Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Why are newspaper comics so terrible?

  "Today, the few remaining comic strips with any wit or originality can be found online, free of censorship, deadlines, or panel restrictions. It's hard to blame them for sticking with a format that allows for both more creative freedom and more creative control. But it's frustrating and baffling that newspapers, for all their reach, haven't even attempted to draw on the explosion of talent you can find online."

https://theweek.com/articles/442090/why-are-newspaper-comics-terrible

Monday, December 4, 2023

The Pentagon, CIA Have Shaped Thousands of Movies into Effective Propaganda

“Documentaries” on the Discovery, History, and National Geographic channels are military-made commercials for weapons. “Inside Combat Rescue” on National Geographic is recruitment propaganda. Captain Marvel exists to sell the Air Force to women. Actress Jennifer Garner has made recruitment ads to accompany movies she’s made that are themselves more effective recruitment ads. A movie called The Recruit was largely written by the head of the CIA’s entertainment office. Shows like NCIS push out the military’s line. But so do shows you wouldn’t expect: “reality” TV shows, game shows, talk shows (with endless reunifications of family members), cooking shows, competition shows, etc."

The CIA translated and distributed "Doctor Zhivago" (1957) by Boris Pasternak throughout the world.

https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/the-pentagon-cia-have-shaped-thousands-of-movies-into-effective-propaganda/ 

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2014/07/10/cias-zhivago/