Hillary Clinton declares international information war
Mar 4th
FROM RT The US is losing the global information war, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared while appearing before a congressional committee to ask for extra funds to spread US propaganda through new media.
Clinton said existing private channels are not good enough to handle the job, naming as rivals Al Jazeera, China’s CCTV and RT – which she watches, she added.
Clinton was defending her department’s budget in front of the House’s Committee on Foreign Affairs on Wednesday.
Clinton said the US should step up its propaganda effort and get back “in the game” of doing “what we do best.”
“During the Cold War we did a great job in getting America’s message out. After the Berlin Wall fell we said, ‘Okay, fine, enough of that, we are done,’ and unfortunately we are paying a big price for it,” she said. “Our private media cannot fill that gap.”
“We are in an information war and we are losing that war. Al Jazeera is winning, the Chinese have opened a global multi-language television network, the Russians have opened up an English-language network. I’ve seen it in a few countries, and it is quite instructive,” she stated.
Things have changed a lot since the days when Western media outlets, including BBC and CNN, had a monopoly on the coverage of world news. More and more viewers across the world tune into various foreign media to get a fresh take on events.
It is all in the numbers. For instance, RT’s presence on YouTube is a real hit: almost 300 million views, when CNN International is struggling to reach 3 million.
RT’s constantly growing audience is an indication that the days of media monopoly are over and that people are demanding more multi-polar thinking.
One of the latest examples is Al Jazeera’s coverage of the unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, which by most accounts outshone the US media’s presentation of events.
Not everyone, however, is happy with the wider variety of media options. The head of the federal agency that manages the US’s government-run international broadcasting has basically called all those foreign media enemies.
Last year Walter Isaacson, who heads the federal agency that manages the US’s government-run international broadcasting, including the Voice of America, warned against the influence of foreign media.
“We can’t allow ourselves to be out-communicated by our enemies,” he said, in a now-infamous pitch to get his agency more funding. He did, however, later backtrack on his statement, saying that he was misunderstood.
COOL NEWS: CU-Boulder Students to Launch Radar Experiment: Why Does North Boulder Tend to Receive More Snow Than South Boulder?
Mar 4th
About 100 University of Colorado Boulder students will be using Doppler on Wheels radar as part of an experiment between now and April 15 to investigate why north Boulder tends to receive more snow than south Boulder.
The radar equipment, which many people are familiar with from the Discovery Channel series on tornadoes titled “Storm Chasers,” will be deployed during two snowstorms in Boulder. Groups of two or three students will rotate to assist in the operation of the radar every two hours between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m.
The students, primarily non-science majors, are taking a class titled Weather and Atmosphere taught by Assistant Professor Katja Friedrich of the atmospheric and oceanic science department. The National Science Foundation is loaning the equipment as part of an educational project in which students will learn how to conduct scientific measurements and interpret data.
“With this activity we want to provide our undergraduate students with some hands-on experience and hope to get them more interested in science,” Friedrich said.
Media are welcome to visit the radar site when it is in operation during a snowstorm. To be added to an e-mail notification list of when students are likely to be operating the equipment, and the two site locations, send an e-mail to Friedrich as early as possible at Katja.Friedrich@Colorado.EDU.
Friedrich also can be reached by cell phone at 720-939-6507. Or contact Peter Caughey in the CU-Boulder Office of Media Relations and News Services at 303-492-4007 or caughey@colorado.edu.
No radar deployments will occur during CU-Boulder’s spring break, March 21-25, or on weekends.
More information about the project, “Teaching Flow Over Mountains” or the TOM experiment, is posted at http://rain.colorado.edu/TOM-experiment.
Earth Day San Francisco Earth Day Festival 2011 plans ahead of Boulder
Mar 4th
Largest Earth Day event in the Bay Area at Civic Center Plaza on April 23, from 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA, March 3, 2011, –/WORLD-WIRE/– New on the Earth Day scene this year is Earth Day SF, a free public event focused on helping our community take action steps toward creating eco-sustainable solutions to our local and global ecological challenges.
This new educational festival and multi-cultural entertainment event will keynote pressing environmental issues & promote solution oriented community action. Top Notch Music, performance, well-known speakers & activists will grace our three stages: Earth Day Main Stage, Speaker’s Stage and Gaia Stage. Exhibitions, hands on workshops and solution-based talks on eco-green topics are major components of the event in our Permaculture Zone, Clean Energy Zone, Holistic Wellness Zone and Youth in Action Zone.
Join leading members of the business and indigenous communities,educators, artists and artisans, craftspeople, civic community leaders, local “eco-green” politicians, ceremonialists, workshop leaders, eco-green & youth activists and social justice non-profit organizations in a powerful full on day.
Meet in person, Native American Chaske Spencer, Star in the film The Twilight Saga bringing his own cause to Earth Day San Francisco.
