Jamie Kilstein

New generations, rise up, take to the streets, the world is yours, change it!
Patti Smith

#Newsfail: Climate Change, Feminism, Gun Control, and Other Fun Stuff We Talk About Because Nobody Else Will by Jamie Kilstein and Allison Kilkenny is the book that centers around the authors’ independent, user supported radio news show and the authors’ view of the world. Jamie Kilstein is a comedian who idolized Jon Stewart in Stewat’s early days. Allison Kilkeny majored in English at Illinois State University before moving to New York City. Together they host Citizen Radio a news broadcast where Noam Chomsky’s philosophy of the Responsibility of Intellectuals is taken very seriously.

The book opens with a prologue and an introduction to get the reader caught up on who Allison and Jamie are and what Citizen Radio is and where it came from. Jamie and Allison are true liberals and by that I do not mean they do not fall into clean American political labels. American politics, especially in a presidential year, compares very closely to the Super Bowl. You are either for one team/party or the other there is no third choice. The American mindset works as follows if you are not a Republican you are a Democrat. If you are not a Democrat, you are a Republican. It’s that simple to most Americans. What else the Super Bowl has is commercials, and both team’s supporters love the commercials. American media can be compared to the commercials. It appeals to both sides, and the outcome of the game not really mattering in their ability to exist or more importantly make a profit. They want to make a profit so they appeal to the largest group of people possible, and do not to uphold that mythical belief that “people need to hear the truth”.

Citizen Radio and #Newsfail upholds that deeper, old fashioned journalism and not the sanitised newscasts of today. With no corporate sponsors, they are free to broadcast without fear of losing their big financial supporters. They report the stories that so called liberal media misses or misrepresents For example, in the chapter about our rape culture, legitimate rape, real rape, and those poor boys in Steubenville, Ohio who raped a girl, and became the center of the story. Other news networks reported the boys had so much promise and now all that will be gone because they are going to jail. What will be the lasting effect on these boys of having to serve a juvenile sentence. That was reported, in that tone on CNN, supposedly a bastion of liberalism. Forget the victim, let’s focus on the “other victims”, the ones who committed and recorded the sexual assault. Liberal media is not so much liberal, but corporate.

#Newsfail examines several issues that the authors feel are being under reported, misreported, or simply ignored. They also let in on their personal story to let the reader know they are not discontent rich kids or doing this as a some cool hipster trend. They believe in what they do, and they are articulate, funny, serious, sarcastic, and thought provoking. In addition to climate change, feminism, gun control, the other fun stuff includes class warfare, Occupy Wall Street, human rights, foreign policy, and veganism.

The chapters are organized by subject and topic and are all self contained. The writing is clear, concise, and serves a purpose. There is a lacing of profanity in the book, not just for profanity sake, but it may be the first time I have ever heard the reference “Noam F**king Chomsky.” An interesting aspect of the writing style is that Jamie and Allison refer to themselves in the third and second person, or simply “the authors.” When either one (or perhaps they both worked through every story), is writing, telling a story, or making a point, it is difficult who is speaking. It almost seems as the book is being reported in real time from a third party. It is an interesting format and seems to add to the book.

For the record, I do find many of the points made in #Newsfail valid and the support for the arguments very well done. However, I am probably not the typical Citizen Radio fan. I had already voted for Reagan and enlisted in the Marines around the time the authors were being born. Agree with their politics or not, there is something positive about the younger generation (I never thought I would ever say that phrase) standing up and doing something. Not just falling unquestioningly into the rank and file. What makes a democracy work is opposition. It makes people think. We used to count on the media to report, investigate, and expose wrongdoing. Today media is more concerned about it’s sponsors, entertaining, and not offending the hand that feeds them. #Newsfail and Citizen Radio will probably not become the standard news source, but it may provide the pressure and the need for change. All it really takes it for people to take notice and think. #Newsfail is a very good start.









… (mere)

There’s an awesome podcast out there called Citizen Radio, and it is amazing. The hosts are a comic and journalist, respectively, who record at their home and talk about news that either doesn’t get covered or that gets covered in ridiculous ways. There is a ton of swearing, a lot of joking, some bizarre recurring characters (“Republican Baby,” for example), and a crap ton of actual, honest, news. Citizen Radio is independent media that seeks the truth without being worried about what sponsors are going to think. It’s funding wholly by members like me, but is available to everyone for free.

