tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post2000762181031430509..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Walter Benjamin: JournalismUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-65779463780575008822013-04-18T02:07:59.591-07:002013-04-18T02:07:59.591-07:00The whole world is one big beehive now. Or possibl...The whole world is one big beehive now. Or possibly hornet's nest, more like.<br /><br />Oh, well... May as well admit this post was meant to cause a bit of a pause for reflection over the way the recent atrocity in Boston has sprung the bad genie out of the instant-media tarn yet again.<br /><br />The usual suspects were always going to come in for an immediate bashing, naturally.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/authorities_under_suspect_guard_y2m8cJO29uC2PDGIjYBalO" rel="nofollow">NY Post, 15 April: Authorities ID Person of Interest as Saudi National</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/04/15/fox_regular_jokes_about_muslims_kill_them_all/" rel="nofollow">15 April: Fox News conservative columnist "jokes" about retribution vs Muslims -- "kill them all"</a><br /><br />And then a few days went by...<br /><br />This from The Guardian, 17 April:<br /><br />"Two days after the outrage, an element of confusion entered the hunt for the perpetrator of one of the worst attacks on American soil, at least in public. The day was characterised by swirling media speculation, first of a positive identification of a suspect, then of an imminent arrest, and finally of an actual arrest, which was swiftly proven to be wrong...<br /><br />"Denying there had been an arrest, the FBI released a statement warning the media against the 'unintended consequences' of inaccurate reporting.<br /><br />"Intense media interest in the hunt erupted in a spate of inaccurate reports that strained relations with the FBI. The agency issued a strongly worded warning to media after it was compelled to contradict media accounts that an arrest had taken place.<br /><br />"Erroneous reports, the FBI statement said, could have 'unintended consequences', and it called for the media to exercise caution. 'Over the past day and a half, there have been a number of press reports based on information from unofficial sources that has been inaccurate,' the FBI said.<br /><br />"CNN, the Boston Globe, Fox News, the Associated Press and the BBC were among the organisations that carried inaccurate reports that a suspect either had been arrested or that an arrest was 'imminent'."<br /><br />__<br /><br />Otherwise, a bit of an irony, I thought, in the fact that for most of the 20th century, the speed of "connecting up" (mantra of today's mayfly social media platform hucksters) probably owed more to Lindbergh, who effectively invented air mail and made a crusade of promoting it, than to any other individual.<br /><br />I realize of course that there are people alive now for whom the concept of air mail, like that of the iron horse, has no meaning. Still.<br /><br />(A century from now, if there are people alive at all, doubtless there will be many who will draw a blank when challenged with such outdated terms as "internet" and "blogging".)<br /><br />__<br /><br />And by the by, that South Asian lad from Leicester who is the "person responsible" (if not also the "primary suspect") in the case of the wonderful 1997 Cornershop tune... he has an actual name. It's Tjinder Singh. Here for your expanded entertainment access is the "juiced" version of his tune, which turned it from the particular cultural moment in which it originated into a global event. One world, connected-up.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LBnMRWeV-E" rel="nofollow">Brimful of Asha on the 45: Norman Cook remix</a>TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-13958061885009940122013-04-17T16:00:41.166-07:002013-04-17T16:00:41.166-07:00That frantic swarm of bees is impressive. Gatherin...That frantic swarm of bees is impressive. Gathering around the airplane, their honey. Their hero. <br />Yellow butterflies...<br />The story about Ecole Normale claiming their own hero made me smile. Such a classic. He is ours, he is ours. Every one needs heroes.Marie Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07787850063283960703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-85560690383427357372013-04-17T12:39:10.494-07:002013-04-17T12:39:10.494-07:00Your last remark, Tom--capital! (And that Cornersh...Your last remark, Tom--capital! (And that Cornershop song no slouch, either.)vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras)https://www.blogger.com/profile/14515165428574974933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-82790582703827588412013-04-17T11:58:09.333-07:002013-04-17T11:58:09.333-07:00We've just buried a conjuror here who with one...We've just buried a conjuror here who with one small phrase could make society disappear.