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S-11 Redux: (Channel) Surfing the Apocalypse

Halo1 writes "The Guerrilla News Network has made a great 11 minute movie, culled from over 20 hours of footage from different channels. It's a lightning fast razorsharp analysis of the post 9/11 coverage by the general media and gives you quite a different view of the politicians and their calls for war. It's insightful, frightning and funny at the same time (we need a new mod option! :). The links on the movie page go to the Windows Media version at the Sundance Online Film Festival (they're competing with that movie), but they also have Quicktime versions available locally: low and high bandwidth (links posted with permission from all involved parties)."

28 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. This is quite old. (In Internet time.) by AtariDatacenter · · Score: 5, Insightful

    However, it was interesting to watch, if not a bit preachy. The thing that I walked away with it the previous time was this being painted as Christians vs. Muslums. It seems to be timely once again, tho'.

  2. Next story: by Omkar · · Score: 5, Funny

    In related news, the GNN news network was disrupted by a terrorist attack. A group known as 'Slashdot' has claimed responsibility.

    Seriously, thoug, can anyone post a transcript for thoses of us with really slow internet connections?

    1. Re:Next story: by kubla2000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The powerful message coming out of the film was that we (and by "we" it's clear GNN means "the west", not america alone) are in a position to do something about the dangerous cycle of violence that is threatening what we have come to know as free civilisation.

      By equating Al Qaeda with Islam, and the actions of terrorists with those of muslims, many in positions of responsibility in government (specifically, the clip shows Bush and his aides, Jean Chretien, Tony Blair, et al) and especially the media are pushing the views of the public toward a mindset last seen, with catastrophic outcomes, in the crusades.

      According to Bush, because "they" hate "us", we must beat them until they change their minds. Christianity == good, Islam == bad. "Either you're with us, or with the terrorists", declared Bush.

      Well, this film shows that we needn't subscribe to that point of view.

    2. Re:Next story: by glesga_kiss · · Score: 3, Informative
      But where is the obvious benefit in dragging down Saddam?

      Iraq has a lot of oil. And I mean a lot

      The whole arab world will hate us even more than they already do

      Not true. The arab world hates Saddam as much as Bush. Iraq fought a very long war with Iran, who are a very islamic country. It's during this period, where the US didn't like Iran very much, that the US sold Iraq (on credit!) masses of arms and the capabilities to build weapons of mass destruction.

      Anyone that suggests Iraq has Islamic terrorist links is lying to you. The whole of the CIA and NSA has spent the last 4 months trying to come up with proof of this "link" and have they found anything whatsoever? Not even a casual shared aquaintance between them!

      And will Iraque be 'free' afterwards?

      Ha Ha! Who cares? We've toppled (or helped topple) other governments we didn't like before, and look who we left in their place. Saudi Arabri. Afganistan. Who cares about the population when their is bounty to be grabbed!

      PS, that's pretty much why the terrorists hate us. We fucked them and their families over. Literally.

      Well, compare it to Afghanistan. Theoretically a free country, but the warlords still rule the countryside.

      LOL, Afganistan is now ruled by former business partners of Bush/Cheney, from Haliburton. It's an economic take over. They want access to the oil in the former USSR states to the north, and the only way to pipe it to the Gulf is through Afganistan. That's the reason for the war there, to secure access to the land. The oil companies and US government (same thing at the moment) had been negotiating this for several years with the Taliban. It's only when the contract was awarded to an Argentine group that the Taliban suddenly became "evil". There are press reports prior to 9/11 suggesting a US/Afgan war is iminent.

      My advice? Do not watch TV news! It's only designed to keep you watching until the commercials. So they show things that people like watching. Death. Violence. Dispair. Tragedy. Sport.

      It's not a true reflection of the world, and if you watch it every day, you're probably one of those people who worry about being attacked/killed on your way to work, and you live behind closed/locked doors.

    3. Re:Next story: by Obasan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Hrm... not to rain on your paranoia parade, but there's more oil in Canada than there is in the middle east. Much of that is at present unexploited, but the US does import more oil from Canada at present than it does from Saudi Arabia.

      The US gets less than 20% of its oil from the middle east. If its "all about oil" as you seem to claim, the US should be using political leverage to increase pump & oilsands production in Canada, not getting their people killed overseas. Not to mention dealing with the situation in Venezuela.

      I think there is a bit more to it than you have identified...

  3. Mosaic media is fun by Platinum+Dragon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I haven't seen 9-11: (c)StA, despite being a GNN forum semi-regular, but I've had the opportunity to view other collage film efforts on the topic.

    In particular, Plasticman and the Justice League by Toronto artist and slacker Jonathan Culp was quite hilarious and biting.

