You idiots, the press is the fourth estate, you don't even know what to call yourself, you really ought to be embarrased -- CN7@ [e-mail domain]
Hey, CN7, it's rare that we encounter anyone who uses commas as periods. We'd say you should be embarrassed (or, as you prefer, "embarrased") but maybe you're attempting to be a punctuation trail blazer?
As for your comments re: "Third Estate." Take a class in history or read the archives. We've repeatedly answered this question. Before the French revolution, there were three classes ("estates"). The first one was wealthy, the second was aristocracy and government. The third?
Peasants. We've oversimplified but feel it was necessary to do so for you to catch on. Thanks for writing.
Just listened to Flashpoints [e-mail sent on Thursday] and what happened? No Haiti. I had to stop listening because I couldn't take another moment of Kevin Pena playing Sally Struthers and crying WHY!WHY! on air repeatedly. Again: What happened? -- Marcus
What happened, Marcus, is that, like you, a lot of listeners tuned out. A lot. When they started their non-stop Haiti coverage, Haiti was already wall-to-wall on all outlets. There was no need for Flashpoints to offer 'coverage.' Especially when doing so meant that they were ignoring Israel -- one of their "beats" -- at a time when it should have been front and center. We believe guest hostess Kevin Pina was last featured on March 22nd due to the fact that you can't radicalize anyone if you run your audience off.
Flashpoints covered WikiLeaks Monday. I hope you'll give them a link. -- Mona
Monday WikiLeaks released US military video of the US assault in Baghdad July 12, 2007. To varying degrees, it was covered on radio programs such as Talk Of The Nation (twice on that show last week), Morning Edition, All Things Considered, To The Point, The Takeaway, Antiwar Radio and more. While it is true that Pacifica Radio programs largely ignored the story (Uprising was among those showing no interest -- big surprise), Flashpoints meager morsels of coverage didn't rank as anything important or worthy of note so, sorry Mona, no, we won't provide it a link this time. We're also fully aware that Flashpoints (see above) was so obsessed with Haiti that they never addressed Iraq's elections so we don't feel we owe them a damn thing.
Keith Harmon Snow has a new article ["AFRICOM Backs Bloodshed in Central Africa," at Dissident Voice] and I was wondering if you might ever cover this story? -- BGW
Check our archives, we have covered it. We warned and warned in 2008 that Barack Obama would do what the empire wanted but couldn't achieve. Bush was repeatedly turned down. Hillary would have been as well. But Barack? Son of Kenya would provide the cover for the empire to get further roots into Africa. We explained how the bases were being closed in Europe and how Africa was the new prize. We're just not interested in the story right now, it's too upsetting. We will (and did) insert the name of Keith Harmon Snow's article into your e-mail and provided a link to it. We covered the issue to begin with due to his work. He's a giant on this field and a rare brave voice in a media landscape that either goes along with the US government's narrative or willfully stays silent.
You keep claiming that something was said in a hearing that I never saw anyone write about except for you. President Obama is receiving more death threats and I'm tired of all the lies otherwise. -- Brena
Unless you're the one making the threats, Brena (should we call the Secret Service?), we fail to grasp how you could be so sure of yourself. However, you are wrong and, this edition, we offer "Eleanor gets egg on her face" which contains a transcript of the exchange. Barack is not receiving more death threats.
"Today I Am A Ma'am" has to be the most mentioned TV episode by all of you but Ava and C.I. specifically. I've never even watched The Mary Tyler Moore Show but I could tell you key things about that episode just from your mentions of it. I'm wondering why that episode and that show gets stressed so much? -- Darlene
"Today I Am A Ma'am" is a classic TV episode written by Treva Silverman. You've never seen the episode, Darlene, but you now know it and that's actually the point here. See, what do we know? What gets passed down? Women have achieved many things in real time. And then what happens? They're forgotten. We try to do our part to make sure that doesn't happen. A number of websites hail M*A*S*H or All In The Family repeatedly. Those are good shows, no question, we'll even call them classic television. However, so is The Mary Tyler Moore Show. And this amazing episode is available for online streaming (free) at Hulu.