<br /><br />I suppose Lindbergh would have been studying eugenics during his imaginary tenure at the Ecole Normale.Mose23https://www.blogger.com/profile/01100756913131511440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-78055132169004638172013-04-17T11:25:40.177-07:002013-04-17T11:25:40.177-07:00When the war comes home, this is how it feels. The...When the war comes home, this is how it feels. The battlefield is anywhere. Everyone is a potential “enemy combatant.” Everyone, just by being here, is “a person of interest”—the citizen suspect. The war at home begins to look like the war we make “over there.” La guerra total—war against all and everything.<br /><br />(I do like that Cornershop song).Hazenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13417573435195561519noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-38551627632043194442013-04-17T09:01:52.787-07:002013-04-17T09:01:52.787-07:00Just chalk it up to the Marxism!Just chalk it up to the Marxism!TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-82360030181870222502013-04-17T08:59:12.183-07:002013-04-17T08:59:12.183-07:00That Cornershop album was the soundtrack to my jun...That Cornershop album was the soundtrack to my junior year of college. Thanks, Tom, for the trip down memory lane.<br /><br /><br /> Norahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14439557611640319928noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-48650848604856445052013-04-17T08:51:48.734-07:002013-04-17T08:51:48.734-07:00Took a while to sort the reason the Cornershop tun...Took a while to sort the reason the Cornershop tune about Asha on the 45 popped up straight out of the blue like that.<br /><br />Then it came to me: in the spring of 1924, eighty-nine years ago right now, in a café on the Isle of Capri, in the Bay of Naples, where he'd gone off to live on the cheap, Benjamin met a Latvian Bolshevik theatrical worker named Asja Lacis, and a "holiday romance" ensued.<br /><br />Asja / Asha.<br /><br />It was Asja led Benjamin to Marxism.<br /><br />Following a breakdown Asja was confined to a mental asylum in Moscow. Benjamin visited her in the winter of 1926-1927. He bought a goose to be shared at a communal Christmas dinner. The goose was badly cooked. Six to eight people, crowded round a small desk, tucked in at the thing, babbling away in Russian, a language Benjamin did not understand. Asja soon tired of translating for him. Benjamin felt alienated. The evening was a disaster. Benjamin returned to Berlin to study the origins of capitalism.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-4779725328643269272013-04-17T08:15:08.329-07:002013-04-17T08:15:08.329-07:00Well... to punctuate this with something a bit mor...Well... to punctuate this with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzBz7p0A3-Y" rel="nofollow">something a bit more positive</a>:<br /><br />There's dancing behind movie scenes,<br />Behind those movie screens -- saddi rani.<br /><br />She's the one that keeps the dream alive,<br />From the morning, past the evening, till the end of the light.<br /><br />Brimful of Asha on the forty-five.<br />Well, it's a brimful of Asha on the forty-five...<br /><br />And singing<br />Illuminate the main streets and the cinema aisles.<br />We don't care about no government warning...<br /><br />Everybody needs a bosom for a pillow; mine's on the RPM...<br />(fadeout)<br /><br />['Asha' refers to Asha Bhonsle, a prolific Indian "playback" (backup) singer; but in the context of the song, the word also perhaps signifies "hope".]TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-65748167840161494582013-04-17T07:26:19.785-07:002013-04-17T07:26:19.785-07:00In fact, verbal
Flurries falling
From moment clou...In fact, verbal<br />Flurries falling <br />From moment cloud<br />Use little judgment <br />Most time.<br /><br />Journalism is<br />As Huffington huffs.kenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12448791356455016794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-81926341661957618682013-04-17T05:22:59.369-07:002013-04-17T05:22:59.369-07:00And speaking of journalism... that HuffPost headli...And speaking of journalism... that HuffPost headline writer could perhaps have used a little coaching on verb-agreement (but as we know the flurry of the moment cloud the judgment some time).TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-40892898083886714172013-04-17T05:16:32.911-07:002013-04-17T05:16:32.911-07:00Boston Attack Media Coverage: Flurry Of Conflictin...<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/15/boston-attack-media-conflicting-reports_n_3087916.html" rel="nofollow">Boston Attack Media Coverage: Flurry Of Conflicting Reports Cloud Situation: Jack Mirkinson, Huffington Post, 15 April 2013</a>TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.com