warmowski wrote:Andrew, I think your tut-tutting is misplaced. You probably don't complain about interpellation when the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation addresses you with its own ridiculous ideology.
You are 100% mistaken about this, and I don't know why--other then on the basis of generalized probability--you make this inference . The CBC is a shitshow in most respects, and anyone who knows me well, up here, knows I am not a fan of its nationalistic ethos (
"Hockey: A People's History" is a crime against intelligence, e.g.). You will be hard-pressed to find me espousing Canadian nationalism anywhere, on this board or elsewhere.
(I refer to the premise that Canadians belong on television, which is a policy enforced as you are aware by that network.)
This gets to something more interesting, however. If having a publicly owned broadcaster means that, in addition to the nationalist horeshit, progressive and informational programs, including foreign documentaries and independent cinema, regularly air on basic cable (as they do on CBC), this all to the good.
There is a tension between nationalism and indigeneity that, especially for leftists in Canada, can be tough to negotiate. A lot of the organized left in Canada is nationalistic, from the
Council of Canadians to the NDP. To couch things like socialized medicine or gay marriage in nationalistic terms is reactionary, but living above the most powerful capitalist state on earth (with a population 10 times Canada's), this is understandable.
Nonetheless, I despise it, and I am riven by bad faith and when I work with such groups. I hold my nose and bite my tongue. I'm not a welfare-state, tax the rich more and raise the flag, we'll all be happy Fordist Maple producers again, socialist type.
All of this is to say that my standards are high. This goes for music, for writing, and for thought and politics. It is accurate to say that some on this thread, and many American liberals elsewhere, have been gushing over Olbermann.
If Olbermann were a band, he'd be Franz Ferdinand or Anti-Flag, or some such (I should say, I guess, that I've only seen 4 or 5 of O's monologues and refer chiefly to the 9/11 one). My "tut-tutting" is lame, but not uncalled for. An argument could be made that Franz Ferdinand is good because it's better than The Killers and, what's more, a gateway band to the Gang of Four. But that is not how I roll.
Given that the American political spectrum exists on the head of a pin, I understand why liberals cream themselves over a figure like Olbermann. Doesn't mean I have to buy in, especially when it rides in on sophistic shit like this:
It certainly complicates the Chomskyan thesis that a corporate controlled media by definition prevents alternative, counter voices from emerging that might threaten the powers that be... But then Marxist superstructure-type analyses, like Chomsky's, are notorious for not leaving much room for individuals having any real effect on much of anything at all.
Three years into a failed imperial occupation, with the President's popularity at an all-time low, someone steps up on primetime and suggests that AMERICA used to be better than this.
Bullshit.
But thanks for taking me up (I mean it).
Best,
Andrew