission fees at most scenic and cultural spots will be cut by half from Monday to attract more travellers to the Himalayan region during winter, the official Xinhua news agency said. Plans to double admission fees to the Potala Palace, the former chief residence of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, have been scrapped, the report said.

Beijing barred all tourists from going to Tibet after a massive government crackdown on violence that erupted in Lhasa on March 14 against Chinese rule, and then spread to other areas of western China with Tibetan populations. Chinese tour groups were allowed back in at the end of April, and visitors from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan were subsequently given the green light to go early May.

Foreign visitors, however, were only allowed back in at the end of June. The number of tourists visiting Tibet in the first half of this year fell 70 percent from the previous year, according to state media. More than 340,000 travellers went to Tibet between January and June this year, the official Tibet Daily newspaper said, a dramatic drop from the same period in 2007 when over 1.1 million people visited.

It is the first time Tibet has reduced the price of tickets at nearly all its tourist attractions, Xinhua quoted Wang Songping, deputy director of the Tibet tourism bureau, as saying. Wang had predicted early this year that visitor numbers would hit five million in 2008, but the March riots and the subsequent government clampdown put a stop to that.

The Dalai Lama says over 400 Tibetans died in the crackdown in Lhasa alone, but China has reported police killing just one "insurgent" and blames Tibetan "rioters" for the deaths of 21 people.