The Truth about the LAMESTREAM MEDIA!

If you haven’t seen it in the last year or so, you must see the film Network with William Holden, Peter Finch and Faye Dunaway, directed by Sidney Lumet.  Made in 1976, it looks and sounds too much like today.  Also, I think that Madmen has taken some of the feel and setting of this story.  There are so many good lines and speeches I hesitate to mention one, but mostly I like it when Ned Beatty as the head of the network reads the riot act to Howard Beale:  http://youtu.be/v3vbCxj2ifs  Think about the attack on corporations here.

For all of it we have to thank one of the truly great writers of the 20th century: Paddy Chayevsky.  Famous for Marty and lots of great TV drama in the ‘50's, he also did Hospital, a gritty film starring George C. Scott that obviously inspired a number of TV hospital dramas.  He was a big contributor to Paint Your Wagon and The Americanization of Emily.

I have to plug Netflix here.  We get it through our Wii and at first the picture quality wasn’t very good and there wasn’t real widescreen.  In fact, films seemed squeezed from the sides.  It is broadband download through our cable making me wonder how do they get all those pictures in the little wires?  In the past week we suddenly have full widescreen and near HD quality.  Now we just need more films, but notice all the better quality made for cable TV shows they provide.  And the wonderful documentaries that otherwise are unnoticed and unseen.

To accompany the film, you need to listen to Don Henley and Dirty Laundry, from 1982.  It was originallly dedicated to – Rupert Murdoch.  http://youtu.be/46bBWBG9r2o  What makes the media most lame is their unwillingness to dig into things that would yield some truth and understanding.  In the '90's we received Canadian Broadcasting Corp. news, and a channel of different world news outlets and I sure do miss them.  Thank someone for the web.

My sermon to the Unitarians comes Friday.