As if you needed another reason to boycott oligopolistic media organs...  Today my local paper, the Austin-American Statesman, carried the excellent New York Times story written by Amy Harmon.   Well, sort of.

Actually, they hacked it to pieces.  The toothless version they ran in print looked nothing like the honest, insightful piece of journalism Amy Harmon wrote.  It lacked critical insights about the entertainment oligopoly's motivations and agenda, it failed to show the consequences of their power grab or the impact all this will likely have on their customers.  The story they printed was a neutered, anemic shadow of the story the New York Times ran.  But what would you expect, coming from a newspaper owned by Cox News...

...which is owned by Cox Enterprises, which owns in whole or in part: pay-per-view industry lapdogs In Demand and Syntellect, cable companies including Cox Cable and Cox Digital TV, music delivery company Digital Cable Radio Associates, cable television networks including Discovery Communications, Hollywood movie studio Rysher Entertainment, a dozen TV stations in the US, and five dozen US radio stations.  The Austin-American Statesman can't report the truth about the entertainment oligopoly because it's a member of the entertainment oligopoly.

Do you know where your news comes from?

7:05:28 AM   

"Penn on airport security: complain all you can, then call the cops" [Adam Curry: Adam Curry's Weblog]

I just read this on MetaFilter.  Penn is just refreshingly different.  And he's different in just about every way.  So, unlike everybody else on the planet, before he went to the airport he consulted a couple of lawyers to figure out what he as a citizen could do about the way our privacy rights are being stolen from us. 

So he left a flashlight in his pocket.  Then, when the security people pulled him aside and assaulted him, he very politely complained about being assaulted, and insisted they call the cops.  That's right.  He did what nobody else has done -- he put two and two together and realized that when somebody assaults you, you call the police.

Turns out these federal security thugs are afraid of the local police.  Surprised?  Me, too.  How did it all turn out?  Well, read Penn's account and find out.  Best quote:  "Freedom is kind of a hobby with me, and I have disposable income that I'll spend to find out how to get people more of it."

5:47:57 AM