This fun-loving Disneyesque term describes the US military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. Gitmo is where detainees are kept. Detainees are people arrested on suspicions of terrorist activity.
Gitmo detainees are held outside the US so that activities there are not restricted to the US Constitution which states that arrested people have a right to a lawyer and cannot be held indefinitely without charge. At Gitmo, you can hold them as long as you like and never provide lawyer. At Gitmo, there are no Geneva Conventions on treatment of prisoners of war because the people held at Gitmo are not prisoners. They are detainees.
Gitmo is a term used by US military and political insiders. It is colloquial and folksy. Gitmo should not be used by media organizations such as CBC radio which recently mentioned the fun-loving term several times in a broadcast.
Yes, CBC it is fun to say Gitmo just like it's fun to say Bingo or Dumbo or Satchmo. But saying in saying the fun word Gitmo, you are getting into bed with the very fun-loving people who created and support its premise.
Let's ban Gitmo and call an undemocratic breach of US-style justice an undemocratic breach of US-style justice.
Showing posts with label CBC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CBC. Show all posts
22 February 2007
22 January 2007
CBC radio spins The Spin
Bravo to CBC radio for pulling Spin Cycles out of its bag of tricks. The first show aired on Sunday morning at 11.
The first of six one-hour documentaries shone a light on the dark arts of public relations and political spin in the age of "truthiness." Producer Ira Basen, known for his excellent work on Ideas, explored the history of the public relations taking the listener from the earliest incarnations of PR in 1920s to the present day media management strategies used by the US military.
Basen leads us into the labyrinthine world where information is managed, massaged and manipulated by managers, often ex-journalists, who are paid by vested interests such as the military, pharmaceutical companies and governments. Sometimes the client isn't known.
Journalists may cry foul, says Basen, but they don't have to take the word of the spin doctors. “Spin itself is relatively benign. It becomes toxic when the press fails to do its job,” says Basen.
This typist says true to that, but if the power and budgets of public relations vested interests exceeds that of journalistic institutions, how are journalists supposed to do their jobs?
This is intelligent subject matter, well-presented and relevant to anyone who consumes news, the Internet or floats around in the soup of popular culture. Spin Cycles is proof of what CBC can do when it puts its mind to it.
Spin Cycles: A series about Spin, the Spinners and the Spun airs each Sunday morning at 11 until Feb 25.
The first of six one-hour documentaries shone a light on the dark arts of public relations and political spin in the age of "truthiness." Producer Ira Basen, known for his excellent work on Ideas, explored the history of the public relations taking the listener from the earliest incarnations of PR in 1920s to the present day media management strategies used by the US military.
Basen leads us into the labyrinthine world where information is managed, massaged and manipulated by managers, often ex-journalists, who are paid by vested interests such as the military, pharmaceutical companies and governments. Sometimes the client isn't known.
Journalists may cry foul, says Basen, but they don't have to take the word of the spin doctors. “Spin itself is relatively benign. It becomes toxic when the press fails to do its job,” says Basen.
This typist says true to that, but if the power and budgets of public relations vested interests exceeds that of journalistic institutions, how are journalists supposed to do their jobs?
This is intelligent subject matter, well-presented and relevant to anyone who consumes news, the Internet or floats around in the soup of popular culture. Spin Cycles is proof of what CBC can do when it puts its mind to it.
Spin Cycles: A series about Spin, the Spinners and the Spun airs each Sunday morning at 11 until Feb 25.
03 January 2007
Promo Girl returns to CBC radio
Don't say you weren't warned. The Over Inflected One crashed back into the public airwaves of CBC Radio One this morning. Promo Boy is gone, Promo Girlis back and the holiday is over.
We had the same wavy inflections and more of the wink-wink-nudge-nudge verbal gesturing that so effectively trivializes and distracts from the material promoted. The ChuckerCanuck put it well when commenting on Promo Girl's disappearance last month:
We had the same wavy inflections and more of the wink-wink-nudge-nudge verbal gesturing that so effectively trivializes and distracts from the material promoted. The ChuckerCanuck put it well when commenting on Promo Girl's disappearance last month:
Promo Girl will no longer purr about homelessness and coo about climate change. No longer will the CBC try to give me a boner while advertising a documentary about life during chemotherapy. True enough, CBC Radio One won't sound like a day-long highball party anymore, but that's the price of dignity.
I guess we public radio listeners should just get with the picture and realize that it's no longer strictly about good content; it's now about the cute personalities, ironic pitches and giggly gags someone thinks we need to hear to be inticed into listening. What would poor old Peter Gzowski have thought? But then, Promo Girl probably wouldn't remember him.
27 December 2006
Promo Girl to return
Several posts back, this typist reported that CBC radio's Promo Girl had disappeared. She was nowhere to be heard on the public broadcaster. Well, for those enjoying the refreshingly understated tones of Promo Boy, there is good news and bad.
