‘TV Will Set You Free’ Edition

Posted on Feb 1, 2010

Gordon Brown’s law addiction, what Americans really, really, really want (really?), and how TV is going to save the world whether you watch it or not. These stories and more on the list.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

The links below open in a new window and newer ones are on top.

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If You Want to Be Poor, Drop Out; If You Want to Be Rich, Study Economics
Teenagers,you should be very angry. I mean very angry. The adults of your world have let you down and let you down in an incredibly important area ... education.

Politicians Make Life a Moving Violation
Labour has introduced 14,300 new offences since taking office in 1997, with Gordon Brown’s administration inventing crimes at a rate of more than one a day.

Hollywood Script Doctor Explains ‘Avatar’
In all the visual splendor of James Cameron’s “Avatar,” it’s easy to overlook the script. In fact, the “Avatar” screenplay has come in for the same abuse Cameron’s “Titanic” script earned.

This Is Why Prop Masters Use Fake Booze Onstage
Cast falls off tables, chairs – and stage – during “experimental” bender at Schauspielhaus in Frankfurt.

Gay Pianists … Can You Tell?
Someone (a psychologist) wrote to my website recently saying that he’d heard my two Valses Enigmatiques on this CD and “homosexuality came to mind.”

Housework Is an Academic Issue
Scientists are likely not to be interested in thinking about housework. ...

Frank Luntz Tells Us ‘What Americans Really Want ... Really’
The first thing to know about What Americans Really Want … Really is that, despite Frank Luntz’s status as a celebrity GOP pollster, this is not precisely a book about political polling or strategizing.

At Least Health Care’s Not an Issue in Alabama
GOP gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne says he believes “every word is true” in Bible.

Ex-CIA Operative Changes Tune on Waterboarding
Well, it’s official now: John Kiriakou, the former CIA operative who affirmed claims that waterboarding quickly unloosed the tongues of hard-core terrorists, says he didn’t know what he was talking about.

3 Ways Television Makes the World a Better Place
TV hating may seem simple and satisfying, a way to wash our hands of responsibility for things like low literacy rates, laziness, or lack-luster economic performance, but it’s too simplistic. I hear the nation’s obesity rate being blamed on the tube, for example, as if people’s own will power doesn’t factor in. Is it really Hollywood’s fault when someone becomes a couch potato?

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