“The View From the Phlipside” is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY. It can be heard Monday through Friday around 7:30 AM. The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program. Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moment’s notice. WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed. You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com. Copyright 2013-16 by Jay Phillippi. All Rights Reserved. You like what you see? Drop me a line and we can talk.
Programs from week of November 13, 2016
This Week’s Podcast:
My name is Jay Phillippi and I’ve spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Being “The News”
Have you ever found yourself in a position where you weren’t quite sure what you were expected to do? Maybe found yourself having to do something that you didn’t have the training or the experience for? It happened to me a few years ago. I remember sitting in my office thinking to myself that I had no idea where to even begin.
I get the feeling that is exactly how some folks at Facebook are feeling right about now. The social media site began life as a clearing house for social interaction at Harvard finds itself in a peculiar position. A study by the Pew Foundation published earlier this year says that 44% of social media users get their news, in whole or in part, from Facebook. We’re not just talking about news about celebrities or the latest movie. People go to Facebook to find out what is happening in the world.
The problem is that Facebook isn’t set up to be a journalism source. It’s set up to share puppy videos and Joe Biden memes. Some people are very concerned about the impact that may have in our political conversations. When factual reporting is put side by side with complete fabrications, with now way to differentiate between the two, there is a potentially huge problem developing.
Facebook has stated repeatedly, as recently as this past week, that they believe the vast majority of their feed materials, Mark Zuckerburg set the figure at 99%, are factual. Reports from inside the Land of Zuckerberg indicate that not everyone there agrees. A group of employees is pressing the company to take more proactive actions to control blatantly false stories.
If you’re looking for an example of proactive action, take a look at Google. The search engine goliath has also absorbed some criticism about its part in spreading false information. They are moving to hit the fake news sites where it hurts, in the wallet.
They will do this by altering the guidelines for their AdSense advertising spots. In a statement, Google said that the rules would prohibit their use on websites that “misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information about the publisher, the publisher’s content, or the primary purpose” of the site. So sites that clearly identify themselves as comedy or satire sites should not be affected.
As we get more and more of our information from “non-traditional” sources, it becomes important that those sources take their responsibilities seriously. The recently concluded political campaign saw immense amounts of what I’ve seen referred to as “fact light” stories out there, coming from and aiming at both ends of the political spectrum.
The information that we use as voters and citizens of the Republic is too vital to the ongoing health of our society to be treated with such disrespect.
Something has to be done.
Cohen and Russell
There are artists whose work you may not know but whose impact is felt across the universe of their art form. Very often these are the names that the score points for you if you are trying to show that you are really “into” that kind of art. In the span of a week this month we lost two of them.
My bet is that the average music lover was at best vaguely aware of the work of Leon Russell and Leonard Cohen. If Cohen’s name meant anything to most people it was in connection with his song “Hallelujah”. Since its debut in 1985, it has been recorded by over 200 artists. Unless you know Leon Russell’s work, you are probably hard-pressed to name a song of his. “Superstar” was a big hit for the Carpenters in the ’70s and “This Masquerade” by George Benson. Both written or co-written by Leon Russell.
In many ways, the two artists couldn’t be much more different. Cohen was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in an English-speaking part of Montreal, Canada, wrote poetry and went to college. Russell was born in Oklahoma, began playing in local bands at age 14 and moved to L.A. by the time he was 16 to become a session musician. Cohen eventually left Canada for the U.S. because of his lack of success as a writer and become a folk singer. Russell established himself as a musician and developed as a songwriter and arranger.
In other ways, they were very much the same. While it would be easy to try and pigeonhole them musically, both stretched their talents in multiple directions. Their work spans many different genres of music and often weaves many of them together. Both had quiet times in the middle of their careers. Cohen retreated for five years in the mid-90s to a Buddhist center near L.A. to study. Russell faded into obscurity after recording as a country act into the ’80s. The song “Hallelujah” was featured in a 2002 episode of “The West Wing” vaulted Cohen’s name into many more conversations. Russell’s career was given a jolt when Elton John reached out to him for a duet album in 2010. Cohen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, Russell in 2011.
These two very different artists share another important attribute. When their names are mentioned to musicians, and students of music in the second half of the 20th Century, you will inevitably hear the respect with which they are held. Fame may have largely eluded them, but their work will make sure that they are remembered long after the merely famous have been relegated to footnote status.
Leon Russell was 74 and Leonard Cohen was 82 years old.
POTUS and the Press
Given the media’s recent abysmal record on predicting political trends, I make no predictions here about the future of the nation. I am willing to say that the next four years are going to be VERY interesting when it comes to the media and the President of the United States.
There has been no President with as poor an opinion of the media as the current President-elect since Richard Nixon in 1968. Nixon had some very bad experiences with the media during the late ’50s, and the distrust and suspicion stayed with him through his stay in the White House. Donald Trump has shown an ongoing contempt for the media straight through to his election last week. I can only imagine how that will translate once he steps onto the highest profile position on the planet.
At the moment, the media doesn’t quite know what to do with itself. It’s behavior through the primaries and into election night itself has been so utterly embarrassing that they are not sure where to begin. Shell-shocked seems an apt description.
So I had to chuckle a little when I heard CNN’s veteran anchor Wolf Blitzer spluttering in outrage when the President-elect failed to notify the press corps where he was headed after last week’s meeting at the White House with President Obama. The quote reads “It is truly unacceptable. The president-elect and the president. A pool of reporters should be with them on a trip like that.”
I’m sorry Mr. Blitzer, have you been sleeping for the last year? President-elect Trump is no more likely to drop a crumb to the press corps at this point in the process than he is to offer a Cabinet position to Elizabeth Warren. Things will probably get better once the new administration settles in, but I wouldn’t put a lot of money on that wager.
The big fear beginning to grow in media circles is whether the next administration will bring back the media “Enemies List” that was believed to exist in the Nixon White House. Given the President-elect’s apparently easily bruised ego, and the level of vitriol that some media outlets chose to level at him, again would not take the under on that bet.
Far more disturbing are the statements made during the campaign about limiting First Amendment rights of the press. While his threat to open up the libel laws to attack journalists probably has no real legal legs under it, the very idea of the President of the United States attempting to put a leash on a free press strikes at a vital part of our democracy.
The old saying goes “You made your bed, now lie in it”. The next four years promise to be very uncomfortable ones for the media. And very interesting ones for those of us who observe them.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
Copyright Jay Phillippi, 2016
Theme music for “The View From the Phlipside” and “TVFTP – Podcast” is “Hustle”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0
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