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“Buying the War” was finally broadcast last night and it may well be called Moyers’ finest work ever. In “Buying the War” Moyers presents a sobering inside look at how nearly the entire journalist profession shirked its most basic tenets and became complicit in pushing the US into a war based almost entirely on lies.

These are strong words coming from me, if you peruse some of my posts from that time you will find that in general I was quite hawkish. (As an aside, how do I feel now? I was lied to, I was manipulated, I was used, so was my country, and our soldiers. The war should have never occurred and the administration did everything in its power to fool its own citizens. I am deeply pissed off and ashamed I didn’t question the party line more. I showed my wrath last election and will show it the next one as well.)

In any case, Bill Moyers “Buying the War” is a stunning first show for the new Bill Moyers Journal series on PBS. Its programs like this that make me glad I have a tv. You can watch is online as well over at http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html.

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The RIAA's Cary Sherman has a Nov 13, 2006 must-read editorial on CNet. In it Sherman calls CEA's President Gary Shapiro statements "extreme", Sherman goes on and describes what he sees as the limits & definition of fair use. Why all the brouhaha? The just recently launched digitalfreedom.org site sponsored by the CEA. If you haven't checked it out I urge you to do so now and while you're there make sure to sign the petition.

My own editorial: The CEA is doing very important work in defending the right of consumers to consume and enjoy media the way THEY want to and not in some manner tightly controlled by the RIAA. Pay close attention to what the new congress does, traditionally the Democratic party is very close to the traditional supporters of the RIAA & the MPAA (lawyers & media companies) and may try to strengthen laws that further restrict consumer's ability to use media that they lawfully own. The best refutation of Sherman's arguments are in Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture. You can find Free Culture online either as a pdf or as MP3's, its a must-read for all 21st century consumers.

It is imperative that everyone support competition and a level playing field in the tv space. Please sign the petition (https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?JServSessionIdr007=80dnu42g11.app6a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=261) to force the cable companies to allow innovation in television. Of course all this might be for naught as internet TV may allow us to get around the cable companies completely.

Recently Frontline had and episode titled Tankman. The episode explored the question of what ever happened to the man who stood in front of a tank during the protests in Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989. Go see it over at the PBS website at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tankman/view/ and marvel that great TV still gets made.

Mark Russinovich is brilliant, check out his latest here:Mark’s Sysinternals Blog: Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far

Mark is an awe-inspiring engineer. And WTF is up with Sony. Who & how could this ever be allowed. Seems like we need anti-malware that detects software from well known corporations. I wonder how long till the class action lawsuit. Hopefully soon. So sad to see Sony go down this way…

Nice to see that Ruby on Rails is getting significant traction. Looks like the BBC is looking to leverage it on their latest skunkworks project. Check it out at: hackdiary: The BBC’s programme catalogue (on Rails)

Let’s face it, TV is dying. That morass of crap is slowly but surely becoming irrelevant, good riddance I say. I recently heard a statistic that soap operas are experiencing an amazing drop in viewer-ship and the entire tv industry was puzzled. That’s right, they are puzzled why they are losing viewers and are befuddled how to deal with it.

Slowly but surely I can honestly say I watch nearly no traditional TV today, I urge you to do the same, its not hard at all, try it for a week. I also make frequent use of my netflix account and always have some sort of theme going (right now I’m obsessing over 70’s film noir).

That said, Frontline continues to be the best thing around. Much like the BBC, the public broadcast corporations are taking the lead in creating quality programming for the thinking man. Here is a smattering of recent Frontlines:

A Jew among the Germans

The New Asylums

Death of a Princess

I was stunned at the quality and depth of these reports. PBS also posts the reports online, sidestepping the entire copyright debate and focusing on the viewer. That’s right you can view a frontline whenever you have a moment. Go enjoy classics like “The Farmer’s Wife” or “Memory of the Camps”, be amazed at the true power that media can have. Somewhat different than reality crap they try to spoon feed us these days.

PBS is not alone; the BBC has done an amazing job in opening up its archives to a viewing public online.

These institutions should be applauded for daring to tread where modern corporations refuse.

Sony connect music store was released a few months ago and I figured I would check it out. I assumed it would suck badly (how did Sony get this bad) and didn’t get a chance to check it out. Decided to go there and got this.

They don’t support firefox? Huh?

Took it off my todo list and won’t ever look at it. How lame. Who is making the decisions over there. Someone really needs to be fired. I loved Sony. I made it a point to buy my consumer electronics with their name on it. No more.

Please go buy some music from Sarah Mclachlan over at iTunes.

Why?

Because she did this. And anybody that does that deserves to sell their stuff. Even if you don’t like her music you should support her efforts. Tell your favorite band to do the same.