The Hidden Ideology of the News Media

Part 1: New World Notes #520, 28:39 (February 20)
Broadcast quality MP3 (40 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)

Part 2: New World Notes #521, 28:41 (February 27)
Broadcast quality MP3 (39 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)

Another in our series of classic talks by Progressive political scientist Michael Parenti.  This one--one of his best--dates from 1997.
 
Parenti demolishes the myth of "the liberal media."  With wit, humor, facts, and examples, he shows that the US news media are little more than the propaganda arm of the the most powerful corporations and the government.

Parenti spoke in Burlington, Vermont--at the same university that had fired him for his antiwar activism 25 years earlier.

Previously broadcast, in May 2015. MP3 files downloaded from the links, above, are identified as NWN #375 and 376.

Only Mutiny Can Save the Ship

New World Notes #519, 29:25 (February 13):

Broadcast quality MP3 (40 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (14 MB)

A stunning talk by journalist/prophet Chris Hedges.  Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick is an apt (and scary) metaphor for the U.S. today, says Hedges.

The relentless pursuit of an insane goal: that's Captain Ahab on the ship Pequod, and that's corporate capitalism today. On the Pequod, the pursuit yielded repression and then destruction of ship and crew. That's where the world today is heading.

Only mutiny by the crew could have saved the Pequod, and--Hedges argues--only nonviolent rebellion by citizens can save the U.S. and the planet's ecosystem

I have condensed Hedges' talk substantially.  He delivered the talk, under a different title, at Moravian College on October 22, 2013.  A video of the complete talk is available on YouTube.

Previously broadcast in February 2014. MP3 files downloaded from the linls, above, are identified as NWN #311.

Things Fall Apart

New World Notes #518, 28:50 (February 6)
Broadcast quality MP3 (40 MB)
Decent quality MP3 (13 MB)

 A public library, from The Ruins of Detroit
by Yves Marchant and Romain Meffre
(Click to enlarge)

The economy ... American political democracy ... the climate ... the whole ecosystem--all seem to be collapsing at once. In a poem of 1920, W.B. Yeats noted, "Things fall apart; the center cannot hold." The show features a good routine on the very subject by George Carlin (early 1990s), music by James McMurtry ("Ruins of the Realm"), Yeats's poem, and somewhat-humorous reflections by K.D.
 

William Butler Yeats