Saturday, July 5, 2008, 2:26 pm
News
You can stop the vile media
You can stop the vile mediaBy Jenice Armstrong
Philadelphia Daily News
IF YOU'RE lucky, you missed getting a bloody e-mail promoting Ashanti's new single, "The Way That I Love You." It was disturbingly violent and, given the homicide rate plaguing many American cities, it was in unbelievably bad taste.
Some kook dreamed up the idea of sending an e-mail blast of customizable e-cards to hype the R&B singer's ballad about a relationship gone awry. Called a Gotcha Gram, the video was done in the form of a fake TV news report alleging that Ashanti's killing of a cheating boyfriend had sparked a wave of copycat murders.
Media Images Still A Problem
Survey of Blacks Reports Continuing Dissatisfaction "Blacks are not satisfied with how they are portrayed by the media.Planned black cable news channel faces many obstacles
The Philadelphia TribuneBy Terry E. Johnson
There have probably never been more than a few battles as epic as those waged by African-American newspapers for the hearts and minds of people of good will.
Black owned radio -- WDAS, WHAT and WURD -- have played their part in this city in the effort to make the world a better place.
And now J.C. Watts, the former Republican Congressman from Oklahoma, has announced that he will launch a 24-hour Black television network with the aim of providing 24-hour news aimed at an African-American audience.
Watts says he wants to get beyond the coverage that he implies too often links Black faces to negative things such as crime and the mentality that "if it bleeds, it leads."
Watts said the channel would launch in 2009.
Media observers say Watts faces many challenges in his effort to make the network "the single destination for reliable, credible, informational resources for the African-American community."
Between the Right and Racial Justice: Wedging The Movement for Media Reform
By Malkia A. Cyril and Jen Soriano, Center for Media JusticeConservative Fox News host Bill O’Reilly has done it again.
Sensationalism, exaggeration, and inaccuracy are the cornerstones of Right-wing punditry- so it wasn't surprising when Bill O’Reilly ripped the 2008 National Conference on Media Reform with ridiculous and unsubstantiated claims that “lunacy”, “danger” and “hatred” dominated the event. His “news” crew clearly didn’t experience what thousands of others did: the amazing speakers, strategic dialogue, and insightful information that predominated the conference.
What was surprising was that while some leaders of the movement for media reform rightly chastised Bill O’Reilly for his bullying, they were strangely silent
FCC's Adelstein calls for content restrictions to protect kids
Adelstein Calls For Content Restrictions To 'Protect Kids'AllACCESS.
Jonathan Adelstein
At WASHINGTON's MEDIA INSTITUTE WEDNESDAY, FCC Commissioner JONATHAN ADELSTEIN called for a further crackdown on broadcast content for indecency and violence. "I believe I speak for millions of parents when I say we’re overwhelmed, fed up and looking for help from the government and the industry alike,"
ADELSTEIN said, complaining that "the Commission has not done all it can to protect children in a legally sustainable and constitutionally permissible manner. The Commission has failed to take some of the more basic steps. We have limited authority to protect children in this age of convergence. So wherever we have clear authority, we need to act ... We are stuck in the mud on the railroad tracks with a freight train bearing down upon us. Standing still is not a good option. We need to find a way to get moving."
Saying that his own seven-year-old son had encountered a bloody, violent TV show that made ADELSTEIN have to comfort him in the middle of the night, ADELSTEIN criticized the FCC's own report on violence for adding "little, if any, analysis to the debate. The report surely did not display the experience and informed judgment of an expert federal agency that has regulated media content over 70 years. Nor did it deal adequately with the constitutional dimensions of regulating violent content on free over-the-air TV, or subscription-based cable and satellite TV services."
ADELSTEIN called for time and place regulation of violence, a study of the V-chip and blocking technology, stronger TV ratings (including rating of commercials), and making TV manufacturers set new TVs to default to allowing only "TV-7" programming until consumers reset the block to their preference.
