There has been a lot of activism against Fox News lately. Color of Change is the most recent but there has also been some great work by Robert Greenwald and Hip Hop Artist: Nas among many others. There has even been a recent revelation by former White House Press secretary, Scott McLellan that the administration was giving Fox commentators Republican talking points to make sure they were on the same page as the Administration in their broadcasts. We here at Media Crashers also feel that Fox News is the poster child for what is wrong with the news media today and we would like to contribute to this effort.
Today we are pleased to suggest the Protect The Box From Fox netroots uprising.
Today, we call upon all cable remote savvy netroots media activists to participate in, perhaps, the greatest political prank of our generation. A little bit of "friendly fun" for us to have with our friends and family. Did you ever turn everything on and blast the radio in someone's car so that they are surprised when they start it up? It's a little like that. This prank, however, also has the added bonus of shutting down, in a small way, an invasive intellectual heist of a TV network right at it's source, the cable box.
The concept is simple:
We believe that Fox is political pornography. Our politicians have given us a tool to fight pornography on the cable box. It is called "lockout controls." Go to your cable boxes right now and figure out how to use those controls to lock out Fox News. Once you feel comfortable with how this is done, go to your parents house and lock it out there. Go to your brothers house, your sister, your children, anyone you can think of and protect that box from Fox when they're not looking! If you really want to have fun, create a new password.
The audience for Fox news is very often either not too bright, very casual, or the 50+ crowd who barely know what a computer is. Many of them might not even know what lockout controls are, let alone how to change them back. If we are lucky, they might just figure Fox got canceled on their cable service. We're sure there are some that will know how to unlock it. Others may even go to the trouble of calling the cable company and getting talked through the process of unlocking it. There are bound to be several, however, who don't know enough or don't care enough and just move on to other TV offerings.
What about free speech you say? Aren't we stepping on this poor "person's" first amendment rights?
The first amendment protects citizens and the press from being shut down by the government. It doesn't protect a giant, private, for profit, media conglomerate from being shut down by citizens who feel it is a fraud masquerading as new standard of "news." That phenomenon is what we call the free market taking action to correct itself. Some might also call it it's own form of free speech.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Media Activism: Protect The Box From Fox
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Moveon.org: The Bush McCain Challenge
For more information see the moveon.org page.
They have put together a system where anyone can set up a table somewhere and give this quiz that compares McCain to Bush. This video is just an amusing promo for that effort.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Uncensored Interview: Sway Dasafo - Art Imitating Life
UI is a free video destination site for indie bands. We find talent in the underground indie world and interview them for current fans to enjoy and for new music aficionados to discover. On top of it, we encourage users to talk to the bands by uploading v-sponses and share your thoughts and ideas with them.
This is a great statement posted by Uncensored Interview. UK Hip Hop artist Sway Dasafo offers his take on the vicious circle he sees in the art of Hip Hop as it first imitates life. . . and then itself.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
The Real News - Patriotism and race - Obama disowns Wright
Quite possibly the most intelligent and useful discussion about this issue I have heard from any media source in the 3 weeks they have been talking about it.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Ready -- Set -- BUMBO
As a new father I was really inspired by this series of videos done by a father and his child for YouTube. Sitting around all day with your kid as a stay-at-home Dad may not sound all that much fun, but with a video camera, a Bumbo brand child chair, and some stop action edits lfatboyl has whipped up trilogy of videos that are catching some serious buzz.
Here's part I, II & III followed by some hillarious behind-the-scenes outtakes.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
FOX ATTACKS: Obama Pt. 2
One of Robert Greenwald's better and more effective efforts at Brave New Films. His latest web video is documenting the Obama smear campaign on FOX news and the trail a media virus takes once it's planted.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
The Brazen Heads - Who's Yer Paddy
The Brazen Heads - Who's Yer Paddy
If anybody has been wondering where I have been lately this is why. I just finished the second music video for my Celtic rock band The Brazen Heads
Friday, February 29, 2008
Music: The Brazen Heads - One Eyed Reilly
The Brazen Heads are a Phoenix based Celtic rock band with a surprisingly hard driving sound for a band with no electric guitar in 99% of their work. This is primarily because of the amazing drum and vocal stylings of Roy Plisko (who also writes the blog descriptions) The other guys do stuff too though: Liam Mackey sits in front with a guitar, tells dirty jokes and sings most of the songs, Tim Sadow has this long, hairy, stick thing that he strokes a little instrument with, Mark Lanus plays with just about anything he gets his hands on and bass player James Cowley has really cool hair.
This is the first music video released from their new album Who's Yer Paddy.
For more information go to www.thebrazenheads.com and feel free to drop us a message on our band forums too.