Allgemein

Paris Hilton singt für Hugh Hefner.

Vor einer Woche feierte ich mit ein paar Freunden bei Cappuccino und Frühlingssonne die Wiederaufstellung der Sitzgarnituren vor der kleinen Kneipe am Ende der Straße. Wie bei den meisten akadmischen Stammtischsubstituten begann das Gespräch zunächst recht ernsthaft, um dann doch recht schnell auf die Fragen zu kommen, die vielleicht am ehesten darüber Auskunft geben können, was die Welt im innersten zusammen hält: In diesem Fall diskutierten wir kontrovers meine These, daß Paris Hilton doch vielleicht die wirkliche Weltmeisterin viralen Marketings sei, und selbst das unverhoffte Auftauchen ihres “Heimvideos” “1 Night in Paris” im Netz eigentlich kein Versehen war. Aber wie bei den meisten bedeutenden Fragen wird auch die Antwort auf diese wohl ewig unbekannt bleiben.

Übrigens, bei YouTube singt Paris Hilton in dieser Woche ein Geburtstagsständchen zum 80. Geburtstag von Hugh Hefner, dem Playboy Herausgeber (Link via Robert Basic). Jaja, früher war halt doch alles besser ;)

Und ja, ich gebe zu, daß ich Paris Hilton und Hugh Hefner nur deswegen im Titel stehen habe, um den google-Effekt zu beobachten…

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US Politics

Seriously. It’s worse than I thought.

I’ve always said that it’s important not to underestimate the American President. But I’m not sure that is actually possible. His Q&A session at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies is a box full of candy for Bush comedy of all kinds. Here’s a question by a first year graduate student about the legal regime private military contractors are operating under in Iraq. At least the President acknowledges it’s an interesting question – though I’m not sure he actually got it. But he’s gonna call his secretary of defense to ask. After all, that’s how he governs… quite right.

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US Politics

9% native American, 11% northern African.

The NY Times about the technology that will be ending affirmative action.

Alan Moldawer’s adopted twins, Matt and Andrew, had always thought of themselves as white. But when it came time for them to apply to college last year, Mr. Moldawer thought it might be worth investigating the origins of their slightly tan-tinted skin, with a new DNA kit that he had heard could determine an individual’s genetic ancestry.

The results, designating the boys 9 percent Native American and 11 percent northern African, arrived too late for the admissions process. But Mr. Moldawer, a business executive in Silver Spring, Md., says they could be useful in obtaining financial aid.

…

Prospective employees with white skin are using the tests to apply as minority candidates, while some with black skin are citing their European ancestry in claiming inheritance rights.

One Christian is using the test to claim Jewish genetic ancestry and to demand Israeli citizenship, and Americans of every shade are staking a DNA claim to Indian scholarships, health services and casino money.

“This is not just somebody’s desire to go find out whether their grandfather is Polish,” said Troy Duster, a sociologist at New York University who has studied the social impact of the tests. “It’s about access to money and power.”

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US Politics

Repeat with me: Wa-ter-gate!

Wow, suddenly those demanding the impeachment of President Bush don’t sound too crazy anymore. Political power sometimes is such an elusive thing. So President Bush admitted to declassifying the NIE report so it could be used by his political operatived for political and PR reasons. Yesterday, he claimed to have done it so the American people could know “the truth” about his reasons for proposing to invade Iraq.

Well, if I were him, I’d stop using the word ‘truth’ for a lot of reasons. But that’s not the real point: the real point is – did he, on any level, authorize to blow CIA agent Valerie Plame’s cover to threaten her husband to stop arguing that the administration was not ‘truthful’ about Iraq seeking to buy Uranium in Niger? If that were the case, I’m really not sure how, and when, his presidency would end. And for that matter, the vice presidency of Dick Cheney.

it also looks like the American so-called mainstream media is no longer that scared by the administration. Here’s an example, an MSNBC segment about the affair and the recent developments, posted on the “bradblog“.

