At the end of the Vietnam War–not quite the end, 1971–I was 15 that November, my cousin had finished his basic training in Jersey and was getting ready to ship out. He’d been coming to Norristown most weekends to stay at our place and get off the base.  Of course, we played pool and basketball … More Sunshine Daydream

Name It and claim It George Gerbner said the public was created by the newspapers:  an audience that previously didn’t exist as a group, but had diverse traditions, stories, and beliefs. The mass media generated the public through the phenomenon of “news,” along with a set of messages and stories. In cultivation theory, Gerbner instructs … More What is "public takeover?"

I have begun to try to read the new Census Bureau statistics on the Economy, but I haven’t made much progress yet. From the description by Bernie Sanders in his floor speech in the Senate yesterday, the figures on the economy are bad. Senator Sanders takes the time to elaborate on the contents of the … More Community Facts

I have been handed a wonderful opportunity to participate in a project of corresponding with an Iraqi, and facilitating a similar correspondence between and American and an Iraqi for any American who wants to do so, bypassing the mass media, the government, the official channels, and just reaching out, one human being to another, to … More Peace Action Letters

Reading Dana Priest and William Arkin’s Top Secret America.  There’s a lot of eye opening information in there.A couple of things that stand out here in the early going for me have to do with, naturally, media control, and also the response to 9/11.One of the big reactions to 9/11 justifying the Patriot Act and … More Top Secret America