Where we stand, in long arc of history: -Story on left, adding race as a factor when that favors white people. -Story on right, banning race as a factor when that favors non-whites. I often complain about NYT headlines and story-play. But these are strong. Including "If Court Guts 1965 Law."

(2/2)

And from the same book, an account of the TV rivalry between Israel and the Arab states in the early '70s: (1/2)

Thanks to American Campus, the podcast about the history of higher education, for featuring my book. We talk about how NPR and PBS emerged from equal access to education discourses. And how Media Studies originated as a strategy of public media activism.

Just got back from Normal, IL for a lecture at Illinois State University. Established in 1857 after this small town lawyer named Abe secured the funding. Was reminded once again that US public universities are the triumph of civilization

#RIP Diane Keaton Image: Annie Hall with Diane Keaton and Woody Allen, 1983

Midweek reminder to check out our latest episode on the history of American public media (NPR, PBS) with @joshshepperd.bsky.social. As these institutions continue to be under attack, it is important to look at where they came from and what they mean to our society. shows.acast.com/the-history-...

Democrats spend millions measuring public sentiment; Republicans spend millions shaping it.

I expect US national consensus to completely break down over the next decade due to algorithmic media and AI generating pocket realities. I’ve been warning this since 2017, and it’s already happening Things will get crazy before we find antidotes. Radical changes in how we collectively govern ahead

I used to think the political economy of U.S. media was more about economics [the need to package huge bipartisan audiences to sell to advertisers] than about the politics [rent-seeking + regulatory favoritism more important than profit-earning]. I think that was true last century, but not anymore.

Our latest podcast is out now - on the first Radio Times. From that issue: - the front page - the first cartoon (on listening at a village hall) - the first letter (from Spain) - my favourite ad ("Height increased in 30 days"!) The podcast awaits your ears. Do it now, whatever your height.

Planica, Slovenia, hosts international ski jumping competitions every year. This clip takes us behind the scenes of the first live TV coverage of the event more than six decades ago; note that ox carts were used to transport the equipment: euscreen.eu/item.html?id... @jeffkisseloff.bsky.social

A podcast about New York's legendary Radio Row: www.bunkhistory.org/resources/wh...

Here's Timothy Green, writing in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘢𝘭 𝘌𝘺𝘦: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘛𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 (1972), about how television came to Africa:

please read my memo www.theverge.com/business/793...

Berlin cinemas 1910s & 1920s

The first real snow of the season at higher altitudes above Slovenia's Upper Sava Valley:

In 2015, polls showed the EU to be 10th most important issue for voters. Then media platforming of Farage etc changed that. At the last election, things like the NHS & economy were biggest issue. But media platforming of Reform has apparently pushed immigration up there. We are being manipulated

Sounds like the line they put at the beginning of the documentary to foreshadow the cleansing.

Take it from a man who was placed in an internment camp. It was not so long ago.

In coming full circle, though, Trump is also copying a page from Orban's media playbook in Hungary. As @zecsaky.bsky.social explained here, in addition to the right-wing outlets they already owned, Orban's pals bought up opposition outlets and turned them into regime mouthpieces. (Gift link.)

Big Tech serving as a handmaiden to fascism www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Let's make it a daily one.

Once again, there was lots of livable streets eye candy during Sunday's car-free Meet Me on Milwaukee event. It's more evidence that next year this should shift from being a monthly happening to a weekly one. chi.streetsblog.org/2025/09/29/e... @daniellaspata.bsky.social @stevevance.net

I mean yes this is funny, but the fact that these unconstitutional stormtroopers are so directionless that they literally stand around waiting for random nonwhite delivery guys to bike past them is just pathetic. No mandate, no mission, no clue. Just racism.

The federal government has censored the work of dozens of scientists, including work by my lab, on the impacts of climate change on Acadia National Park. Signs have been removed from Cadillac and Great Meadow. They’re also removing signs about the Wabanaki’s sacred connections to Cadillac.

😊

BBC News's problem used to be its misplaced tendency to deploy 'false balance'. Alas, the problem's just got a lot worse....

Good. Every public employee who lost a job for posting something about Charlie Kirk should be reinstated with back pay and damages.

John Reith of the BBC: ‘a soul in torment’? My piece for the BBC looking back at the publication - 50 years ago this week - of the extraordinary ‘Reith Diaries’

They want to memory-hole slavery like the way China erased the Tiananmen Square Massacre. “The Trump administration is ordering the removal of information on slavery at multiple national parks in an effort to scrub them of “corrosive ideology.”

A podcast about New York's legendary Radio Row: www.bunkhistory.org/resources/wh...

The heady days of pirate radio in an unlikely place—the Soviet Union of the 1960s and '70s (from Burton Paulu's 1974 book 𝘙𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘛𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘥𝘤𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘌𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘌𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦):

They abandoned the whole free speech thing as soon as people started saying things that genuinely offended them. It wasn’t that they were so tolerant that they accepted nazi talk as a necessary evil to protect speech writ large, they just liked saying and hearing slurs bsky.app/profile/jame...

The great 6 minute phone call scene from ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN... RIP Redford youtu.be/Qeemjaosp-E?...

A very welcome repeat of this landmark 1992 series which also led to a BFI book of the same name. One of its researchers, Stephen Bourne, would be quick to point out it depended heavily on exploratory research of BBC files. You couldn't do that now.... www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

We're away from the UK at the moment and I just got this when I tried to access BBC Sounds (on a UK phone and as a licence fee payer, not that either seems to matter). I think this is such a stupid, shortsighted, move. It baffles me that the BBC is willingly abandoning its global reach.

🎂🎁Ce serait aujourd’hui l’anniversaire de la création de la plus dynamique station parisienne d’avant-guerre. Comment vivait Radio Cité en 1938 ? www.radiotsf.fr/elle-aurait-...

Let's not lose sight of the fact that Miller's first two unconstitutional, authoritarian penalties come prior to a determination of any lawbreaking.

I don’t know of any president in history who has so openly sought to antagonize the people who didn’t vote for him. I don’t know of any president who so openly made clear his hatred of not just his opposition, but their supporters as well. Trump seems to crave violence.

A nice article on songs banned by the Beeb (though despite its headline, I don't think it ever claims one as 'greatest'): faroutmagazine.co.uk/best-song-bb...

I personally love spending two days after every shooting terrified that the perp will be sufficiently marginalized to kick off the Day of the Rope

jesus fucking christ what worrying times we live in

Very nice to have ‘Donegal’ present as part of this handsome new anthology of the Shipping Forecast, and to be an adjacent neighbour of Zaffar Kunial within it.

A fine 1933 map showing music lines across Europe, made by the Bureau Unternational de l'Union Telegraphique, and shared with me by ex-BBCer Jeff Cohen. Merci, Jeff.

Former ambassador Ryan Crocker says he doesn’t see how America will gain from dismantling the Voice of America. Read James O'Shea analysis 👇 eagleintelreports.com/fading-ameri...

‘… social historian David Kynaston, told The Observer he suspects “a serious scandal is unfolding” John Wyver, Ian Greaves, Erica Wagner and others on the growing battle to prevent damaging changes to the BBC’s priceless behind-the-scenes archives:

This is not only a serious issue for historians and not only a serious issue for academics (although it is that). It's a development that's also deleterious for the GLAM sector, for example, and part of a much larger trend nationally and internationally to restrict and dismantle access to archives.

"WNET’s explanation for the debacle was simple and consistent: García’s work did not meet their journalistic standards. But was that the whole story?" current.org/2025/08/why-...