The good news is that Promo Boy, Tony Daniels, has replaced Promo Girl while she pursues greener pastures in the movie business. The bad news is that the Over Inflected One will return with when her movie projects are complete.
This typist credits Shauna MacDonald, the actor behind Promo Girl, for her good work in the role of Constable Erica Miller in the Trailer Park Boys. And she will no doubt prove her acting talents in her present movie projects.
But the nudge-nudge-wink-wink-aren't-we-hip-at-the-CBC act has to go. Her exaggerated radio voice distracts from the content it aims to promote by drawing too much attention to itself. And it diminishes important subject matter that deserves intelligent, not cute, promotional treatments.
The Ceeb has it wrong on this one. Cute, saucy and look-at-me irony quickly degenerates into cute, saucy cliche. It wears thin and becomes predictable while distracting from the good material it promotes. This does not belong in public radio broadcasting. The CEEB and is listeners deserve more.
The good news is that Promo Boy, Tony Daniels, has replaced Promo Girl while she pursues greener pastures in the movie business. The bad news is that the Over Inflected One will return with when her movie projects are complete.
This typist credits Shauna MacDonald, the actor behind Promo Girl, for her good work in the role of Constable Erica Miller in the Trailer Park Boys. And she will no doubt prove her acting talents in her present movie projects.
But the nudge-nudge-wink-wink-aren't-we-hip-at-the-CBC act has to go. Her exaggerated radio voice distracts from the content it aims to promote by drawing too much attention to itself. And it diminishes important subject matter that deserves intelligent, not cute, promotional treatments.
The Ceeb has it wrong on this one. Cute, saucy and look-at-me irony quickly degenerates into cute, saucy cliche. It wears thin and becomes predictable while distracting from the good material it promotes. This does not belong in public radio broadcasting. The CEEB and is listeners deserve more.
06 December 2006
Promo Boy bumps Promo Girl?
Could it be that CBC Radio Promo Girl (ProGo) has been promoted to greener pastures?
Keen listeners today will have noticed the conspicuous absence of the Over-Inflected One. There was no forced irony imposed on serious subject matter, no self-serving jokes, no it's-all-about-me intrusion on the broadcast rhythms.
Instead, we heard a pleasant male voice drawing attention to programs of interest without drawing attention to himself. Promo Boy (or ProBo, to keep with the syntax) was informative without being intrusive, and he managed this without resorting to the dreaded "voice of God" the Ceeb so desperately wishes to avoid.
Congratulations ProBo and the Ceeb. It may be wishful thinking, but long may it last.
Keen listeners today will have noticed the conspicuous absence of the Over-Inflected One. There was no forced irony imposed on serious subject matter, no self-serving jokes, no it's-all-about-me intrusion on the broadcast rhythms.
Instead, we heard a pleasant male voice drawing attention to programs of interest without drawing attention to himself. Promo Boy (or ProBo, to keep with the syntax) was informative without being intrusive, and he managed this without resorting to the dreaded "voice of God" the Ceeb so desperately wishes to avoid.
Congratulations ProBo and the Ceeb. It may be wishful thinking, but long may it last.
23 November 2006
Promo Girl creep
This typist applauds the creep of CBC radio Promo Girl to greener pastures in the private TV sector. The chirpy, playful, generously-inflected and faux ironic voice is a good fit for the Sears Christmas commercials she's been doing lately. And were those the dulcet tones of ProGo we heard doing the Swiffer commercials for Showcase Diva? Perfect. (Note the chirpy, playful, generously inflected, faux irony of that first paragraph.)
May these new pastures be green for the Mezza Voce of CBC radio because the chirpy, playful, generously-inflected, faux ironic timbre of ProGo is not a good fit for the promotion of stories on Darfur, the World War I or Rwanda.
If you're going to be fun and playful, ProGo, you should stick to fun and playful subject matter such as Sears Christmas commercials and Swiffers (if cleaning floors with designer rags is your idea of fun.)
The world covered by CBC Radio deserves more than the wink-wink-nudge-nudge treatment of the Progo Voce. Sears and Swiffer are far more deserving of your generously-inflected talents than are Rwanda, World War I and Darfur.
May these new pastures be green for the Mezza Voce of CBC radio because the chirpy, playful, generously-inflected, faux ironic timbre of ProGo is not a good fit for the promotion of stories on Darfur, the World War I or Rwanda.
If you're going to be fun and playful, ProGo, you should stick to fun and playful subject matter such as Sears Christmas commercials and Swiffers (if cleaning floors with designer rags is your idea of fun.)
The world covered by CBC Radio deserves more than the wink-wink-nudge-nudge treatment of the Progo Voce. Sears and Swiffer are far more deserving of your generously-inflected talents than are Rwanda, World War I and Darfur.
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