    If you're up for a slightly twisted view of things, along with some artsy-fartsy film tricks, dig around the alternative billboards in your area. There's some interesting stuff floating around out there. It may not change any minds (or it might!), but as cultural artifacts and Negativland-style low-budget social commentary efforts, many such flicks are worth seeking out.

    --

    Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
  4. Direct Link by ShoeHead · · Score: 4, Informative

    before this get's slashdotted, you can download the movie at

    http://http.dvlabs.com/gnn/qt/gnn/redux/redux_bb .m ov

    Happy viewing!

  5. While GNN is reeling from the Slashdotting.. by CBNobi · · Score: 5, Informative

    Do them a favor and download from the Sundance site instead of the GNN. They have a distributed, Akamai-like system for viewing the flick.

    You get the film, the GNN doesn't spend money on bandwidth, and noone feels too guilty about slashdotting a film-specializing site like Sundance. Everyone wins.

  6. Re:Note to slashdot by Platinum+Dragon · · Score: 5, Informative

    Alternativately, find an interesting political story that doesn't come out of the same old, tired, pseudo-radicalist mindset and attempt to provide the same standards of objectivity and balance that would be expected of a news organization.

    You expect objectivity and balance from a news organization?

    I know journalism classes talk a big game about "objectivity" these days, and most news organizations will pay lip service to the concept, but a cursory glance over the political content of most news media will immediately expose the editorial bias of the organization in question. I'm actually happier when a website or newspaper comes right out and admits its editorial slant, rather than letting it quietly run past the editorial page.

    In particular, Fox News' "Fair and Balanced" slogan is practically begging to be refuted. Not that CNN or many other news networks are much better, Fox just happened to be the org that painted a huge bullseye on itself regarding objectivity.

    --

    Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
  7. A few thoughts... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Interesting that the clip of Ted Koppel in which he talks about wishing "all our Muslim viewers a happy Ramadan" doesn't include the full quote, which ended with something along the lines of "We do want to be politically correct, don't we?" The full clip is available in this amazing "illegal" video Spin
    at illegal-art.org, where incidentally you can download other illegal audio & video.

    Secondly, Steve Allen was a genius.

  8. Preaching to the choir... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The only ones that will pay attention are those that held these views already. Especially since the method of information distribution is an indie film. It's not as if this stuff hasn't been exposed since 9-11, it's just that the sheeple are apathetic towards manipulation and corruption. If James Bamford can't get people to care one whit with editorial columns in USA Today, and the best Michael Moore can do is provoke a few days' worth of discussion with a nationally-distributed film, what hope does this project have?

  9. huzzah to michael by Hadlock · · Score: 5, Insightful

    kudos for doublechecking permission before slashdotting a site that is definately gonna get slammed, come morning. i know you got flamed last time for that barcode site, and it's good to see you're alerting people in advance this time.

    in other news, interesting short film, i really liked the various music they played on it. did anyone by any chance catch the piano bit and know who wrote/composed/arranged it by any chance? it almost sounded like somthing out of the thomas crown affair.

    --
    moox. for a new generation.
  10. that vid was scary... by LadyGuardian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... only in the way that now people are going to go around spouting this stuff as gospel because they are too lazy to go do their own research. Yes, it is well done. I even chuckled at the banjo music. However, quotes taken out of context do not count as fact. No matter who said it or how many there are in a row, it's still not the whole truth. I laugh at CNN for their egotistical 'learn about whole world's events in 30 seconds' approach to news, but this is something else entirely.

    This, to me, is how MTV would cover the news in a desperate stab at keeping people's attention.

  11. Sheep by Carrierwave · · Score: 4, Interesting

    In a recent news report covering an anti-US rally in Iraq, one man was shown holding a banner reading "A nation of sheep, owned by pigs, and led by wolves." (or something to that effect). Most Americans would probably find this very offensive unless they consider the facts of the matter, and the truth is that we have let Donald "Let's Rumble" Rumsfeld and the rest of the Bush-lynching mob get completely out of control. This movie only helps to drive that point home.

    1. Re:Sheep by DarkZero · · Score: 5, Interesting

      In a recent news report covering an anti-US rally in Iraq, one man was shown holding a banner reading "A nation of sheep, owned by pigs, and led by wolves." (or something to that effect). Most Americans would probably find this very offensive unless they consider the facts of the matter, and the truth is that we have let Donald "Let's Rumble" Rumsfeld and the rest of the Bush-lynching mob get completely out of control.

      Yes, because all Americans happily serve our corporate employers in our wonderfully spacious cubicles without a hint of grumbling or complaining, and cheer on a daily basis as yet another politician gives Big Business a nice, hard bitch slap for the little guy because he's an upstanding, principled American citizen.

