great advertising!

Three Norwegian adverts encouraging employers to hire the blind

"Office Love"

Dark Office

"Changing"

Thanks to Holly K. for the link!

Fox News lies? Dog bites man, film at 11

An article in Media Matters proclaims

Asked what most viewers and observers of Fox News would be surprised to learn about the controversial cable channel, a former insider from the world of Rupert Murdoch was quick with a response: “I don’t think people would believe it’s as concocted as it is; that stuff is just made up.”

and goes on to say

So, Fox News as a legitimate news outlet? The source laughs at the suggestion, and thinks much of the public, along with the Beltway press corps, has been duped by Murdoch’s marketing campaign over the years. “People assume you need a license to call yourself a news channel. You don’t. So because they call themselves Fox News, people probably give them a pass on a lot of things,” says the source.

The source continues: “I don’t think people understand that it’s an organization that’s built and functions by intimidation and bullying, and its goal is to prop up and support Republicans and the GOP and to knock down Democrats. People tend think that stuff that’s on TV is real, especially under the guise of news. You’d think that people would wise up, but they don’t.”

I guess my only problem with this is the doe-eyed way it pretends that there's anyone who doesn't know this already. Does anyone seriously think that Fox's huge viewing audience doesn't know they are being lied to, being fed a sanitised, corrupted, conservative-doctrine version of the truth? It's practically how the network sells itself to viewers and advertisers. "Don't worry, you won't have to hear those hard-edged liberal 'facts' and 'truth' here. We have our own version of facts and truthiness, cooked up in house, that will wrap you in a warm blanket of self-righteous rage." If there's anyone who doesn't know that Fox only broadcasts news and opinion tailored to suit Rupert Murdoch's agenda, they must be about five years old, either literally or mentally.

and for more on media

from my friend Dana, I got this link

Forget Fox News and CNN. To Really Get a Global Perspective We Need Our Cable Operators to Carry Al Jazeera English

Now, while I've watched AJE before, I've not watched their coverage of the Egyptian crisis. So I can't saw whether their coverage ahs indeed been "relentless, thorough and unbiased". From what I've seen of them in the past, they are often relentless and thorough, but not what I would call unbiased. On the other hand, they are pretty professional . And they don't (that I know of) just make $#^O& up. :-) Yes, they have an undeniably different perspective. But that's a good thing.

Getting all your news from pseudo-news outlets like The Daily Show and Fox News is not good. But if that's the McDonald's Happy Meal of information, only going to one source for news is a course of always eating the same meal, over and over again. Lentils have all sorts of health benefits, but if you eat nothing but lentils for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, you're going to be missing out on things you need to keep going.  

Try AJE sometime--even if you don't find it fascinating, think of it as eating your carrots and broccoli. :-) And if your cable operator doesn't carry AJE, bug them until they do. And until then, catch it on the Web.

Other English-language services from the Middle East include Al Arabiya, Al Alam (English service website currently down), and Al Hurra (the USG's Arabic news service). I don't know of a cable network broadcasting from Israel, but I've always found Haaretz reliable and informative.