Today’s edition of Planet Waves FM looks up close and personal at the Capricorn Full Moon, which takes place Friday. (Don’t forget — you can receive our special edition on that event free by sending an email to thunder@planetwaves.net.)
This is a very, very interesting Full Moon — I really mean it this time. The Sun and Moon align exactly with a slow-moving aspect we’ve been talking about — Varuna square Eris. The thing about your Varuna square Eris kind of aspect is 1) you can’t look it up in a book and 2) no matter how significant these newly-discovered outer planets are, the aspect is going to seem like it’s in the background right up until it’s lit up in the blazing light of the Full Moon — and that’s what’s happening right now. (Note, our readers recently took a throw at delineating this aspect in a special edition that you can read here.)
In today’s podcast, I look at the Rupert Murdoch / News Corp scandal, and the utter insanity going on in Washington DC in the form of the Tea Baggers (far right wing Republicans) pushing the United States government to the brink of financial default, which if it happens could set off a lot of problems. In the second half of the program, I look at how Murdoch’s chart lines up with that of News of the World, the weekly that he shut down Sunday.
Our musical guest this week is the acclaimed Emma’s Revolution, described by our friends at Z Magazine as, “Beyond progressive commentary, Emma’s Revolution examines issues of our time the way the media should.” Pete Seeger once said, “This record is part of the worldwide revolution which will save this planet…these songs you’ll find yourself singing for the rest of your life.” Gee whiz! Anyway you can hear them on Planet Waves FM.
For the old player and the full archive of my programs, visit the Planet Waves FM homepage. Our theme music, in case you were ever wondering, is called “Earth Calling,” composed and performed by Tino Izzo, represented by Chacra Music.
Yes, I agree, Eric, Murdoch did commit criminal offenses. So prosecuting him and his minions should provide some relief.
I guess I went off on how we need diversity in media because we also get really awful journalism from people who stay within the law.
Murdoch got a way with this by blackmail.
All the conduct was illegal, and most of the publications were libelous. Murdoch had files on everyone, and if you crossed him, you would end up in the newspaper. Hence, it went on.
Interesting question as to how you try to limit Fox-News style disinformation.
I tend to be very gung-ho First Amendment type — better to let everyone speak their mind than to try to regulate speech, even if some people spew hate and lies.
Some controls are needed, however. I think the way we often deal with pornography is a sort of imperfect compromise, but generally okay. I am thinking of where you can basically allow anyone to create any kind of content they like, but then somewhat restrict access to that content — 18-and-over restrictions, no availability to schoolkids, and so on.
This is not a perfect solution and is inevitably unfair to some, but I see the case for parents wanting to keep their kids away from certain kinds of content.
(If only more parents wanted to keep their kids away from violent video games! But that’s a different conversation.)
Anyhow, restricting access is far better than trying to outlaw some content completely — that never works.
As for Murdoch, I am thrilled that his business interests are being damaged but I would not support any kind of rules or laws that prevented Murdoch or anyone else from saying what they wanted to say, whether it was true or not.
Suppression of speech is not the answer. It only leads to resentment outrage and overt oppression. Free, democracy-loving people do not try to suppress free speech.
The issue really is not the content but rather concentration of media ownership. Planet Waves is good because it is independent media. If we had more independent media, it would help to weaken the Fox News type of outlets. A lot.
The FCC used to enforce laws that forbade a single owner from monopolizing broadcast media in a given market. Now the FCC grants all kinds exemptions to that rule and as a result most broadcast media in US is owned by only a dozen or so companies.
When you get just a few owners like that, they don’t face much real competiton and they are free to cut corners, fire people and even close down whole papers, stations, etc. if it helps their bottom line.
This is why we have had a dumbing-down of the media and why we have lost so many newspapers.
What we need is a return to the old FCC rules that promoted diverse media ownership. This is a political process that we need to lobby for very loudly.
We also need to protect the Internet to make sure everybody continues to have equal acces to all parts of the web.
And we need someone to figure out how to turn the Internet into a form of mass media. Right now you can’t get very many people on a single website at the same time. Someone needs to figure out how to get everyone to tune into a certain website — or a certain group of websites — at the same time, or at least on the same day, in a regular way.
When we all witness an event together, in real time, we are much better at determining the truth of it. That is why it’s so powerful when a nuclear plant melts down for instance, and everybody in the world looks in the same direction at the same time.
But it would be powerful to get everybody’s attention like that even without a disaster. In the early days of TV everybody watched the evening news at the same time every night, you had the attn of the entire country focused on one of three stations. And we all had a much better idea of what was true in our wars and our politics and our civic life.
It helps to keep us honest if we all get the same information together at the same time.
Twitter and Facebook are sort of primitive attempts at turning the web into a mass medium, but they don’t quite work. But we are probably getting closer to someone figuring it out…..
Let’s hope we figure it out before the big corporate guys figure out how to shut down indy media on the web entirely. They want to, you know.
Wow, Eric, what a powerful podcast. Thank you. I really don’t understand how you are able to weave such a rich, multi-layered tapestry of political analysis and astrological insight, but am so grateful. The double Pholus/Pluto conjunction blew me away. Maybe it is the internalized “negativity” you spoke of, but it has been hard for me to even hope that the death of NoTW signals a shift in the quality of “news” our culture is willing to consume. Still, I am signing petitions left and right imploring the DOJ to investigate Murdoch now. May the walls come tumbling down.
On a personal note, I think I would have paid a lot of money to have someone say to me that underneath the dark, devilish, crispy coating of my Capricorn moon lies a delicate cream filling. Bless your good heart and your relentlessly curious mind.
Yeah, ER is a great sounding band. I love their voices and the harmonies.
Apropos news corps and the lies they spew, my friend GottaLaff at ThePoliticalCarnival.net pieced together this video. It’s clever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvRd1QYGcgM&feature=player_embedded
ER has played my town a few times, last was a coupla years ago. nice to see them here. and thanks for really meaning it this time. 😉