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US Politics

Iran is not Iraq?

Last week, in an interview with the BBC, Condoleeza Rice was still adamant, insisting on geographical facts, making it clear that “Iran is not Iraq.” On the other hand, reality based arguments have too often been denied their factual power by the Bush administration to simply believe her in this case. Seymour Hersh, for one, doesn’t believe that the ‘n’ makes the difference. He writes in the New Yorker –

A government consultant with close ties to the civilian leadership in the Pentagon said that Bush was ‘absolutely convinced that Iran is going to get the bomb’ if it is not stopped. He said that the President believes that he must do ‘what no Democrat or Republican, if elected in the future, would have the courage to do,’ and ‘that saving Iran is going to be his legacy.’

One former defense official, who still deals with sensitive issues for the Bush Administration, told me that the military planning was premised on a belief that ‘a sustained bombing campaign in Iran will humiliate the religious leadership and lead the public to rise up and overthrow the government.’ He added, ‘I was shocked when I heard it, and asked myself, ‘What are they smoking?”

Good question, what are they smoking?

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compulsory reading, US Politics

Israel, the AIPAC, and US foreign policy

In today’s IHT, Daniel Levy, who was an advisor to former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, discusses a recent paper entitled “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” by John J. Mearsheimer (University of Chicago) and Stephen M. Walt (John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University). The context Levy provides is interesting – his emphasis is on a growing rift between an increasingly inward looking Israel and an continously expansive AIPAC (America Israel Public Affairs Committee) – Levy’s article is entitled “America: So pro-Israel that it hurts“.

If I remember correctly, AIPAC’s influence on American foreign policy is as mythical as it has been cyclical. As Levy notes, the recently increasing debate about the AIPAC’s influence on and the assumed natural alignement of Israeli and US interests in the Middle East could, in light of a growing rift between Israeli policy and the AIPAC, possible precede realignments in American foreign policy. If he’s right, the honest broker might be looking for a come-back. He would certainly be welcomed.

“A recent study entitled “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy” should serve as a wake-up call on both sides of the ocean. It is authored by two respected academics – John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government …

The tone of the report is harsh. It is jarring even for a self-critical Israeli. It lacks finesse and nuance when it looks at the alphabet soup of the world of American-Jewish organizations and at how the “Lobby” interacts with both the Israeli establishment and the wider right-wing echo chamber.

…

Yet the case built by Mearsheimer and Walt is a potent one: Identification of American with Israeli interests can be principally explained by the impact of the pro-Israel lobby in Washington in limiting the parameters of public debate, rather than by the fact that Israel is a vital strategic asset or has a uniquely compelling moral case for support (beyond, as the authors point out, the right to exist, which in any case is not in jeopardy).

The study is at its most devastating when it describes how the lobby “stifles debate by intimidation” and at its most current when it details how America’s interests (and ultimately Israel’s, too) are ill-served by the lobby’s agenda.

…

The signs that Israel and the pro-Israel lobby are not on the same page are mounting. For Israel, the withdrawal from Gaza and future evacuations in the West Bank are acts of strategic national importance; for the pro-Israel lobby, they are an occasion for confusion and foot-shuffling. For Israel, the election of Hamas raises complex and difficult challenges; for the lobby it is a public-relations home run and an occasion for legislative muscle-flexing.

The lobby’s influence, write Mearsheimer and Walt, “has discouraged Israel from seizing opportunities…that would have saved Israeli lives and shrunk the ranks of Palestinian extremists….

“Using American power to achieve a just peace between Israel and the Palestinians would help advance the broader goals of fighting extremism and promoting democracy in the Middle East.”

This is not about appeasement; it’s about smart, if difficult, policy choices that also address Israeli needs and security.

In short, if Israel is indeed entering a new era of national sanity and de-occupation, then the role of the pro-Israel lobby in U.S.-Israel relations will have to be rethought, and either reformed from within or challenged from without.”