What does that have to do with this book? Well, this book is written by the hosts of Citizen Radio. It’s a progressive look at the ways in which the news fails: fails to tell us the truth, fails to cover the stories that matter, and fails to do what journalism should do. It’s an easy read (as in, it’s written conversationally; the topics themselves are not in any way light), and organized into general topics that are illustrated with examples of the ways the news has failed to cover the topics properly. The authors address class war, sexism, LGBT rights, gun control (or “massacre prevention,” as they wisely call it), drug policy and foreign policy. The chapters have fantastic titles like “We Know You Smoked Weed in College, Asshole: How the War on Drugs Is Destroying This Country.”

The book is great; when it ended I wished there were more for me to read. I wish they could have taken on even more topics – I feel like there’s enough failure of the media out there on such a wide range of topics that they could write at least one more book, if not two. They point out the problem with presenting “both sides” when there aren’t actually two reasonable sides. A good example of this is climate change. When the vast, vast majority of scientists find truth in something, it doesn’t make sense to have one climate change denier on to debate one scientist. That’s irresponsible. Of course, as Kilkenny and Kilstein point out, scientists (or experts on the issues) are rarely even invited to contribute to the discussions. Instead of the experts on an issue, or those directly impacted by an issue – say, reproductive health – being invited on, you get a panel of older white men. No white women, no women of color, just old white politicians talking about putting an Aspirin between a woman’s knees as effective birth control.

The book is filled with rough language, and includes a smattering of anecdotes from the authors’ lives. Much like their podcast, the book makes me laugh, makes me angry, and motivates me to take action. I read a more diverse array of topics now than I did before I found their podcast. I’ve always been what I’d describe as liberal; now I know that a better term to describe my beliefs is progressive. While some might pass this book off as preaching to the choir, the reality is that while much of what they say might be more radical than the average liberal’s thinking, they back it all up. They provide support for those beliefs that you might have been thinking, but haven’t seen supported when you watch CNN (or MSNBC, because really that station isn’t nearly as liberal as people think).

If you care about politics, journalism, the media, or any of the topics covered in this boo, I strongly urge you to pick it up. And next time you’re on iTunes, or Stitcher, please check out Citizen Radio.
… (mere)

The central theme in this unsubtle attack on most of the current issues in the USA is the newsmedia’s consistent, willful and unwavering failure to report them fairly. Sometimes this means unfairly displaying the other side on an issue that really doesn’t have another side, but the newsmedia find out-there extremists to represent “opposition”. On other issues, the newsmedia are blinded by multimillion dollar sponsorship deals. And there’s always the heavy hand of government trying to suppress the truth for the sake of stable government, “national security”, and trickle-down jobs. Left (MSNBC??) or Right (Fox) or simply Lame (ABC, CBS, NBC), the result is the same – unhelpful at best, misleading most of the time. #Newsfail attempts to come to your rescue.

The book is a crossover collection of rants by the founder hosts of Citizen Radio, a leftish podcast that is garnering listeners worldwide, thanks to the internet. One is a reporter and one is a comedian. They lived together, starved together, traveled together, married, and work together. That alone merits recognition.

The rants are humorous, self-deprecating (If you ask the people around you if there is any vegan food available, they will collectively declare “Oh, JESUS CHRIST!”), offensive, entertaining, and largely on target, if only superficially. There is very little in the way of revelation or depth here. America is the Great Satan. Everything we do has an ulterior motive. Everything we do is for the wrong reason. Everything we do poisons the planet, physically, politically, socially, and/or culturally. In the wonderful phrase of Alexander Cockburn, we are marinating in hypocrisy.

So what else is new?

The authors love to begin paragraphs in the third person plural and immediately switch to the first. This actually works (although it’s jarring), giving the text initial gravitas, and then immediately tearing it down in favor of a direct plea. They refer to themselves unjournalistically by first names only. There is a clear Chomskian influence, which is always welcome, culminating in Allison threatening to divorce Jamie if he gets a Chomsky tattoo on his back.

Ironically, the authors have created a printed book with all the faults they foist on TV’s Daily Show in one of their early rants. They skim hotbutton issues without actually examining them or taking any sort of action whatsoever. They rail against Jon Stewart for a faux Washington March to counteract the Glenn Beck circus, because it’s the slacker’s feelgood solution involving no brain cells or commitment of any kind. So with #newsfail. It reads like a Daily Show Marathon over a holiday weekend. Fortunately, like the Daily Show, it also highly entertaining, to help the medicine go down.… (mere)