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September 26, 2011
Bread and Circuses
Battle for Brooklyn
Filmmaker Michael Galinsky has a must-read post on the Battle for Brooklyn web site that juxtaposes the manufactured media nonsense of today's "Brooklyn Nets" announcement with the relative lack of coverage of the provocative, aggressive and violent tactics being used by the NYPD against protesters on Wall Street. It's powerful stuff, and we can't really do justice to it with an excerpt, so we'll just bring you the comic-diversion portion.
Click thru to read it all.
Today I went down to a tent on the plaza of the Atlantic Center mall to see Jay Z make a “surprise” announcement that he will do 8 shows at the arena and that the team will be called the Brooklyn Nets. It was a total bread and circus moment. While there are hundreds of people protesting on Wall Street there were hundreds of press people at this press event dutifully reporting the dominant narrative that they were led to. When I pointed this out to press people they didn’t see the irony.
When I first arrived (at the wrong location) I saw Marty Markowitz talking to an ABC news reporter.
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I offered Marty a copy of the film. He refused to take it and told me that it was propaganda. I explained that I made the film and asked if he had seen it. “No, but I have had plenty of people tell me that it’s propaganda.” I told him that I took offense at that notion as I had taken great pains to make it even handed. I asked him again if he was sure that he didn’t want a copy. He did not. I didn’t film this exchange because I had no ill intent. I sincerely wanted him to have a chance to view the film. I offered one to the reporter as I had filmed him at the ground breaking. He didn’t want one either. Then Marty yelled at me that they didn’t have to take one.
Posted by eric at September 26, 2011 3:11 PM