Dreyfuss Slams Media "Bias"
Veteran actor Richard Dreyfuss has launched a scathing attack on the mainstream media, accusing it of sacrificing accuracy and impartiality for sensationalism and instant gratification. The Jaws star, who is currently studying civics and democracy at the University Of Oxford in England, claims such reporting leads to "shaped news" - completely biased and inaccurate reporting that has an agenda. And he has also expressed alarm that a few big media corporations control most of the news the general public has access to. Dreyfuss, who is a longtime political activist, has also campaigned for peace in the Middle East and lent his support to a campaign calling for the impeachment of US President George W. Bush. He says, "There is no room to pause, no room to think. We don't build into our system of thoughts the need to explain, the media doesn't build that into its transmission of knowledge and information. Information from more than one source is good. I'm totally in favor of it, even if people send propaganda. In the aggregate you can find more truth than in one opinion. The falling Twin Towers (in New York City on September 11th 2001) - pictures that produced anger, a lot of anger that was sent instantly around the world, they created a need to react. People in Kansas could see the Twin Towers fall at exactly the same instant as in Nigeria and Cairo. Such an instantaneous knowledge of a situation leads to an instantaneous reaction which creates demand for an instantaneous, reflexive response. The question is how do you get people to find out more, how do you get people to read not just what they are told to read. You have to encourage prose, analysis and detail - otherwise people will go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan without really knowing why. The 'war on terror' - objection to using this term is dead. It's become part of our vocabulary, but what does it really mean? You should know more specifically what you are fighting. Civics is no longer taught in the US, a sign of a neurosis that is inexplicable. Not to teach civics is suicide. Reason, logic, civility, dissent and debate - five ancient words that should be taught again and better, at elementary level, so that people know the difference between news and shaped news."
Robbins Slams Bush "Lies"
Oscar-winner Tim Robbins blasted US President George W Bush's invasion of Iraq yesterday, and challenged the American media to stand up and criticize their leader. The 47-year-old made his outspoken comments at a press conference promoting his stage adaptation of George Orwell's classic book 1984 in Atlanta, Georgia - and he drew comparisons between the Republican administration and the prophetic novel. He said, "We have right now a media that is willfully ignoring the high crimes and misdemeanors of the President of the United States. Clinton lied about a *******, and got impeached by the media and Congress. Bush got us into (the Iraq) war based on lies that he knew were lies... His war has recruited more al Qaeda members than Osama Bin Laden could ever have dreamed for... yet no one in the media is calling for impeachment. Unfortunately, the book and the play is more relevant now than it ever has been. In my country we seem to be sanctioning renditioning of innocent people without trial ... put them in jail without telling anyone... and torture them out of suspicion of what we think they might do. This is exactly what Orwell was talking about when he spoke of thought crimes." Orwell's novel, first published in 1949, centers around a futuristic society run by a government known as Big Brother, which spies on citizens, and tortures those believed to harbor anti-establishment thoughts.
Veteran actor Richard Dreyfuss has launched a scathing attack on the mainstream media, accusing it of sacrificing accuracy and impartiality for sensationalism and instant gratification. The Jaws star, who is currently studying civics and democracy at the University Of Oxford in England, claims such reporting leads to "shaped news" - completely biased and inaccurate reporting that has an agenda. And he has also expressed alarm that a few big media corporations control most of the news the general public has access to. Dreyfuss, who is a longtime political activist, has also campaigned for peace in the Middle East and lent his support to a campaign calling for the impeachment of US President George W. Bush. He says, "There is no room to pause, no room to think. We don't build into our system of thoughts the need to explain, the media doesn't build that into its transmission of knowledge and information. Information from more than one source is good. I'm totally in favor of it, even if people send propaganda. In the aggregate you can find more truth than in one opinion. The falling Twin Towers (in New York City on September 11th 2001) - pictures that produced anger, a lot of anger that was sent instantly around the world, they created a need to react. People in Kansas could see the Twin Towers fall at exactly the same instant as in Nigeria and Cairo. Such an instantaneous knowledge of a situation leads to an instantaneous reaction which creates demand for an instantaneous, reflexive response. The question is how do you get people to find out more, how do you get people to read not just what they are told to read. You have to encourage prose, analysis and detail - otherwise people will go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan without really knowing why. The 'war on terror' - objection to using this term is dead. It's become part of our vocabulary, but what does it really mean? You should know more specifically what you are fighting. Civics is no longer taught in the US, a sign of a neurosis that is inexplicable. Not to teach civics is suicide. Reason, logic, civility, dissent and debate - five ancient words that should be taught again and better, at elementary level, so that people know the difference between news and shaped news."
Robbins Slams Bush "Lies"
Oscar-winner Tim Robbins blasted US President George W Bush's invasion of Iraq yesterday, and challenged the American media to stand up and criticize their leader. The 47-year-old made his outspoken comments at a press conference promoting his stage adaptation of George Orwell's classic book 1984 in Atlanta, Georgia - and he drew comparisons between the Republican administration and the prophetic novel. He said, "We have right now a media that is willfully ignoring the high crimes and misdemeanors of the President of the United States. Clinton lied about a *******, and got impeached by the media and Congress. Bush got us into (the Iraq) war based on lies that he knew were lies... His war has recruited more al Qaeda members than Osama Bin Laden could ever have dreamed for... yet no one in the media is calling for impeachment. Unfortunately, the book and the play is more relevant now than it ever has been. In my country we seem to be sanctioning renditioning of innocent people without trial ... put them in jail without telling anyone... and torture them out of suspicion of what we think they might do. This is exactly what Orwell was talking about when he spoke of thought crimes." Orwell's novel, first published in 1949, centers around a futuristic society run by a government known as Big Brother, which spies on citizens, and tortures those believed to harbor anti-establishment thoughts.