Universal Motown pulls Ashanti's online promotion!
Ashanti's Label Pulls Blood-Spattered Online PromotionAshanti's Bloody Online Promotion Sparks Anti-Violence Protest In L.A.
Site lets fans personalize a news report about a fake murder spree; singer's publicist says video was intended to be an 'SNL'-style parodyMTV News
By Gil Kaufman
It's been a good four years since we heard from Ashanti. And like any artist hoping to get their career back on track after a poorly selling album — in her case, 2004's Concrete Rose — the Grammy-winning Inc. star needed to make some serious noise to announce her return with the recently released album, The Declaration.
But the blood-splattered video for her single "The Way That I Love You," and a related e-card that features fake news reports about a crime spree allegedly inspired by the revenge-minded clip, sparked a protest on Tuesday (June 10) in Los Angeles that called for the promotional stunt to be taken down.
The music video for the song implies that a spurned lover, played by Ashanti, exacts revenge on her cheating boyfriend by stabbing him to death, and the clip features images of blood-spattered walls, images that are repeated in an e-card promotion linked to from the official Ashanti homepage.
Visitors to the controversial site are greeted by a fake news headline from the UCN, the Universal Crime Network, which reports that, "police are investigating a recent wave of violence in New Jersey. The police commissioner has hinted that there may be a tie between the recent attacks and the music video for Universal/Motown recording artist Ashanti's single 'The Way That I Love You.' "
A fake news story on the site ends with the warning that police fear the prime suspect in the alleged string of killings, Victoria Jackson, "may be planning to open a big can of whoop-ass. Authorities have already expressed apprehension at the pending release of Ashanti's album, The Declaration, on June 3rd, fearful that the power of the album will lead to more violence. Only time will tell."
Less than 30 seconds after the site loads, a large knife, dripping with blood, carves out a box at the top of the page, and a menu pops up that lets users send a "Gotchagram" e-card/video to a friend or enemy. After putting in your name, the name of your friend and their "crime," a menu titled "Your Victim's Crime" drops down with such options as "sleeping around," "suspected sleeping around," "playing you like a fool" and "breaking your heart." The next drop-down menu, for "Weapon of Choice," features options such as "boot," "knife," "can," "sledgehammer," "rolling pin" and "guillotine." A glamorous shot of Ashanti in a tight gold mini-dress accompanies the "Gotchagram" box.
Once the information is input, users can click on a box to the left that launches a customized UCN news report featuring their information, including the victim's name splattered in blood on a wall, the weapon of choice, the sender's name in a fake newspaper headline and a reference to their home state. The clip ends with a plug for the album and a cartoonish voice reading the caveat, "Ashanti and Universal Music Group do not encourage or condone violence of any kind. This is for parody purposes only."
More than two dozen concerned parents and religious leaders gathered outside the Universal/Motown offices Tuesday afternoon in Los Angeles to mount a protest against the promotion, according to organizer Najee Ali. Led by civil-rights organization Project Islamic Hope and its leader, Ali, the group condemned the video and its message of using violence to settle disputes.
"There are a lot of outraged parents who feel that the type of message and imagery that promotes violence as a tool for solving domestic relation problems is inappropriate," Ali said. "Universal should recognize that they have corporate responsibility for promoting their artists and material that they want us to purchase."
Ali said he blames Ashanti and her label for the video and added that he felt it was a "career mistake" to attach herself to this type of imagery.
One of the other organizers of the protest, former radio veteran and BET staffer Paul Porter of the nonpartisan media justice think tank Industry Ears, said the video came to his attention on Monday, and he immediately called Ali. "I questioned not only the content of the video, but also why Universal/Motown would support this effort," Porter said. "The real shock is that Ashanti is squeaky-clean ... and the song has nothing to do with murdering someone, so the video is definitely constructed for shock value, and we feel there's enough violence in our inner cities without you picking your weapon of choice."
