What Would Jesus Buy? (2007)

Activist Cinema Episode 6 - What Would Jesus Buy? (2007) is a documentary that follows Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping on their North American tour in the month leading up to Christmas 2005.  As we head into the capitalist orgy of Black Friday and the holiday shopping season, this film works as a great antidote to the consumer frenzy that is about to be unleashed.  Also, it is available free on YouTube (as of this posting).  Rev. Billy and Nehemiah are both currently (11.24.13) facing a year in prison.  Please follow this link to sign a petition for their charges to be dropped. [Click to Listen]

Activist Music - Hip Hop

As a tangent series to the Activist Cinema episodes we've been doing for a few months, here is short playlist of fantastic Activist Music - The Hip Hop Edition.

Introduction - Boots Riley (The Coup)
Public Enemy - Fight the Power
LMFAO - Shots
The Coup - Laugh, Love, Fuck
Tha Truth - Power to the People
Dead Prez - Police State
Immortal Technique - Rich Man's World
Street Sweeper Social Club - Fight Smash Win

[Click to Listen]

Kill Your TV

On the heels of our 5 part series on the Corporate Media, we tryout the Zen TV Experiment.  Instead of passively watching TV, try this:
-Watch 15 minutes of a scripted sitcom without the sound.
-Watch 15 minutes of a news program without the sound.
-Watch the TV for 30 minutes while it is turned off.
It only takes 1 hour and we promise, it will be a more memorable 1 hour than anything on the TV you would normally be watching.  The places your mind will go and the thoughts you will come up with in that 30 minute period may just surprise you. [Click to Listen]

Corporate Media (Part 5)

We have come to the end (for now) of our Corporate Media series.  On this episode we take a look at several examples of the corporate/government hijacking of the public airwaves that have been exposed.  After that...the numbers don't lie!  Alternative media outlets are growing in numbers and listeners.  We examine the Pew Research Centers 2013 State of the Media report and the many reasons it gives us to celebrate.  Mainly the low, low, low viewership of the Corporate Media's flagship "news programs". [Click to Listen]

Corporate Media (Part 4)

This week, in our continuing series taking a look at the multiple corporate and government influences on our media, we focus on public relations firms.  In this episode we focus on Ketchum, Qorvis and Edelman and their use of video news releases, sponsored content, native ads and paid content slipped right into news programs. [Click to Listen]

Corporate Media (Part 3)

In part three of our Corporate Media series we take a look at the known influence of the CIA's Operation Mockingbird on the media.  The New York Times, Time/Life, CBS, NBC, Newsweek, the AP, UPI, Reuters and even all the way down the publishing hierarchy to The Louisville Courier-Journal were actively working with the CIA.  And just when you thought it was safe to say that all of this CIA influence of the corporate media was in the past, we have the National Defense Authorization Act of 2013 (NDAA) which allows the use of government produced propaganda on the US public (previously made illegal-at least on paper-by the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948). [Click to Listen]

Corporate Media (Part 2)

After World War II, the proven power of propaganda and the TV boom coincided so beautifully that the CIA invented an infrastructure to exploit/manipulate/guide/control the media, and by extension the public.  And Operation Mockingbird is just one program that we know about.  From just one of the government agencies who are spying on us all.  Who knows what craziness lurks in the classified archives at the National Clandestine Service offices? [Click to Listen]