Inter-Occupy on Ice

As winter begins, the Occupy movement reshapes, renames and refocuses for 2012; mistrusting the media may be detrimental to public policy; meanwhile, Ron Paul evades questions and answers about his alleged racist newsletters. These discoveries and more below.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that have 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. Newer ones are on top.

Occupations in winter Local occupations around the country are linking up through frequent, massive conference calls, tightening what is now an extremely loose national network that operates under the Occupy banner into a more focused force.

The id of Newt To truly understand Gingrich’s mind, read his 1984 book on space exploration.

Anonymous to Wall Street: Happy hacked Christmas Anonymous hackers claimed Sunday afternoon to be in the beginning stage of hacking into the Wall Street 1%, having already stolen emails and credit card data from U.S.-based security think-tank Stratfor.

The intellectual cowardice of Bradley Manning’s critics After imprisoning Private First Class Bradley Manning for 18 months, the U.S. Army last week finally began the preliminary stage of his court-martial proceeding, and that initial process ended on Thursday.

Why everyone hates the media Mistrust of the press is at near-historic highs. A new book argues that has dangerous public-policy consequences.

The great ebook price swindle Publishers are facing an uncertain time in the digital world — but increasing the prices of their ebooks is a retrograde step.

The fake “War on Christmas” outrage It’s become as integral to the season as caroling and Black Friday — but the sentiment is completely manufactured.

Should artists get royalties when their work is re-sold? Just as droit de suite — the requirement that artists receive royalties on secondary sales of their work — is about to go into effect in the U.K., the U.S. Congress has introduced its own droit de suite bill, which would require payment of a 7% fee on resales above $10,000.

Ten Pertinent Questions for Ron Paul (That He Won’t Answer) Before Ron Paul walked out of an interview with CNN’s Gloria Borger on Wednesday, he snapped that she should “take the answers I give” on the bigoted, conspiracy-mongering articles that used to appear in newsletters he published.

The 99% Versus Wall Street Earlier this year, long before Occupy Wall Street turned Zuccotti Park into Liberty Plaza, Stephen Lerner, a longtime labor organizer with the SEIU and mastermind of the Justice for Janitors campaign, wrote in New Labor Forum of “large-scale sit-ins, occupations, and other forms of nonviolent civil disobedience that must inevitably overcome court injunctions and political pressures.”

A tale of 30 corporations When we look back on this period, someone will have to write a novel that begins with the following sentence: It was the best of times (for corporations), it was the worst of times (for the 99 percent).