a bit more re Pynchon in Playboy Japan

[Doug Millison]

This may be the sort of thing Pynchon (assuming it is in fact Pynchon) had
in mind in his comments re propaganda and the news in Playboy Japan:

"[...] Countless news stories now amount to little more than human interest
narratives about the glories and tribulations of entrepreneurs, financiers
and CEOs. At networks owned by conglomerates like GE, Viacom and Disney,
the news divisions solemnly report every uptick or downturn of the stock
market. Between 1988 and 1999, the TV networks doubled the amount of air
time they devoted to the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq.

Viewers may assume that coverage reflects the considered judgment of
journalistic pros. But those journalists are in a media industry dominated
by corporate institutions with enough financial sway to redefine the
functional meaning of professionalism.

National Public Radio airs the "NPR business update" as part of its regular
newscast, heard many times each day on stations nationwide. There's no "NPR
labor update." Public radio listeners have easy access to the national
daily "Marketplace" program and the weekly "Sound Money" show, but there's
no "Workplace" or "Sound Labor" broadcast. [...] "

read it all at http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2001-12/24solomon.cfm

KPFA radio in Berkeley broadcasts a weekly program that focuses on
workplace and labor issues (I haven't looked for it in several weeks but
assume it's still there on Wednesday mornings), pretty interesting stuff --
assuming you work for a living and are interested in what other working
people are doing -- and many stories that don't make it into the daily
newspapers.

Anybody see the Guardian story about Mullah Omar escaping on a motorbike in
any US newspaper yet? The big NY Times story today didn't mention it -- it
does make the US strategy and tactics look less than a brilliant success.
Speaking of which, I hear we won the war -- but what is it, exactly, that
we've won? Considering that we remain, apparently, as vulnerable to
kamikaze attack as ever (airplane violating Central Command airspace before
crashing into a skyscraper in Florida).  I just flew from SF to NYC and
back -- doing my bit to support the sagging US economy and airline
industry, you understand -- and the security was a joke, curbside check-in
of baggage that (lacking x-ray inspection) could contain just about
anything, completely inconsistent inspection of carry-on luggage and
individual passengers, handled by the same lame-brain personnel who handled
it pre-September 11, overseen by some extremely bored and non-alert
National Guard weekend warriors.  I don't see any evidence that the
collapse of the Taliban government and the ongoing bombing in Afghanistan
have actually made us any safer here in the US.

I didn't follow Pynchon's advice (again, assuming it is Pynchon) and avoid
the subway in NYC over the holidays, however.

-Doug