      This message brought to you by 1940s American sitcoms, whose sponsors remind you to, "Grow up, you ignorant, self-important fuckwit that assumes that everyone else is stupid."

      While you're assuming what "most Americans" would do, you may want to look at one of the latest polls, the second most popular source of generalizations about American beliefs (with first place going to the speaker's ass, of course). It paints a pretty unsurprising picture for anyone that doesn't blindly assume that those around them are inferior to themselves. It states that the American people disagree with the Bush Administration in its priorities, believe that its policies favor the rich, believe both that Bush is handling Iraq the wrong way and that that sentiment will be ignored, that the US is not winning the "War On Terror", and that Bush is too quick to involve the military. As always, though, the President's approval rating remains unchanged even as American attitudes slowly change, because the approval rating for an American president usually only changes when they either do something or are close to an election, and Bush has been dragging his feet for months on the Iraq issue.

    2. Re:Sheep by startled · · Score: 5, Interesting

      "As always, though, the President's approval rating remains unchanged even as American attitudes slowly change...."

      And there we go right back to me feeling superior to them. :) The NYT had a pretty good article about rising unemployment and the shitty economy. In one interview with an unemployed man who wasn't going to receive any more benefits (not even with the recent extention; he was laid off too early), the man claimed he felt betrayed, surprised, and so on.

      Yes, that's right. An unemployed man feeling "betrayed" by a Republican president who isn't giving him money for not working. Wasn't that blatantly fucking obvious from the get-go? Wait-- you mean that if I vote for the Republican candidate, I'll get less welfare and social services? Run that by me again. Hold on a minute-- this from the man who vowed to cut taxes on inheritances over $1 million? Who's crusading for elimination of the tax on dividends, which will primarily effect people earning several hundred thousand dollars a year?

      If people can't figure out that the Republicans are NOT the party to vote for if you want a larger unemployment check, they're too fucking stupid to vote.

      I do think (well, hope anyway) that person was anomalous. So, while I think exactly the same thing when I read the post you were responding to-- that is, I think "Grow up, you ignorant, self-important fuckwit that assumes that everyone else is stupid"-- I also see the reason he's started to think that. Anyone with half a brain and 10 minutes a day on the newspaper knew who they were voting for.

    3. Re:Sheep by DarkZero · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "As always, though, the President's approval rating remains unchanged even as American attitudes slowly change...."

      And there we go right back to me feeling superior to them. :)


      Democracy is a not a quick thing, like a dictatorship. It is a huge, lumbering beast that makes a lot of noise, but moves very slowly. If the President's approval rating dropped because he didn't instantaneously respond to an issue, it would start hovering around 0% most of the time because the maximum speed of the executive and legislative branches moving together is roughly equal to that of two drunks in a three-legged race. Conversely, if his approval rating went up every time he laid out a solid economic plan, his approval rating would be hovering around 100% most of the time because democracies are filled with far more words than actions. This is why you end up with the way approval ratings currently work. They stay the same until action is taken or something external makes things a lot better or worse than they have been. This system has its flaws, but it's the best we have right now, sort of like representative democracy itself.

      As for the rest of your post, I think you adequately summed up why Some Anonymous Jackass That Was Interviewed By The NYT is a total fucking moron. I'm sure he feels very bad about that right now, or at least he will when he gets a job and starts visiting /. during work hours shortly before he is fired. However, I don't see why a sample of one proves that "most Americans" are stupid, nor why you would assume that they are based on some guy that made a nice, stupid quote for a journalist.

  12. facts by mcbevin · · Score: 3, Interesting

    refreshing to see slashdot address some real issues rather than 'dmca is evil take 1024'. i must've downloaded the video a couple of months back though so i don't know how its news - quite funny but of course lacking in any hard facts so not going to really convert anyone but the converted. the GNN also has a series of videos on 'unanswered questions about sept 11' which are interesting and more informative but rather conspiracy theorist.

    in my search for a bit of truth about the whole matter, i've put together a small set of actual facts about sept 11 + american foreign policy in general and thrown them on my website www.bevin.de/usa/ . every fact/claim is linked to relatively credible documents / news stories. i'd like to hear some slashdotters' opinions - the site is pretty anti us-foreign-policy in its leaning but like i said, nothings there thats not well backed up, which is in contrast to everything else i've been able to find on the web.

  13. Art or propaganda? by syphoon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The thing I really didn't like about this video (aside from its political angle, but it _did_ come from GNN after all..) was its methodology of trying to create a constant stream of ideas (like a audio-visual 'stream of consciousness') out of a series of quotes taken out of context, or even cut to mean the complete opposite of what was then said. Add to that the various funny bits, such as slow framing Bush, and him umming and ahhing with the combined effect of making him appear vacant, and altogether we actually have a standard piece of propaganda: Shaping how we think through use of the media, and giving 'sound bites' to give the appearance of rational arguments, while the actual content is a lot more vacuous than it appears.

