by matttbastard Let’s hope the ugly SOB still clips his toenails. Seriously — producing daily crypto-fascistic dispatches carefully crafted to rile up the rubes while scoring mega ad rev? Understandable. Poor hygeine? Absolutely unforgivable. h/t Krugman (who, speaking of unforgivable … Continue reading →
Continue readingTag: media
bastard.logic: Canadian Libel Reform, Meet Economic Reality
by matttbastard So, you think that recent SCOC ruling will help fight the chilling effects of Canada’s draconian libel laws? Think again, says Ryerson journ prof Jeffrey Dvorkin: While editors are hailing the ruling as a breakthrough for more aggressive … Continue reading →
Continue readingThe Wheatsheaf: On the Liberal void
Operating on the assumption that anything can be defined by generalizations, and media sources, in particular, can be pegged by partisan politics, over the past year I have viewed the Toronto Star as Liberal supporters. Aside from Susan Delacourt’s …
Continue readingredjenny: Blame CUPE
Are you tired of blaming fate, the vagaries of nature, or God for your misfortunes? Try blaming CUPE. It’s fun and easy. Here’s an example, provided by the Toronto Sun. CUPE killed summer. That’s right. Summer is dead, and CUPE perpetrated the murder. Try it yourself. Car won’t start? Blame
Continue readingredjenny: Blame CUPE
Are you tired of blaming fate, the vagaries of nature, or God for your misfortunes? Try blaming CUPE. It’s fun and easy.Here’s an example, provided by the Toronto Sun. CUPE killed summer. That’s right. Summer is dead, and CUPE perpetrated the murder. T…
Continue readingredjenny: Blame CUPE
Are you tired of blaming fate, the vagaries of nature, or God for your misfortunes? Try blaming CUPE. It’s fun and easy. Here’s an example, provided by the Toronto Sun. CUPE killed summer. That’s right. Summer is dead, and CUPE perpetrated the murder. Try it yourself. Car won’t start? Blame
Continue readingredjenny: The media have finally discovered homelessness. Not surprisingly, they get the story wrong
One of the fundamental human requirements is shelter. How do homeless people survive? Where do they sleep? On friends and family’s couches and floors (if they are lucky), at shelters, in churches, in parks, on sidewalk grates, in abandoned buildings, in doorways, under bridges, in cars, or wherever else they
Continue readingredjenny: The media have finally discovered homelessness. Not surprisingly, they get the story wrong
One of the fundamental human requirements is shelter. How do homeless people survive? Where do they sleep? On friends and family’s couches and floors (if they are lucky), at shelters, in churches, in parks, on sidewalk grates, in abandoned buildings, in doorways, under bridges, in cars, or wherever else they can.
And of course, they sleep in tents. The burgeoning tent cities in the U.S. have finally made the national awareness. Interestingly, it seems as though the media is only interested in the newly homeless, those middle class folks who lost their homes because of the economic collapse. In other words, those who they believe are homeless because of circumstances, not because of some kind of individual moral failing. Unlike, you know, the other kind of poor.
Over the past few months, reporters from around the world have flocked to the now-famous tent city in Sacramento, Calif. When they find out that 55-year-old John Kraintz has been living in a tent for almost seven years, they turn around and walk away.
“They don’t want to talk to me,” he says. “They’re searching for people who just lost their homes. It’s kinda tough to lose a home when you’ve never owned one. Sorry, but most of the people here have been homeless for a long time.”
Homelessness is seen as an anomaly, a sign of the economic crisis, not as a structural problem with capitalism. But there are homeless during the boom times, too, lots of them.
“The other day, I heard a German reporter ask if this is happening because of the recent economic collapse,” says Kraintz. “This has been happening for 30 years, but the powers that be have been able to pretend it doesn’t exist. Why aren’t reporters asking about flat wages, jobs being shipped overseas and the lack of affordable housing?”
Burke agrees, saying one of the many issues ignored in most articles about tent city and homelessness is the fact that poor people cannot afford housing, especially in an expensive state like California.
“People who are poor end up homeless through no fault of their own, but because people higher up on the food chain have made affordable housing a very scarce commodity,” she says. “If we had sound housing policies and programs that helped people when they have a run of bad luck, we would not have a tent city.”
Kraintz says he knew the system would finally blow up. It was just a matter of time. The question, according to him, is this: Do the powers that be have the political will to create a fairer, more just economic system? Alternet>
Photo Credit: A tent city in Fresno, from a 2004 article by Mike Rhodes on Indybay
Continue readingredjenny: The media have finally discovered homelessness. Not surprisingly, they get the story wrong
One of the fundamental human requirements is shelter. How do homeless people survive? Where do they sleep? On friends and family’s couches and floors (if they are lucky), at shelters, in churches, in parks, on sidewalk grates, in abandoned buildings, in doorways, under bridges, in cars, or wherever else they
Continue readingredjenny: Worst Headline Ever
If there were an annual worst headline award, The Sun would probably win pretty much every year. Today’s paper screamed “‘Enormous’ fraud at City Hall”It makes it sound as though the city council or mayor has been caught doing something corrupt or frau…
Continue readingSeeing Red in the Southwest: Been called worse things…
Sarah Palin, in her softball interview with Fox’s Greta VanSusteren, calls bloggers ‘kids in pajamas sitting in the basement of their parents’ home". As Pierre Eliot Trudeau once said, "I’ve been called worse things by better people." I’m sitting comfortably in my own home with my laptop, reading the news online and processing how I think and feel about a particular item then finding facts to
Continue readingSeeing Red in the Southwest: Been called worse things…
Sarah Palin, in her softball interview with Fox’s Greta VanSusteren, calls bloggers ‘kids in pajamas sitting in the basement of their parents’ home”. As Pierre Eliot Trudeau once said, “I’ve been called worse things by better people.” I’m sitting comfortably in my own home with my laptop, reading the news
Continue readingSeeing Red in the Southwest: Been called worse things…
Sarah Palin, in her softball interview with Fox’s Greta VanSusteren, calls bloggers ‘kids in pajamas sitting in the basement of their parents’ home”. As Pierre Eliot Trudeau once said, “I’ve been called worse things by better people.” I’m sitting comfortably in my own home with my laptop, reading the news
Continue readingAkaash Maharaj - Practical Idealism: Public Degradation and Public Discourse – Akaash Maharaj Podcast
A CBC Radio One national debate on the decline of civility in Canada’s public discourse. More than a question of discourtesy, the decay of the tenor of political dialogue diminishes the dignity of the nation itself. Hosted by The Current and Avi Lewis,…
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