No, I think you have it wrong, if you don't mind my saying so, what you are
seeing is the result of the gutting of any sort of budgets that helped keep
non-profit broadcasting without having to see the intrusion of corporate
America. This is precisely what was intended to happen once the budget of
CPB was cut! This is one of the few first world countries that seems
a d a m EMAIL souljazzantly opposed to supporting it's own cultural heritage, despite the fact
that it can well afford it, hell! orgs like the NRA are better funded than
many cultural orgs could ever hope to be. What you are seeing is just the
beginning of the corporatization of the once free and cultural side of
broadcasting and with the full onset of that, we will see things slanted
more and more until it all sounds like the corporate icons want it to sound
within the parameters that are defined by these sponsors. It is, to me at
least, a crumbling of something great, it will be up to people like us to
attempt to find ways to extrapolate these elements of the cultural heritage
and to extend them on a daily basis into people's lives so that they may get
a glimmer of how important many of these things actually are. In an era
where the various arms of governments seem more inclined to build more
prisons than schools, it should not be that surprising. What does alarm me
is that while so many of the internet newly rich have not tried to support
what are the underpinnings of their own world and it is only a matter of
time before we are paying to send each email and our choices on the internet
start to be dictated to by major corporate interests. It is true, the symbol
of America is the dollar sign, even the venerable BBC broadcasts here in a
stilted way to cash in on the focus on coin.
These signs at the beginning and the end of programs like this are merely
the first signposts on the road to a stark cultural environment. It's yet
another reason why lists like this one are so vital, to keep at least some
of the balls in the air just not mine! (pardon this crudity, I could not
resist!). Ken Burns has ahd to assembel something that must have had many
considerations budget wise, from licensing to many other facets, only the
corporations can now afford to support these sorts of activities and they
will only do it if there is a clearly definable and visible benefit, like
getting the minutes at the beginning and the end of the show!
GEEZ - indeed!
leslie/The Power of Sound/www.kazu.org/Tues, Wed, Thurs 8-10 PST
----- Original Message -----
From: R. Scott <framboise@mindspring.com>
To: Steve Catanzaro <stevencatanzaro@sprintmail.com>; Nathaniel Rahav
<nat@rhythmlove.com>; <acid-jazz@ucsd.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2001 5:59 PM
Subject: Re: Ken Burns on Charlie Rose
> Here's an excellent point. I sat waiting for the thing to start and had to
> wait 10 minutes because of corporate advertising. And the commercial for
the
> "product" at the end......geez!
>
> The symbol of America is a dollar sign.
>
> peace,
> R. Scott
> framboise@mindspring.com
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Steve Catanzaro" <stevencatanzaro@sprintmail.com>
> To: "Nathaniel Rahav" <nat@rhythmlove.com>; <acid-jazz@ucsd.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2001 12:34 PM
> Subject: Re: Ken Burns on Charlie Rose
>
>
> > Nat wrote;
> >
> > The whole thing is definitely a labor of love and not a commercial
> venture,
> > > which immediately increases its credibility thousandfold.
> > >
> >
> > Don't kid yourself! I have never seen so much ancillary packaging for a
> PBS
> > production. Videos, DVD's, Books, CD's.... and check out the gigantic GM
> > spots. "Public" broadcasting? Kind of laughable.
> >
> > Burns may be passionate, but he'll probably make more money off of this
> one
> > thing than Art Tatum made in his whole career....
> >
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Jan 10 2001 - 04:57:59 CET