But that's what THEY want you to think!

This article about the Michael Jackson death hoax hoax is just priceless. Apparently someone started the online rumor about Jackson faking his death as an "experiment" to see how fast rumors and conspiracy theories have spread on the Internet. And, indeed, they spread very fast because there is still a whole crop of Michael Jackson conspiracy theory web pages up and active. As conspiracy theorists usually do, they point out all the "obvious" mistakes and inconsistencies in the "official version" of the story.

So now that the death hoax conspiracy has been outed as joke, I wonder how quickly the true believers will claim that the real conspiracy is the claim that that conspiracy is not real?

Confused yet?

Well, keep surfing the web this week because as we're heading toward Friday, the 11th, all the "9/11 was an inside job" nutbars will be busier than ever, so confusing conspiracy theories and conspiratorial fantasies will be busier than ever.

And tune in to "Culture Wars" on the 10th to hear me and Ernabel Demillo put in our two cents' worth!!!

Well, it's about time!

The Michael Jackson death-hoax conspiracy theories are starting to spread on the Internet. At last!! Check out the story here.

Actually, I'm kind of surprised that it took so long for this conspiracy theory to get going. I do have something of a fascination for this since my book on the cultural history on conspiracy theories and conspiracy theory films should be available from McFarland publishing by next year. So now I'm looking forward to reading more of how this particular theory will grow and play out in cyberspace. Will it have the sort longevity as the Elvis is alive or the government-was-behind-the-9/11-attacks conspiracy theories?

Although my favorite cyberspace conspiracy theory is still the one being spread by a small handful of Apocalyptic religious nuts. These are the folks who believe that the third Antichrist is none other than...Arnold Schwarzenegger!! Just google that one and check it out.

As someone who was called the "Antichrist" on the Culture Wars radio show (Returning on September 10, only on WSPC radio), I am kind of partial to all the Antichrist conspiracy theories.

Billy Ray is Da Man!!!

This article about Billy Ray Cyrus is a couple of days old only because I just ran across it by accident. I haven't made it a point in a while to keep up on all of Billy Ray's comings and goings. But I do love this article about him coming to his daughter's defense after she was criticized for dancing too close to a pole at the Teen Choice Awards. Apparently in the demented, perverse minds of all the country's concerned "family advocates" and media critics, the pole suggested strip clubs or some such nonsense.

Papa Cyrus, of course, disagreed and defended Miley in an Entertainment Tonight interview. Nice going!!

But now I wonder if he's still on the advisory board of a bunch of censorious, reactionary morons like the Parents Television Council, the kinds of people who would notice things like this in the first place and get outraged over the sleazy degradation of America's wholesome childhood and traditional family values.

Oh, mother! Blood!!

This is a quick link to more fascinating studies confirming the genetic roots of evil, violent, and antisocial behavior: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090804090946.htm Psychos, it seems, are born.

Nowhere does it mention media use, video games, and horror movies. There are some cool supplemental articles too.

The big monkey movie.

Out of a good summer, the only thing to suffer on this end has been the upkeep of this blog. A million apologies!!!

Although some of my travels – which I’m kind of using as a feeble excuse for not always managing the blog the way I should have – did give me some interesting things to ponder…and to remain amazed by how right I am about my ideas about media and audience interaction.

For example, I was so glad to have wonderful bonding experiences with my 4.5 year old nephew…over films like Peter Jackson’s King Kong. As a matter of fact, watching that film over and over again with him (at his request: “I love this movie, Uncle Barna, I want to watch it every day!) created the best sort of relationship that can exist between uncle and nephew: a favorite uncle can always be counted on to show you fun films your parents would never let you watch.

But my nephew’s ongoing requests to see the film – with its many frightening and violent scenes – whereas he avoids other entertainment that upsets him, demonstrated how active even a small kid can be in controlling what he knows he is capable of handling and censoring his own viewing choice when material becomes too intense to handle.

In the words of the genius George Carlin: “If you want to help children, leave them the fuck alone!” They’re not made of glass and they don’t need to be locked away in a cabinet to be kept safe.

An interesting summer read?

Here's an interesting-looking book I just ran across on amazon.com I'm considering putting on my summer reading list. It might just be a good beach read...hopefully. It's called "Censorship: The Threat to Silence Talk Radio."

According to its description, the book is a criticism of the Fairness Doctrine which, in my opinion, should never be reinstated. Its effect will certainly NOT be more ideas and points of view in broadcasting but less. This is a historical fact. During the years the Fairness Doctrine was in effect, there was a lot less politically oriented, opinion-oriented broadcasting than there is today. If broadcasters had to balance every single point of view with a counter argument, they just played it safe and easy and tried to avoid as much controversial talk as possible.

Today, of course, most of the folks afraid of the Fairness Doctrine are the conservative radio talk show hosts and their fans. Programs by Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity or other conservative pundits would not exist under the Fairness Doctrine.

Now the book Censorship appears to be a strictly conservative-point-of-view critique of the Fairness Doctrine. Hannity even writes an introduction to the book. To be fair, though, the back of the book jacket even carries an endorsing blurb by arch-liberal Alan Colms.

While I am opposed to the Fairness Doctrine on principle, I am only a little bit skeptical about the commitment to free speech of what has recently emerged as the "conservative base" of the Republican party. These, by the way are the Moral Majority types, the ultra-right-wing fundamentalists who also rail against the "smut," "indecency," and "filth" of so much of TV broadcasting and shock jocks on other radio programs. You know, the Parents Television Council types. So I'm curious if this conservative defense of freedom in broadcasting is honest, or if it's merely a few disingenuous ultraconservatives talking the talk to save right wing radio while they would back the censorship of anything else they deem "offensive."

God Bless the USA!

Well here are just a few more reasons why I definitely don't want to move to either China or any country run by a fundamentalist Islamic theocracy. These two stories about web surfing in the not so free world just sealed the deal. Check them out here and here.

Aside from being identified by Reporters Without Borders as the country that exerts the most censorious control over the Internet in Asia, China is also deeply concerned about the moral rot Internet pornography may bring about in young and impressionable minds. Therefore, they want to censor the Internet even further. All computers sold in China, apparently, must be fitted by porn-blocking software. As an educator of college students who understands the importance that rest, relaxation, and entertainment to overstressed and overworked students, this sort of censorship just appalls me! It APPALLS me!!!

The second piece about the new Microsoft search engine, Bing, seems to hint that some software developers might have been Boy Scouts in a previous life. They plan ahead. Apparently versions of their software marketed in Islamic countries already have blocking functions built in, not allowing access to pornographic videos.

While this is an entirely easy shot to take, I will definitely take it...because it's just so much fun and so satisfying: The censorship of so-called "smut" and "indecency" usually goes hand in hand with general censorship, intolerance of dissent, and totalitarianism. Those are words - meaning "totalitarianism," "dissent," and "intolerance," - such American guardians of morality like the Traditional Values Coalition, the Family Research Council, and (my all-time favorites) the Parents Television Council should look up in a dictionary.

And I think I will now check out some of the search functions on Bing...