A statement released Tuesday through Ashanti's personal publicist, Michelle Huff, explained that "the Web site that Mr. Porter is referring to is not controlled by Ashanti nor is it her creative work. We respect what Mr. Porter is working to accomplish with his organization. But it is important to point out that Ashanti's history of creative expression does not glorify violence at all."
Huff said Ashanti did not come up with the Gotchagram concept — which debuted online more than two months ago — but that the singer supported the label's marketing concept. The video was intended to be a "Saturday Night Live"-style parody, Huff said, and while she reported that "95 percent" of the comments Ashanti has gotten so far have been positive, the singer plans to speak to her label in light of the controversy about possibly taking it down.
Porter said he sees the Gotchagram video as a blatant attention-grabbing stunt meant to shock and boost Ashanti's first-week sales numbers, a tactic he called "creative laziness" on the part of the artist and her label and one he predicted would not work. Porter and Ali are calling for Universal/Motown to pull down the video and the UNC site and issue an apology. The pair are planning another protest next week in New York.
In an interview with SOHH.com in February, Ashanti endorsed the violent imagery in the video. "It matches incredibly with the record," she told the site. "It's very cinematic as opposed to a regular music video. I found out my man is cheating on me, and cut to the story, you find him in a bloody tub." The message is simple, Ashanti told the site: "Don't cheat."
'Boondocks' creator Aaron McGruder to BET: %@*$% ^ & !
Animated episodes that never aired, which take swipes at black cable network executives, will be included on next Tuesday's DVD release.By Greg Braxton, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
The battle between "The Boondocks" creator Aaron McGruder and Black Entertainment Television is about to get a lot more animated.
Two second-season episodes of the biting cartoon series that attack the black-themed network but were never aired -- possibly because of corporate pressure -- are slated for DVD release Tuesday. The pair of shows take aim at BET's top executives and lampoon what it views as the cable network's harmful negative imagery and stereotypes that work as a "destructive" force within African American culture.
The episodes amplify a familiar chord struck by McGruder, who has regularly targeted BET, first in his politically and culturally charged comic strip, published in more than 300 newspapers, and subsequently in the TV adaptation on Cartoon Network's edgy late-night Adult Swim.
Related
Photos: Controversial cartoonsBut these particular installments, which like many in the animated series feature violence, foul language and frequent use of the N-word, apparently went too far in mocking BET's top brass. In "The Hunger Strike," a main character refuses to eat until BET is off the air and its executives commit hara-kiri.
A Bush push on indecency
Administration backs FCC in court filingBy WILLIAM TRIPLETT
Variety Magazine
Despite an appeals court ruling to the contrary, the Bush administration maintains that the Federal Communications Commission has adequately justified its new policy of leveling indecency fines on broadcasters for so-called fleeting expletives.
In a brief filed Monday night with the Supreme Court, which will take up the contentious issue of broadcast indecency for the first time in 30 years during its 2008-09 session, U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement argued that the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals erred last year in ruling that the FCC had failed to adequately justify its new policy. The brief urged the high court to remand the case back to the 2nd Circuit.
94 WYSP's Kidd Chris fired over racist parody song
Philadelphia Inquirer94 WYSP morning host Kidd Chris has been fired over a racist song performed by an in-studio guest in March. WYSP program director John Cook also lost his job over the fallout from the song "Schwoogies," sung to the tune of Blondie's "Call Me," that was performed March 21 in studio by a guest named Lady Gash.
"We found the song to be highly offensive and completely inappropriate for broadcast on our airwaves. When senior management of the station learned that it had been played, they took immediate steps to prevent it from ever appearing on the station again," CBS Radio spokeswoman Karen Mateo told us moments ago. "At the same time, we launched an extensive internal investigation into the situation including a thorough review of the editorial controls and systems we have in place to prevent this type of content from airing. We instituted additional educational training for the station, and have taken appropriate disciplinary action, including termination of the individuals involved." Mateo declined to comment on whether Kidd Chris would be paid out the life of his contract, which was to last another three years.
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