Resource: Mapping U.S. Social Movements Through the 20th Century

The links on this site lead to more than 80 visualizations and data tables, with more to come. Dozens of maps and charts show the activist geography of NAACP, United Farm Workers (UFW), Socialist Party, Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), Communist Party, Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). SNCC, Black Panther Party, the Chicana/o Movement, and underground newspapers from the 1965-75 are in the works. The National Woman's Party and NOW will follow.

Mapping U.S. Social Movements Through the 20th Century, directed by Professor James Gregory (University of Washington).

See, also: IWW History Project--The Industrial Workers of the World 1905-1935 and Upton Sinclair's End Poverty in California Campaign.

Media: The Maddow/Stewart Interview Uncut

Rachel Maddow and John Stewart had a conversation Thursday night that was comparable to the sort of intelligent, respectful, uncontentious dialogue that was the staple of Bill Moyers's Journal (it wouldn't be a bad thing if the too-often-smug Maddow morphed into a philosopher-journalist along the lines of the greatly missed Moyers). For his part though, Stewart still doesn't get why the Left objected to his characterization at the Can't We All Just Get Along Rally of conservative and liberal as opposite sides of the same coin. He's probably right that it may be more effective rhetoric to describe George W. Bush, say, as engaging in criminal acts than it is to call him a criminal. But if Stewart's intention was, as he says, to turn down the heat of partisan debate in the media, he didn't get the job done.

This may be a product of bad analysis. Stewart misreads Fox News, for example, when he argues that the network isn’t a partisan organization. In fact, Fox is the marketing division of the Republican Party, speaking in the same voice as the Party of No in its opposition to anything proposed by the White House or the Democratic leadership in Congress no matter how closely those proposals hew to free market or other traditionally conservative ideological positions. There are interesting conservative arguments to be made in favor of communitarian approaches to issues like taxes, the environment, foreign policy, military spending, and so on, but you won't hear them articulated on Fox. A news network with a conservative ideological bent would find much to like in Barack Obama's pro-corporate approach to governing, for example, but not Fox (in 2008, you couldn't go to a Democratic rally without tripping over conservatives for Obama); Fox isn't interested in ideology, just politics, specifically in advancing the fortunes of the Republican Party.

In any event, the thoughtful and, more unusually, civil exchange between Maddow and Stewart was a pleasure to watch. Stewart may even be correct that Maddow's use of comedy to illustrate points on her show may be counter-productive. If last night's conversation is any example, her pleasant personality may be enough to get the audience to sit still for explications of complex or controversial ideas. She doesn't need schtick.

The Right's disinformation machine: "It must be true. I read it on the Internets"

If the truth will set you free, what will lies do for you?

Media: Top 10 Works of Journalism of the Last Decade

The faculty of New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and a group of distinguished outside judges has selected "The Top Ten Works of Journalism of the Decade in the United States." We began with a list of eighty nominees. Our purpose was to call attention to and honor work of exceptional importance and quality - journalism that brilliantly met the challenges of this difficult decade.

Ten years ago New York University, using some of the same judges, selected "The Top 100 Works of Journalism of the Twentieth Century in the United States."

The official press release is  here.

The staff of The New York Times: "A Nation Challenged" 2001

Adrian Nicole LeBlanc: Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx 2003

Lawrence Wright: The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 2006

Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson: This American Life & NPR: "The Giant Pool of Money" 2008

C.J. Chivers (reporter), Dexter Filkins (reporter) and Tyler Hicks (photographer): The New York Times ongoing reporting from the front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan. More2003-2009

Jane Mayer: The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals 2008

Barbara Ehrenreich: Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America 2001

The Times-Picayune staff, New Orleans, La.: Coverage of Hurricane Katrina, August-December 2005

Anne Hull, Dana Priest (reporters) and Michel du Cille (photographer) - The Washington Post: "Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration at Army's Top Medical Facility" 2007

Walter Robinson, Michael Rezendes, Sacha Pfeiffer, Matt Carroll, Stephen Kurkjian, Tom Farragher, Michael Paulson, Kevin Cullen, Ben Bradlee Jr., Mark Morrow - The Boston Globe: Abuse in the Catholic Church"  2002

The Media: Top Censored Stories of 2009/2010

Project Censored, founded by Carl Jensen in 1976, is a media research program working in cooperation with independent media groups in the US. Project Censored’s principle objective is to train Sonoma State University students in media research. First Amendment issues and the advocacy for, and protection of, free press rights in the United States are central to its mission. Each year, Project Censored publishes a ranking of the top 25 national news stories that are under-reported, ignored, misrepresented, or censored by the US corporate media in Censored: Media Democracy in Action, a yearbook released each September.

1. US Congress Sells Out to Wall Street
2. US Schools are More Segregated Today than in the 1950s
3. Toxic Waste Behind Somali Pirates
4. Nuclear Waste Pools in North Carolina
5. Europe Blocks US Toxic Products
6. Lobbyists Buy Congress
7. Obama’s Military Appointments Have Corrupt Past
8. Bailed out Banks and America’s Wealthiest Cheat IRS Out of Billions
9. US Arms Used for War Crimes in Gaza
10. Ecuador Declares Foreign Debt Illegitimate
11. Private Corporations Profit from the Occupation of Palestine
12. Mysterious Death of Mike Connell—Karl Rove’s Election Thief
13. Katrina’s Hidden Race War
14. Congress Invested in Defense Contracts
15. World Bank’s Carbon Trade Fiasco
16. US Repression of Haiti Continues
17. The ICC Facilitates US Covert War in Sudan
18. Ecuador’s Constitutional Rights of Nature
19. Bank Bailout Recipients Spent to Defeat Labor
20. Secret Control of the Presidential Debates
21. Recession Causes States to Cut Welfare
22. Obama’s Trilateral Commission Team
23. Activists Slam World Water Forum as a Corporate-Driven Fraud
24. Dollar Glut Finances US Military Expansion
25. Fast Track Oil Exploitation in Western Amazon

Media: Harrison On the Edge

Another alternative media voice, podcaster and radio personality Cary Harrison comes to video: