Jim: This roundtable is focusing on the media. Last time Ava and C.I. didn't speak in the roundtable. Were they present, some of you asked? Yes. They're the ones who take the notes for this transcript. They may or may not speak this time. Remember our e-mail address is thethirdestatesundayreview@yahoo.com. Participating in our roundtable are The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava, and me, Jim; Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude; Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man; C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review; Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills); Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix; Mike of Mikey Likes It!; Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz); Ruth of Ruth's Report; Trina of Trina's Kitchen; Wally of The Daily Jot; Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ; Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends; Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub. Betty's kids did the illustration. You are reading a rush transcript.
Jim (Con't): What's a big beef about the media that's supposed to be serving us?
Betty: As Ava and C.I. have repeatedly noted in the last weeks, the lack of women as guests. We need our shows, our programs, to be working harder at including women. We also need to be working harder at including people of color.
Wally: JACOBIN needs to fire Ana Kasparian. That I have to make that point goes to how sad 'our media' is. A) She's already on THE YOUNG TURKS where she's been an embarrassment for years. B) JACOBIN needs to have its own brand. It doesn't need to be watered by THE YOUNG TURKS. It is so stupid to have her on a JACOBIN program. They should ask Liza Featherstone or Marianela D'Aprile to host. Co-host? Branko -- what's his name?
C.I.: Branko Marcelic.
Wally (Con't): Thank you. He's someone with passion. So is Walker Bragman. I'd even be fine with David Sirota being a co-host. But they need to kick Ana to the curb. She's alienating to many people. She's become a joke. You can't be in any discussion online when her name comes up that they're not mocking her for her claim that you can't buy a house with $100,000. She's out of touch. She's a rude jerk who's always picking fights online.
Mike: Amen. I won't listen to JACOBIN's weekend program anymore because of her. And that was bulls**t the crap she pulled on Jimmy Dore. I don't watch YOUNG TURDS, I never have. I was never tricked or fooled by Cenk -- just a fat ass Republican who thought he could push his way to the front of the line if he moved over to the left.
Cedric: Ana is irritating. We tried, Ann and I, to listen to JACOBIN but Ana's so prissy. She's just so irritating as a personality. Ann?
Ann: Agreed. She thinks she's so important and she's really not. But she is off putting. I would add that I'm really disappointed who is and who isn't on 'our media.' Ava and C.I. noted a few weeks ago why are these programs -- RISING, Katie Halper, etc -- why aren't they inviting Margaret Kimberley or Glen Ford from BLACK AGENDA REPORT?
Cedric: And I need to give Katie credit. She was nothing but men and may not have realized it but when Ava and C.I. and others started pointing it out, Katie did make an effort to bring on more women. So give her credit for that.
Rebecca: Agree.
Trina: But back to Ann's point, where is Margaret or Glen? They're not shy. Why aren't they being invited on to programs? It's not as though RISING, for example, has a lot of guests of color.
Betty: Right. Support.
Marcia: I want to note Ava and C.I.'s "Media: Cancel Culture, Identity Politics, Inclusion" because this is important, representation is important. I'm African-American. And I know there aren't a lot of sites online that welcome us. Many pretend but it's not reality. Cedric and Betty both have spoken of this over the years. How you'd go to, for example, DAILY KOS in 2004 and, when people wanted to talk problems with reaching voters, as long as you didn't raise real issues, issues that impact African-Americans, things were fine. But if you did raise an issue -- even just noting that Jesse Jackson should have been allowed to visit Florida in 2000 during the recounts -- suddenly you were attacked. Don't dismiss us with "identity politics." You're not our norm, stop pretending that you are. I don't know if I'm making sense here.
Jim: I follow you.
Stan: I do too. And what Ava and C.I. were saying was it would be easier to take some people's scorn of "identity politics" if these people weren't also excluding anyone that wasn't a White male on their programs. The point being, yes, there is "identity politics" that does separate us sometimes and maybe make us lose focus of some larger issues that we could join on. However, "identity politics" comes up to begin with because your White male norm does not fit my Black existence and if you could enlarge the scope of what we discuss so that my issues are addressed as well, we could talk about those larger issues. But you don't do that and that's why people like me are left out of what's supposed to be ''our media."
