Mainstream Media Archives - Page 2 of 5

Brandon Straka has become something of a living meme since the US election of 2016. Like many Democrat voters and avid Clinton supporters, Straka was not only disappointed at the election result; he was also bewildered, angry and afraid. As an openly gay man, Straka was convinced that the US had taken a sharp turn towards state sponsored oppression and bigotry. Like hundreds of thousands of others, he believed that he was in great danger following the 2016 electoral upset.

Prior to the election, Straka was pretty much a run-of the mill, box ticking American liberal, and it was those professed values of inclusivity and compassion that led to his now famous #WalkAway journey. Although he was doing the usual crying and condemning on social media following the Trumpocalypse, Straka possessed enough self-awareness to realise he must’ve missed something really big to be so badly blind-sided by Clinton’s defeat.

So began his quest to understand why millions of ordinary Americans had voted for a man the mainstream media had declared officially off limits due to his racism, bigotry, misogyny and stupidity. What was happening? Were all these voters just dumb, easily fooled, or were they all just secret racists?

Media

Is Jo Brand Worse than Danny Baker?

16 June 201930 April 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

By now, even the microscopic life outside of our solar system has heard about the Jo Brand acid joke controversy.

Claims and counter-claims surrounding freedom of expression, incitement to violence, political correctness and media hypocrisy have been churning around editorial pages for several days now.

The BBC have defended Brand’s statement, although she herself has since issued a public apology. It seems that BBC editors have no problem with what she said, even though she herself wishes that she hadn’t said it. How much of that public contrition is genuine is anybody’s guess and irrelevant anyhow.

The fact that the BBC saw fit to broadcast Brand’s words on a pre-recorded show has been highlighted as proof positive of the Corporation’s double standards when it comes to policing the speech of its staff and presenters. Piers Morgan, among among many others, has been loudly pointing out that the beeb didn’t hesitate to axe Danny Baker for sending a crass tweet about the Duke & Duchess of Sussex’s newly born son, yet actively defended a presenter who, at the very least, finds some comedic value in the idea of those she disagrees with suffering life changing injuries.

Media

The US Media are Acme’s best Customers

3 February 20191 May 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

You’ve gotta hand it to the Yanks. They make the best cartoons by miles.

Over the past couple of years the American mainstream media has unwittingly produced an endless stream of hilarity, setting new standards for schemes involving ludicrously unlikely devices of destruction.

The first ground-breaking classic was the unprecedented hostile campaign the Democrat establishment and their media allies catapulted at Donald J Trump while he rallied his way towards the White House. In time-honoured tradition, that impossibly heavy mass of hysterical hyperbole completely missed its target, rebounded off a sceptical public and crushed the cable networks with a resounding crunch. Trump was elected President while the media’s already dubious reputation was squashed flatter than a cartoon cat beneath a falling anvil. Thud!

Never the sort to let physics or practicality stand in their way, the US establishment tried again with its increasingly desperate and derided Russian collusion hoax, but that unstoppable snowball of scandal simply melted away as it rolled down from the top of the mountain, reduced to nothing more than a grubby ice cube in a small puddle. Splosh!

My Top 10 Live Bands

Iron Maiden

10 June 20181 May 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

Tremble with terror, ye unbelievers! No recording industry fortress can withstand the unstoppable musical force unleashed upon this mortal realm by the musical alchemists of Albion!

Iron Maiden are so much more than just an astonishing and amazing live spectacle. They’re a living, breathing, libertarian resistance that glories in taunting an entertainment elite that long ago decided such louts were just too uncouth, too incorrect and generally unworthy to tread the sanctified and hallowed halls of the mainstream media complex.

Cast out and denied the limelight that was rightly theirs, Iron Maiden set about raising an army of fans and building an entertainment war machine the likes of which this world has seldom seen.

They have succeeded, and they have swept all before them.

My personal relationship with Maiden began way back in 1986, when I first saw them play live at Hammersmith. For any readers who remember, this was the gig that featured a brief appearance by some hapless kid who was placed there courtesy of Jim’ll Fix It…ahem, moving swiftly on.

I’ve seen them four times in total, roughly once a decade, and on each occasion I’ve witnessed how this insatiable media monster has grown bigger, stronger and ever more ambitious with the passage of time. With musicianship, equipment and a stage spectacle second to none, Iron Maiden have first conquered and then colonised parts of this world where the corporate media machine often fears to tread.

My Top 10 Live Bands

VNV Nation

13 May 20182 May 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

Once in every decade or so, a musical movement or maybe a movie franchise appears that just looks, sounds and feels like nothing else. Like a brand new branch springing from a mature tree, this unexpected creative offshoot bursts out of the existing cultural body in a completely unpredictable way, yet somehow manages to look like it was pre-destined to appear all along.

VNV Nation arrived in our psyche in just such an unexpected yet predictable fashion during the creative drought of the mid 1990s; starting very small, but rapidly evolving into an entire musical sub-branch in their own right. This Anglo Irish duo somehow managed to blend an almost New Wave futuristic synth vibe with state of the art technology to produce a stunning series of auditory sculptures which are often imitated, but never bettered.

Working tirelessly both on the road and in the studio, VNV Nation have built up an impressive album catalogue as well as a hugely dedicated following, and all without the blessing or endorsement of the mainstream media machine.

Having been a fan of their music for quite a while, I was more than pleased to finally have the chance to witness a live performance.

They didn’t disappoint.