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FCC Investigating Sinclair’s Lies In Failed Attempt To Take Over Tribune Media

By Free Press

The Federal Communications Commission is investigating whether Sinclair Broadcast Group “engaged in misrepresentation and/or lack of candor” with the agency when it was seeking approval of its $3.9 billion takeover of Tribune Media Co. in 2018, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Tribune Media withdrew from the proposed merger last August, after the FCC releases a Hearing Designation Order, in which the agency criticized Sinclair for misrepresenting its plan to transfer control of several television stations to shell companies set up by the broadcaster.
“The record raises significant questions as to whether those proposed divestitures were in fact ‘sham’ transactions,” according to the order.

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Posted on June 27, 2019

Meat Is Masculine

By Kate Stewart and Matthew Cole/The Conversation

The UK Advertising Standards Authority has introduced a new rule in its advertising code which bans adverts which feature gender stereotypes “that are likely to cause harm, or serious or widespread offense.”
This is a welcome step towards challenging the everyday normality of patriarchy in popular culture. But gender stereotypes in advertising cannot be untangled from human oppression of other animals. Consuming other animals is normalized in our culture, so those sorts of “stereotypes that are likely to cause harm” go unnoticed, and aren’t usually judged to have caused “serious or widespread offense.”

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Posted on June 19, 2019

John Oliver: Impeachment

This is motherfucking journalism (almost) better than the greatest sex you’ve ever had. This is also the way the “real” news should be delivered. After all, everything he said was true – and explained in a way that is far superior than traditional television reports (or crappy cable reports).

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Posted on June 17, 2019

63 Up: Real Reality TV

By Ruth Deller/The Conversation

Fifty-six years after ITV first aired its landmark 7 Up documentary, 12 of the 14 men and women first seen as seven-year-old children in 1964 have returned to share the story of their lives in one of the most influential experimental television documentaries.
63 Up is the ninth installment in a series originally designed as a one-off special made by Granada as part of ITV’s World in Action strand. The original was based on the famous Jesuit motto: “Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man.”

Using interviews and footage of the seven-year-olds at play together, the program explored issues of class and aspiration. The 14 children were selected from different backgrounds and talked on camera about their ambitions, feelings, values and experiences. Among the production team was a young researcher, Michael Apted.

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Posted on June 6, 2019