Trapped at Berkeley

Ok, so I’m a little late on the news. Apparently, during a Meet the Press interview, a Colin Powell aide attempted to cut the interview short by turning the camera away from the Secretary of State. Here’s a link to the video, provided by A Whole Lotta Nothing.

This incident demonstrates how the news media acts as an information gatekeeper. Meet the Press could have chosen to edit the footage and totally ignore what happened. Instead, they chose to criticize Mr. Powell by airing the footage.

While I don’t see anything wrong with airing the footage, and I applaud them for making that decision, I believe the media has become too conservative. In order to make their viewer base as wide as possible, media companies have opted to avoid any type of news that could alienate a particular viewer group. For example, I haven’t seen much about the ‘gay issue’, even though I feel that it’s going to be one of the most decisive factors in the November election.

Furthermore, I think the media companies have failed in their duties as gatekeepers because they filter out information that damages their corporate owners. With the ongoing consolidation in the media industry, there are fewer and fewer independent news sources. Consequently, reports discrediting the claims of the RIAA or MPAA are rarely presented to a nationwide audience.

Maybe blogs will provide the next wave of independent news…

Being an avid fan of CSI w/o a television, I downloaded #BT’s HDTV rip of the latest episode, Butterflied. Near the beginning of the episode, a tune in the soundtrack caught my attention. I recognized the sound, but I couldn’t identify it…

I had to know what song it was!

I paused the episode and opened up XMMS. I quicked scrolled through my list of songs, stopping first at Depeche Mode. I felt that the sound I heard had an electronic, inorganic, atmosphere, and Depeche Mode was known for their unique electronic tones. However, after listening to a few Depeche Mode sound bites, I ruled them out. The sound wasn’t cheery, nor was it blended in the ’sad’ Depeche Mode way (I can’t think of a better description).

Next came Moby, another famous electronic artist. I took a lot longer to rule him out. Moby tends to use many different techniques and styles, so it was difficult to totally characterize the sound I heard as not Moby. Nevertheless, I ruled him out too, because, if it was him, it would have had to something he did in the 70’s, and in that case, I was already doomed.

I came upon Peter Gabriel, but I decided to ignore him. I had an hunch. I scrolled back up to Bjork.

The sound was definitely Bjork. Or was it. The sound I heard was melancholy. Bjork has tons of deep, dark, songs. And she oftens use electronic mixing. Nevertheless, even though I have EVERY SINGLE Bjork cd, I couldn’t find a match.

At this point, I normally would have given up. I was interrupting a good episode of CSI, and my search was going nowhere. But I came upon one last idea. Bjork had worked with many European bands, and one of bands closely associated with her music is Massive Attack. I remember this because I was talking to my high school friend Mina Hong the other day, and she had a Bjork buddy icon. I pointed it out, and she and I discussed Bjork’s music, and Massive Attack was brought up.

I was right! The song was Massive Attack’s Name Taken from their new album 100th Window. I took a few minutes to listen to the song in its unedited entirety, and then I finished enjoying the CSI episode.

After that episode, I’ve found myself listening to Massive Attack again. Emily’s gonna hate me for the next note: If anybody wants to buy me a gift, Massive Attack’s album Blue Lines would work very well =)