Betty: Well said. Both of you. Another issue, for me, is YOUTUBE. I agree with C.I., I'm done with podcasts per se. If they're going to be on YOUTUBE, that's different. But there is a hiss, I hear it too, when you're listening to a podcast. I'm tired of it. If the Progressive Radio Network or BLACK AGENDA RADIO would post their program -- BAR -- on YOUTUBE regularly, I'd listen more. I'm done listening at the BAR site because there is that hiss. I'm not trying to be mean.
Kat: And I don't think you are. I'm tired of the hiss too. I don't need it. I don't want it. It's why I don't listen to Cindy Sheehan's podcast. That hiss is so annoying. And there was a time when I would listen to many programs. But now that I can hear what they sound like on YOUTUBE, I'm just not interested in going back to hurting my ears listening to these podcasts with the hiss in it. It's really obvious if you're listening with head phones and that's what I pretty much listen with.
Jim: Okay, what are some programs that are speaking to us, what's ''our media'' right now today?
Mike: Jimmy Dore. THE JIMMY DORE SHOW is a must listen. He's a sane voice in a very crazy world.
Elaine: Since C.I started highlighting them, I've really enjoyed streaming the CONVO COUCH. It's a good program that strives to be fair and strives to say something other than Democratic Party talking points. I really like the two hosts -- Fiorella Isabell and Craig Jardula.
Trina: I agree with Elaine, they are interesting and I like that Craig supported -- or at least was welcoming -- of Gloria La Riva's campaign. I also enjoy Jimmy Dore. I'd say those two and I'd put Katie Halper on the list because she has been bringing on more women.
Ruth: I wish Dennis Bernstein's FLASHPOINTS was on YOUTUBE. If I listen live, it's fine but if I'm going to the KPFA archives to listen after the fact, I do get that hiss everyone's talking about.
Ava: I'm going to plug a podcast that C.I. and I keep meaning to mention in our media pieces. ON THE ISSUES WITH MICHELLE GOODWIN -- it's a podcast MS. MAGAZINE is doing weekly currently.
C.I.: On November 2nd, for example, Michelle Goodwin spoke with former Senator Russ Feingold, actress and comedian Sandra Bernhard and comic, activist and producer Lizz Winstead. It was a very strong show. Michelle's a law professor and her points are strong and thought provoking. She's an important voice and, speaking of women of color, I wonder why she's not invited on RISING and other programs.
Betty: I'm sick of podcasts that aren't on YOUTUBE but I will make a point to listen to Michelle this week and write about her program at my site.
Ruth: And that is really all we can do. We cannot control what other people do. But one thing this community was built on was that we do not have to accept the world that is being shoved down our throat. We can use our sites to ensure that the spotlight goes beyond the White Straight Male.
Ty: I want to note that as soon as WSWS has left their Trump lunacy, I will go back to listening to their videos. I'm just not in the mood though to hear all their crazy talk about how Donald Trump's going to refuse to leave the White House and blah blah blah. There are real issues. Can we talk about that in this media roundtable?
Dona: I will, Ty. I know where you're going. In Monday's "Iraq snapshot," in Sunday's "Moqtada ordered the assault" and in Saturday's ",Moqtada al-Sadr sicks his cult on innocent protesters -- dozens injured, six dead" C.I. has covered how Moqtada al-Sadr organized an attack on the peaceful protesters carried out by Moqtada's goons. Where is the media in 'our media' that covers that? We're not seeing it. The young people of Iraq have risked their lives to protest now for over a year. Last weekend saw an attack that's left nearly 20 dead and over 80 injured. Where's this in 'our media'? I saw countless pieces on Neera Tanden. I saw nothing on Iraq.
Isaiah: I'm glad you brought that up. It's bad that our corporate media ignores Iraq. But what's the excuse for our non-corporate media? One of the reasons I ignore fake-ass MSNBC is because it ignores Iraq. I'm not going to get behind any of our YOUTUBE programs that can't take the time to note the Iraq War. I don't have the time and the Iraq War was a defining moment for my generation, for our country. The Iraq War continues and to pretend that it doesn't is to tell me that your useless and stupid. That's how I feel.
Jim: I don't fault you for feeling that way, I'm sure no one participating does.
Jess: One program not mentioned that I know we listen to is Bonnie Faulkner's GUNS AND BUTTER. I think we forget it because it's not updated every month. It's probably the only podcast I will endure as a podcast.
Ruth: I am glad you mentioned Bonnie. I should have remembered her program.
Jim: Alright, with that we're going to wind down. This is a rush transcript.
