The Pecking Order in Israel

Israeli institutions’ decision-making processes exclude women, Arabs and Mizrahim; television shows reflect how isolated white America is actually becoming; meanwhile, can women reclaim and redefine “slut” during the war against women? 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.

Israel’s politics of discrimination How an informal process of decision making keeps Ashkenazi men at the top, while women, Arabs and Mizrahim are denied their fair share of power and resources.

Selective bin Laden leaking Earlier this week, an Obama-appointed federal judge ruled in favor of the government in a national security case (needless to say), when he denied a FOIA request to obtain all photos and videos taken during and after the raid in Pakistan that resulted in Osama bin Laden’s death.

Selling ‘The Scream’ One of the best-known images in modern art comes up for auction for the first time ever next week, with an $80 million estimate. Putting a price on angst.

Can Sluts Across America Reclaim a Dirty Word? It’s no secret that culture skirmishes can begin and end on the battleground of language.

A Victory for OWS in Philadelphia An interview with attorney Paul Hetznecker after his legal team’s defense led to full acquittal for one of the largest groups of Occupy protesters brought to trial so far.

Under Fire From Catholics, Paul Ryan Ditches Rand For Aquinas Rep. Paul Ryan became a conservative hero for promoting policies based on the philosophies of “Atlas Shrugged” novelist Ayn Rand, such as a devotion to laissez-faire capitalism and the belief that selfishness is a virtue.

White TV Actually Mirrors Increasingly Isolated White America The recent media firestorm over the whiteness of the HBO series Girls is somewhat puzzling for two reasons: One, why pick on Girls when so much of television is glaringly white and two, why be surprised that a show set in New York City could still lack racial diversity?

Noam Chomsky: Occupy Points to a ‘Different Way of Living’ Noam Chomsky is uniquely skilled to provide context to the Occupy movement and encourage its growth into new stages of energetic initiatives.

Pandora: The No. 1 radio station in Los Angeles? Pandora, the Internet streaming radio service, is the No. 1 radio station in Los Angeles by audience size, according to a poll released Tuesday by the Media Audit.

Is Electricity the New Smart Drug? Right now Adderall is in short supply, which, according to some reports, is making it harder for pharmacists to fill prescriptions, driving up black-market prices on campuses, and perhaps forcing some students to rely on their native brainpower to write essays on religious symbolism in Billy Budd.

Facebook and Google Turned Into Government Spies? April 25 — The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to pass a reprehensible cyber-security bill this week that seeks to protect online companies—giant social media firms to data-sharing networks controlling utilities—from cyber attack. It is reprehensible because, as Democratic San Jose Rep. Zoe Lofgren said this week, it gives the federal government too much access to the private lives of every Internet user. Or as Libertarian Rep. Ron Paul also bluntly put it, it turns Facebook and Google into “government spies.”

UCLA professor warned about Israel views An Associate Professor at UCLA has been formally admonished for the crime of including a link on his course website to a political statement about Israel that some students dislike, as reported by The Daily Bruin: David Shorter, an associate professor of world arts and cultures, was the subject of a late March complaint from an organization of University of California faculty that fights anti-Semitic sentiments on college campuses.