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Allgemein

Are publishers catpeople?

Still having problems with the server – or rather, more precisely, with the interaction between my installation of MT and the server’s Perl installation – so posting is excruciatingly slow and will only work through the regular interface. I would like to regale you, my gentle readers, with some fun impressions from my visit to the Frankfurt international music fair, as well as a nice photo from one of my favorite club’s closing party last night. Alas, visual amusement will have to wait until the above problems are dealt with.

Still, to end this weekend on a slightly positive note, while reading up a little on recent conversations about “citizen media” I found an interesting transcript of a panel discussion over at Corante. The most notable quote is from th Guardian Unlimited’s Simon Waldman, who may have found an analogy for online communities, offline publishers may be able to understand –

Owning a community is like owning a cat. You have to understand that it can leave at any moment. You have to show it a lot of love and affection and forgive it if it shits in your kitchen.

Still, even in case they understand the analogy, they might still be allergic to cats – or simply decide not become catpeople. We’ll see.

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compulsory reading, media, web 2.0

Deutsche Journalisten und das Internet…

Bei Fabian Mohr (Notebook | Online Journalismus) findet sich eine überaus interessante Diskussion über das Verhältnis von – sich selbst offenbar als angehende Elitejournalisten wahrnehmenden – Studenten der Deutschen Journalistenschule zu Onlinemedien im allgemeinen und zu Blogs im speziellen. Eine Diskussion, die das Verhätnis von – deutschen – Journalisten und Verlagen zu Onlinemedien vielleicht besser charakterisiert, als so manche quantitative Erhebung. Sieh da – Blogs, eine Quelle für schwache, aber bedeutende Signale. Fabian Mohr berichtet aus erster Hand –

“Sie lesen eigentlich keine Blogs. Blogs finden sie Scheiße. Mit Blogs verdient man kein Geld. Im Internet ist 99 Prozent Dreck. …”

Mal sehen, wie lange diese Einstellung sich noch hält – denn einer von denen, bei denen die zukünftige schreibende Elite vermutlich gerne arbeiten würde (ja, auch ein Praktikum wäre toll…), Bernd Kundrun, seines Zeichens Vorstandsvorsitzender der Gruner + Jahr AG, dürfte, zumindest offiziell, nicht mehr so begeistert sein von solchen Ansichten. Laut Branchenblog turi2.de sagte Kundrun am vergangenen Donnerstag der Werbe- und PR-Fachzeitschrift W&V –

“Es wird notwendig sein, in den nächsten zehn Jahren das Berufsbild des Journalisten schrittweise neu zu definieren. Die bisherige Vorgehensweise ‘Ich besitze den Content und Du konsumierst ihn’ wird sich ändern in Richtung “Ich lenke, strukturiere und produziere, aber Du bist eingeladen, mir dabei behilflich zu sein.”

Auch wenn das eigentlich eine Debatte ist, die zumindest theoretisch schon mal Mitte der neunziger Jahre abgehandelt wurde (“daily me”, irgendwer?), erscheint die Aussage angesichts der erkennbaren Resistenz dysfunktionaler Rationalitätsmythen irgendwie revolutionär.

Glücklicherweise ist das Erkenntnisziel gar nicht so schwer erreichbar – wie Wolfgang Harrer mit seinem Kommentar beweist.

“Die Trennlinie ist also nicht Old Media vs. New Media oder gar Blogger vs. Journalist. Die Trennlinie ist Qualität vs. Schrott; und diese Trennlinie hat erstaunlich wenig damit zu tun, ob ein Autor für seine Arbeit bezahlt wird oder nicht.”

Und was fehlt noch an dieser Stelle? Ganz klar – der Link zum Qualitätsblog. Und der schücherne Hinweis auf die Tatsache, daß der Tausendkontaktpreis dort gerade mal ein sechzigstel dessen beträgt, was bei Spiegel Online International zu zahlen ist…

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