Media

As our sister site the Colorado Independent first reported, Fox News reporter Griff Jenkins — specifically sent to “cause trouble” — was confronted by protesters chanting “Spread the lies” and “Fuck corporate media” just as the DNC was starting in Denver. Fox’s coverage of the tussle gives credence to demonstrators’ concerns about the rightwing network [...]

Last time the Republicans had a national convention, New York-based designers Thomas Fuchs and Felix Sockwell couldn’t pass up a chance to protest — only they did so in a medium they’re comfortable with: They reinvented the GOP elephant in 100 different ways. Sockwell distributed the logos — a Pepsi-sponsored GOP elephant, a trunk transformed into a gun aimed back at a soldier’s head, a pachyderm turned into a hunch-backed man with a cane — in a bicycle rickshaw throughout New York.

With another convention in the wings, I contacted the artists to see if they had any updates to their self-published book, GOP 100: Deconstructing Dumbo. While they said the book is still fresh four years later and doesn’t necessarily need updating, they had one: a retitled piece showing an elephant in prison stripes (reminiscent of this year’s convention logo). It’s now called “Larry Craig.”

Iowa-based conservative advocacy group includes masterminds of Swift Boat and Willie Horton ads

By Jason Hancock, Iowa Independent

A network of Iowa Republicans is playing a leading role in a secretive group advocating nationally on behalf of “conservative and free market ideals” in congressional races around the country. Among the group’s leaders are two media consultants who played key roles in the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads in 2004 and the Willie Horton ad in 1988, both of which helped defeat Democratic presidential candidates.

A source close to Jesse Ventura confirms that the former governor is indeed negotiating to play judge for a daytime courtroom TV show, as MnIndy reported yesterday. Further, Ventura is heading to Los Angeles next week to shoot a pilot for the show, which is scheduled to debut in Fall 2009. It sounds like the [...]

One of the worst kept secrets at this weekend’s National Conference for Media Reform at the Minneapolis Convention Center is that Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News show sent a crew to record the “real nuts” who are advocating for changes in the media — “the furthest left people in the face of America,” according to O’Reilly. [...]

Groundbreaking citizen-based media group The UpTake announced the relaunch of its website today. The UpTake focuses on training and assisting citizen journalists in reporting the political news of the day and becoming an engaged part of the media. The group’s emphasis on video content was highlighted by a live webcast of Tuesday’s mega-rally for Democratic [...]

Smart Politics’ Eric Ostermeier discussed Minnesota Monitor’s content, audience and influence with news editor Steve Perry in a recent interview. However, one of Ostermeier’s questions prompted City Pages’ Jeff Shaw to weigh in with a post on “The Blotter” titled “Smart Politics asks a stupid question.”

The question in question:
Since political reporting comprises a large portion [...]

The media landscape in the Twin Cities has changed dramatically over the last year, and that’s exactly why the organizers of the upcoming  National Conference for Media Reform chose Minneapolis as the site of its 2008 event.

This past year the Twin Cities media market has perilously held on to its two-newspaper status and seen the [...]

Balancing the federal budget may not sound like fun and games for most people, but American Public Media (APM) is looking to change that. APM has released a new news game, called Budget Hero, that is designed to give users a better understanding of the complicated federal budget and the monumental task of balancing it. [...]

There’s something mordantly funny about watching the stenographers and voice talent of the Washington press corps fulminate about Scott McClellan’s admissions regarding the paper-thin pretexts on which the Iraq War was sold by the White House. You get the feeling they resent his flouting club rules more than anything else. Did they not wait their [...]