In France today the only heroes are the homeless, the new Pet Rocks of Paris and its prime time media.

by Nidra Poller, PJM’s Paris Editor

One hundred days from the presidential elections, what is on the mind of an aspiring world power like France? The nuclear threat from Iran? The Hizballah putsch fomenting in Lebanon? War between Fatah and Hamas? The defeat of Islamists in Somalia?

Rinko Kikuchi

A continuing series of “out of school” Oscar reviews by Motion Picture Academy Member Roger L. Simon

Two of this year’s notable films – Babel and The Pursuit of Happyness – share a theme of concern for children. I don’t know whether that constitutes a trend. But it’s certainly in the air. And who could deny this theme’s importance or its drama?

By Catherine Seipp

The Michael Richards n-word incident continues to take its toll, especially in media circles. I just noticed, for instance, that former Los Angeles Timesman Bob Baker’s attempt at “satirizing” Richards’ recent comedy club implosion used the n-word 23 times and therefore got him in trouble with a “reporter/friend,” (presumably nonwhite, otherwise I suspect Baker would have tried to come up with some sort of argument.) But the sometime L.A. Times writing coach quickly backed off from his Lenny Bruce-inspired parody regretfully and fully.

Ulrich Mühe as Weisler

A continuing series of “out of school” Oscar reviews by Motion Picture Academy Member Roger L. Simon

My friend novelist David Freeman said the German movie The Lives of Others would remind blasé me why I was once interested in working in the movies and he was right. Thirty-three year old Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s first film about life under the Stasi (East German State Security) is a masterpiece of political cinema with the depth and lingering impact of a serious novel, an extreme rarity in movies these days. It is also a riveting theatrical experience. The film won Best Picture at the European Film Awards (after being astonishingly rejected by the Berlin and Cannes Festivals – more on this below) and should contend for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.

"Was it something I said?

By PJM’s Media Correspondent Catherine Seipp

My sympathy for Michael Richards (a.k.a. Seinfeld’s “Kramer” who erupted in a racist tirade at two black hecklers last week at a LA comedy club), was quite limited to begin with. It shrank even further when Richards appeared on David Letterman the next day to apologize for his obscene outbursts.

Soft Writing and Hard Times at the LA Times

By Catherine Seipp

I’ve been struck by the odd notion - reportedly run up the flagpole by David Geffen, a possible Los Angeles Times buyer - that the way to improve my favorite paper is to lure Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich and Alex Witchel from the New York Times out to Spring Street. Now that’s just crazy, because why should they go, when everything about them is so essentially New York?

"What to do?"

Nidra Poller on the disappointing conclusion to the French state media’s prosecution of a man accused of “insulting” the press by suggesting that they report the truth.

By Catherine Seipp, Special Correspondent to PJM, Media

I have no idea whether the Los Angeles Times should cut even more staff positions or not. On the one hand is the odd notion that a 20% profit margin is somehow not enough. On the other hand is Times features columnist Al Martinez’s tirade the other week when he discovered blogs… and his remaining readers discovered that Martinez himself is still mysteriously occupying one of those coveted staff positions.

When PJM learned last week that certain web sites were being blocked at the US Department of the Interior, we asked Baron Bodissey to take an up-close and personal look at what was going on. What he found does not increase trust in the transparency of big government —

Catherine Seipp looks back on the first 10 years of FOX, years that reshaped the cable news business: “I remember once I was at a media party here in L.A., and some guy from the lefty KPFK radio station, overhearing me mention the words “Fox News” in conversation with someone else, remarked: ‘I like you already!’ Why? ‘Because it’s great to hear someone slam Fox News.’”

Nelson Ascher

In an essay exclusive to PJM NELSON ASCHER looks at the strange symbiotic relationship between the Mainstream Media and Non-Governmental Organziations and what it means to our lives.-ed.

Philippe Karsenty- founder of Media-Ratings

Nidra Poller concludes her coverage … for now … of the Al-Dura Trial in Paris with a blow-by-blow account of the trial with analysis of the proceedings.
Paris 18 September 2006

Disclosure: I make no pretense to objectivity in my reports on this trial. Philippe Karsenty is a friend and colleague; we have often discussed this case that was brought against him but aimed at all of us who share a commitment to destroying the al-Dura blood libel.

Studio 60: The West Wing with Punchlines

Catherine Seipp finds that NBC’s Sorkinesque “Studio 60” is a drama about about a comedy about “Characters of proper liberal moral clarity making rousing speeches to each other while the swelling soundtrack tells viewers what to feel.” No laughtrack.

