Having grown up in New Jersey, we obviously didn’t have the BBC in my house. We didn’t even have cable for that matter, which may not sound like a big deal to you, but in a suburban high school, “what you got” can determine where you classify on the foodchain. I of course was made fun of and pitied for my lack of cable. The guys used to talk about how the cable company had a big map of the state and there was a big red circle around my house and my family was the focus of all their sales efforts.
But I did have public radio, and you can bet I made use of it. During the day, Pacifica’s wonderfully crazy WBAI, the station where so many different groups could have their voice; from native americans, to convicts, to former characters from TV’s The Munsters. Everynight, French radio on WNYE New York, followed by the BBC. Each of them offerred me news stories from all over the world, not to mention reports from local activists, who didn’t just talk about issues, many were directly involved in a cause they believed in. Hell, that’s the beauty of Alternative Grassroots Radio.
All this as a round about way to tell you about the one day BBC strike yesterday. It isn’t so much that they had a strike, but the way they talk about it on the air. I happenned to have BBC World on the night before, and the anchor actually reports that the station is going on a one day walk out, and goes on to interview another BBC employee about the issues. Do you see what is unique here? The BBC actually talks about internal disputes ON THE AIR! It’s a simple and beautiful thing… a dash of transparency in a realm that rarely sees it. When the hell do you see Fox or NBC or whatever other crappy network reporting about their own company’s internal disputes? Never. It’s not allowed. You CAN NOT make such reports.
So I just thought — that’s what I call a media corporation with a commitment to the public. Or at least a hint of honesty for a change. Speaking of honesty, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and god knows what else, the Blog Maverick embodies how corporate bigshots SHOULD blog. Honestly, openly, and with a curiously creative spirit.
PS – I still listen to all those stations, even here in Europe. Thanks internetS.
AudioCommunique #36(mp3)
Laura Bush strikes me as a psychopath. Or a sociopath. One of those words for people who are secretly crazy and probably cut themselves in private. I’m not making fun of her for that, I actually hope she gets help for that problem. But listening to her speak (by mistake on television) in Israel, you can hear that she has no clue what is happenning in the world and she’s just on the borderline of snapping and killing everyone. – I’m scared.
Still tonight was a classic, as Toronto’s Finest Chef-in-exile is officially back and warming a new house. And it’s one of them classic 1700’s Amsterdam shop-houses, with stain glass windows facing the street. The man is a culinary genious and a social scholar to boot. I especially enjoyed his home-made-mango ice cream. As we soaked in the typical Amsterdam party ingredients and got into this big conversation about the lack of female-comedic actresses since the eighties. 
Obviously I saw the annoyingly over-talked about film of the year. Proudly, thanks to my friends round the world with whom I share files, I downloaded that shit. Plus I don’t want the producers to get one dime from me.