The following is a favor to an
old friend, Marvin Kitman. Marv was a media critic (which sounds
better then TV reviewer) who started out at CCNY writing sports and
was lucky enough to get a job with Long Islands Newsday newspaper in
the middle sixties, which is to say before the economic sh*t his the
fan. I grew up reading his columns which were mostly much interesting
then the shows being reviewed.
Like most of his
generation he knows who McLuhan is but doesn’t really have that
kind of Multitasking in his bones. I hate him because he got paid
to write and I didn't but I love him because when I was a nobody he
actually deigned to notice and encourage me . In those days the Times had an explicit policy of not hiring white males. They only hired crossgendered black people. This did this to show they were open minded. The fact that the working class white people were taking on the chin in the worst period since the depression had nothing to do with anything. It was the best of all possible worlds. Boy, did I hate them. The fact that they were all white themselves and had the no white hire policy entirely to protect their jobs was never mentioned. To add insult to injury, as time has borne me out - they all stunk as writers.
The Reagan era stunk so bad that Tina Brown a no brain englishwoman was editor of the New Yorker - try to find one decent piece of writing in twenty years. Did I mention I hated the Times?
They've gotten a little better nowadays but I can see the old disease creeping in every now and then.
Perhaps it's just jealousy - that's what they would say - smug bastards.
Jerry Seinfeld,
another local fan who had a show as a comic used to chide Mr Kitman
because Marv believed in something called “Quality” which Jerry
referred to as “the rubber band that holds the Halloween Mask in
place.”
As well I believe Marv
was part of the last generation of people who we may say thought in
linear patterns. Like Murrow he went by the premise that news, for
instance, was to educate and inform. Today we know better. News is to
control the will of the masses and subjugate them into working for
the better good of the Technostate.
With time Marv grew
increasingly less “pliable”. Along with Pulitzer Prize winner
Jimmy Breslin they seemed to be less and less able to get with the
program. Plus there’s a corollary to the Peter principle that
comes into play. ( The Peter Principle states that each person is
promoted to the level in the organization where they are incompetent
– and they stay there – assuring that the organization is
constantly staffed by people incapable of doing their job. You don’t
hear much of this anymore.)
The well known
corollary to the Peter Principle is that once a person has the
experience and skill of years at a job they must be fired who will do
an inferior job for less money. Thereby assuring that capable people
are never employed. This is very popular at the present time.
In any event “as falls
Wichita Falls, so falls Wichita,” which is to say that devastation
that wracked Long Island in the 70-90’s which Newsday seemed to
not want to hear about eventually, after destroying hundreds of
thousands of lives got around to destroying the newspaper. I could
care less. They had as much relevance as a hotdog stand in the
wasteland. And one day with no fanfare, or anything, Kitman, and
Breslin and Liz Smith, and Paul Vitello were gone. I was in the UK at
the time and after developing a European outlook on things,
especially economic and political, looked at the hometown paper as
little better then kindergarden stuff.
This is no joke. Page
three would feature the closing of a butcher shop that had been in
business for thirty years. This while the local pols were among the
most corrupt in the country.
When Walter Cronkite was
fired they said he was too old. When thrity years later he was still
making programming they still say he’s too old. What is wrong with
this picture? Now Danny boy’s gone the way of all sincere fools.
Leave us not forget that the awakening in his case, came only after
he lost his salary, but nevertheless we’ll take our allies where
we find them.
The key element though I
address in the following. Marv used to call my essays “missives”.
I think though that, for instance, in revolutionary times the problem
was not the king – it was monarchy was a bad, or obsolete system of
government. Likewise, although I love to hate some of these
characters as well the problem is not the participants, but again,
the system.
And it is compounded by
what the wise chinaman called “the ethereal essence” – meaning
you can’t put your finger on it. You can’t even point your finger
at it. Once you’ve heard enough lies, seen enough injustice, you
no longer expect things to get better. Maybe you get depressed –
but that’s because the purpose of your life, excellence in pursuit
of your endeavors, has proven to be a chimera.
I just don’t think that a
system that denies people a chance to flourish is going to be around
that long and then the focus shifts to the next world. Who knows
that may provide the best insulation from the terminal despair that
strikes those disillusioned by the current one. I’m talking
literally, not metaphysically.
And there’s a final
darkest message to be told. The obsession that many have with the
failures of the current systems are actually masking the much more
serious structural challenges up ahead.
We can’t save
everyone, but instead of asking who must we eradicate we should ask,
who can we save? More to the point who has the skills to save
themselves?
Most amusingly it is interesting to see
Mr Rather rant about “the corporation.” Every other word seems to
be that. What do you think? Do you think he’s on to something?
I can appreciate
it it is nerve wracking. You show up at high noon and stand in the
street and there’s no one there at the other end of the street.
Then bullets come at you from out of nowhere and you die. That’s
the modern way of death; not with a bang, not with a whimper, but
with silent fingers that grip the throat in the dark of night. We
fight ghosts, phantoms, illusions and the war is fought on a plane
that can only be considered mystical.
And as they say to the
special agents, “If you get caught we will deny all affiliation”
Here’s the bit…
A small note:
DanRather, now that he is no longer being paid a million plus a year,
to read teleprompters has decided to go on record as being opposed to
corporate control of news programming. Whether he feels this is wrong
because it will lead to a bad end, or simply because it offends his
sense of order is not clear, however as long as people seem to agree
with me I will compliment them on their intelligence.
As someone who’s
been fighting this battle for a long time and who is way beyond the
level of personal antipathies I will assign to this pup a task. The
obvious question is ,”If corporations control media who controls
corporations?” Are they like the Krupps, the IBM’s or the
Zaibatsu that lead us into the second world war, or, (and this is
more of a challenge,) are they something different?
When we speak of
corporate entities are we speaking of artificial life forms – is it
possible we have anthropomorphized them into living things with
rights and privileges ordinarily only granted to human beings?
Since these “entities” are immortal and can feel no pain what
possible way is there to provide restrictions on their omnipotence?
Is the purpose of life to
create ever more powerful and efficient machines?
Does the human race deserve to
survive?
If so, give evidence. Lack of
sufficient evidence will be treated as a negative answer.
Once a reply is made application for
membership in the Tamlinmediaco it will be reviewed at our
prerogative..
There are no time limits to apply, or
to our response.
Tamlin
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