Conventional wisdom has it that Aaron Sorkin’s “The West Wing” was a liberal fantasy about what the White House might have been with Martin Sheen’s fictional president in charge rather than Bill Clinton. But after watching “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” Sorkin’s new NBC drama about a “Saturday Night Live”-like comedy series, I suspect “The West Wing” was actually an Aaron Sorkin fantasy about the White House with Sorkin in charge rather than of Bill Clinton.

Nidra Poller with a breaking report from the Al-Dura Trial
Paris 13 September 2006

Flash:
Here are my first impressions of the trial. A proper account will follow tomorrow.
The trial was beautiful, the Palais de Justice is beautiful with its aspiring architecture and gilded gates, it was a beautiful late summer evening in mid-September as we walked out of the Courthouse at 8:30 PM, exhausted and relieved. Richard Landes and I danced out of there singing Vive la France.

Zola - "J'accuse"

Starting September 14, three Frenchmen go on trial in Paris for questioning the veracity of the 2000 videotape of the putative murder of Palestinian child Mohammed Al-Dura by Israeli soldiers. This tape - promulgated by the French state-run channel France 2 - is often credited with helping instigate the so-called “Al-Aqsa Intifada”. Now, six years later, in the shadow of revelations about media manipulation and “fauxtography” by Reuters and others, these trials take on extraordinary unexpected resonance. Not since the days of Alfred Dreyfus and Emile Zola has the French legal system been put to such a test on basic issues of racism and freedom of expression.

While the mainstream media largely ingnores this event, Pajamas Media is proud to present extensive coverage. We begin here with a stage-setting report from our Paris Editor Nidra Poller who will be attending the trials on our behalf.-ed.

September 12, 2006
Ellen W. Horowitz

We wander over to place de la République, perhaps the most schizophrenic of all of Paris’s major places.
-The Paris Free Voice Magazine, June 1999
——

If Place de la Republique was schizophrenic back in the summer of 1999, then by the autumn of 2000 it was overtly psychopathic.

You would think that the bronze lady of of the republic would have felt a bit violated by the keffiyahs, swastikas, and hatred gracing her foundation - but she didn’t protest too much.

"Obviously, we can't sugarcoat what's going on in the world...."

[ For media critic Catherine Seipp, Katie Couric can be more, much more than just another perky face. In the short and long run, it makes no difference. —- Editor ]

I don’t normally watch TV news, because when I do I can practically feel myself getting dumber. Presenting information out of context, combining superficially similar things in specious and misleading ways - it all just seems like an inane whirlwind of murder, freakish animal attacks, and lotto results.

“Listening to Lee at the HBO press conference reminded me of an afternoon I once spent with an elderly aunt….”At a press conference for Spike Lee’s new documentary, Catherine Seipp wonders if he is a brilliant filmmaker, a deft promoter of himself, a conspiracy nut, or perhaps all three.

I was standing around with a French journalist friend of mine after HBO’s press conference this summer for Spike Lee, whose new film is “When the Levees Broke,” an HBO documentary about the Katrina devastation that premieres in two parts Aug 21 and 22, then runs as a single four-hour movie Aug. 29, Katrina’s anniversary. Another French journalist at this press conference, who writes for Le Monde, ran up to tell my friend about a “scoop” she’d just gotten from the director.

Mike Godwin

Mike Godwin of “Godwin’s Law observes that you might not be interested in “Net Neutrality,” but “Net Neutrality” is interested in you.

If you’ve heard the phrase “net neutrality” (or “network neutrality”) in the news lately, and you haven’t immediately passed out from boredom, good for you — the term itself is pretty yawn-inducing.

The policy question itself, though, ought to interest you. The public debate about net neutrality is at its heart a debate about whether we want to keep the Internet growing and expanding and contributing to our cultural growth as it has been, or whether we instead want to turn it into something as static and predictable as telephone service or TV.

Many bloggers now think of themselves as “journalists.” Blogger and journalist Catherine Seipp says, “Not so fast.”

I’m a journalist first and blogger second, so I’ve never joined that reflexive “down-with-the-mainstream-media” cheer I often hear from the blogosphere. Noodling about the antics of your kittycat, or what you had for breakfast, or how brilliant your prose — even though it gets almost no hits — does not make you a journalist. (Or even a writer, for that matter. Sorry.)

“Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” -or- “Who watches the watchmen?”

The reality of elections in the 21st century is that our media form the hub around which the wheel of our political lives revolves. While it may be possible to run for office without involving the media, it is almost impossible to win one.

Whether it is the “legacy” media of newspapers, magazines, and network television, or the new media of cable news, talk radio, the web, podcasts and the blogs, media is a major player in our politics. At Media Central we intend to gather a host of keen observers and commenters to keep their eyes on the way in which the media shapes and influences the key races of 2006.

MEDIA CENTRAL will be one of the watchmen of the watchmen. We hope you will enjoy watching and participating with us.