Inspired ironically enough by a right-wing comic strip, Prickly City -- a talking dog complains to publisher Arianna Huffington, "Let me get this straight. Advertisers pay you for Huffington Post, but you don't give any of us bloggers a single penny?" -- the newly formed Bloggers Ego Guild (BEG) have called for a strike.
They have stopped posting their rants and have already begun picketing in cyberspace. Contributors to other progressive websites, including Kos and Counterpunch, have pledged to join in this mass protest, although they have been experiencing problems trying to locate any links to the online demonstrations. Conservative bloggers issued a surprisingly brief statement -- "We differ to BEG."
Ms. Huffington insists that the logistics of the Internet make it impossible to compensate her bloggers because the the spectrum of their output cannot be measured by a single pay scale.
She argues, "How can you put on the same level a posting by David Sirota delineating a keen analysis of the healthcare crisis with a posting by Alec Baldwin's simplistic description of the WGA strike as 'motherfucking, motherfucking, motherfucking?' It's like comparing orange concentrate with candy apples. But not for a moment do I question the sincerity of Alec's passion. And in support of my hard-working writers -- don't forget, I am the blogger-in-chief -- I will be joining their strike, arguing with myself as long as it takes to reach an agreement, which of course will never happen."
Meanwhile, show-biz celebrities are doing their part by entertaining the strikers, who continue walking back and forth in front of their computers, keeping their collective eye on those screens as Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond perform their duet, "You Don't Bring Me Scab Goons Any More."
Paul Krassner is the author of One Hand Jerking: Reports From an Investigative Satirist, and publisher of the Disneyland Memorial Orgy poster, both available at paulkrassner.com
Follow Paul Krassner on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Zen Bastard
It's just like teachers. Teaching is the most humiliating profession in the world. Masochism is a more uplifting career-choice. You gots to study like a maniac to compete for cheesy nowhere jobs, everybody hates you for making them do things they don't want to, and then they expect you to do it for free, for the "rewards." (Or because everybody hates teachers. Even teachers hate teachers. And then they talk all that platitudinous hypocritical crap about Robin Williams Mr. Holland and Mr. Chips. Bring back the paddle.)
There is only one.
If you look at the cash in TV as compared to the Internet it is no wonder that there is little money made by journalists online.
The TV writers wanted a few cents per DVD sold.(though I think they dropped that demand)
TV writers are the most vital part of any show so they should be compensated WAY more than they are now.
CEOs in all business are actually highly paid even if they fail completely.
It should be made law that the one who creates get the lions share of the money. No more yellow dog contracts. At the least a 50-50 split.
The record companies are no longer needed because of digital technology and the TV companies and all they encompass are going to be white elephants soon as well.
not the money, but rather the quality and the
content of the information being provided.
I'll leave it to you to reference the actual
dictionary definition of 'propaganda' for yourself, but we've seen more than one 'blog
here that boils down to just that: Propaganda.
Now, I'm not insisting that everyone that
takes up the journalistic/cyberjournalistic
quill have a heartfelt and blood-oath-sworn
dedication to Truth(truthiness, as the case
may be), nor that there is no room for dispute
on some issues, but nonetheless there must
needs be a discussion on the origins of
certain 'news'. To do that kind of requires
a sober look at Various Groups With Large
Sums Of Money.
Here are some examples:
Energy industry
Advertising industry
Military industry
Political Action Groups
People In Foreign Countries
People In Our Country
Big Ag
Big Info(Google, Microsoft, et. al.)
And, basically anyone that's got the moola
to pay someone to write on their behalf.
This includes media moguls themselves,
and then you have to kind of ponder out what
some of their motives might be for financing
their various forms of propaganda.
So, what can you do with this propaganda stuff?
Basically, you can lie. You can influence, you
can play with people's heads, get them to
vote about this, get upset about that, feel
good about such-and-such.
The nice thing, though, about the Internets,
is that you can write your OWN damn propaganda,
and knock theirs into a cocked hat and give
it back to em. Sure beats one-way captive
audience stuff like television has been
infamous for.
I think that the web is a great venue for
having open discussions about things, kind
of the 21st century digital Occam's Razor,
and stuff.
The Internets is kind of the scab labor
to the media moguls' propaganda factory,
stands to reason you won't make as much
money at it, but that's why they call it
'free' speech, don't ya know...LOLOL