  14. Re:stick a rusty fork in my eye by Geekwad · · Score: 3, Insightful

    To gauge a man's intelligence by how well he speaks in public is completely moronic.

    How smart do you think YOU are.. or how about your friends.. I bet you all think you're pretty intelligent. Now tell me.. how well do YOU speak publicly?

    --

    - http://pakman.sytes.net/
  15. Re:Note to slashdot by startled · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "You expect objectivity and balance from a news organization?"

    It seems to me that worse sins are committed in the name of objectivity than would occur if the news orgs simply owned up, and reported what they wanted to. Many (poor) news outlets attempt to cast both sides of an issue as equivalent, which is all well and good, until you note that they extend it to an issue which has 99% of everyone on one side, and the loonies on the other. I've even seen fainthearted attempts to claim that Darwin's theory of evolution and creationism have the same amount of scientific basis, and that's with fairly liberal west coast papers. Ugh.

  16. Re:see also by the+gnat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We can snigger at Bush's pea-sized brain but the fact is, he (and Blair et al) has got the sales pitch going and those against his war-mongering, do not. We can't just say, "don't destroy out civil rights, don't go to war" without offering an alternative, without offering some kind of argument

    To give Bush some credit, he's not really that stupid. He's certainly not a deep thinker or a great speaker, and too many people mistake those qualities for good leadership. His gaffes tend to get inflated by the liberal news media, just as Clinton's so-called corruption was inflated by the conservative (and mainstream!) news media. A lot of the rhetoric being tossed about regarding Bush sounds suspiciously like the drivel we heard about Clinton for eight years- driven by partisanship rather than facts, and ignoring the more substantive criticisms.

    Anyway, you've pretty much highlighted the current dilemma of the Democratic party, which came across as the Prescription Drug Party this past election. All the campaign updates I receive (I do still vote Dem, reluctantly) sounded exactly the same:

    GEORGE W. BUSH WANTS TO PAVE THE RAINFORESTS, AUCTION OFF YOUR UTERUS TO ENRON, AND BOMB STARVING THIRD-WORLD COUNTRIES WITH BIBLES.

    Obviously the majority of the people who bothered to show up at the polls weren't very impressed. I'm moderately anti-abortion and moderately pro-war, and though I have little love for the GOP I'm finding it very hard to support the Democrats given that their existence seems to rest on being the anti-Bush party right now. They'd do well to stop pandering to NOW, the NAACP, and the AARP, and actually come up with some substantive policy.

  17. EBN by limekiller4 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    EBN was doing this stuff, much better, I might add, in the early 90's.

    I qualify that slightly because afaik, it might even be some or all of the founding members of EBN that are behind GNN. Their original stuff, however, was far more deft and sarcastic. This 11-minute clip was fairly boring bore none of the medium-bending antics of the previous group.

    --
    My .02,
    Limekiller
  18. Mirror opf Quicktime version by Halo1 · · Score: 4, Informative
    I forewarned the gnn guys and got their permission to include direct links to the Quicktme versions on their site, but I just got a mail of them stating that if the slashdotting of their site continues like this, they'll be broke by morning :)

    I've setup a mirror of the Quicktime version here. It's limited to 30 connections currently, but this may change at any time.

    --
    Donate free food here
  19. Re:Direct Link -- PLEASE don't use it! by Halo1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Please don't use this link anymore, the gnn people mailed me to say that if the slashdotting of their servers continued like this, they'll be broke by morning. Either watch it at Sundance or use my mirror (for now at least, can't promise how long it will stay up).

    --
    Donate free food here
  20. Re:stick a rusty fork in my eye by Mac+Degger · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But as a politician, it's his job to hold dialogue, change peoples minds, make compromises, understand wtf the issue is and be able to communicate that with other people, inform, motivate, and do all that stuff which one does with the use of that skill we call public speaking. It's his job to be a qualified demogogue...and he isn't a skilled orator at all.

    But even then, I know lots of people who aren't skilled orators, but are smart. When they have to speak, there might be lots of ums and ahs, but what comes out is generally intelligent (and intelligable) thought. That's just not the case with GWB.

    Also, how else are you going to judge GWB's capabilities? The only side you see is what's on tv. And if you'd've bothered to dig deeper, you'd already know the guy is a complete moron, based on his accomplishments.

    --
    -- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
  21. Re:11 minutes later by ChaosDiscord · · Score: 3, Funny
    The last Little Red Corvette section reminded me that there are people in this country who don't deserve to live here. eople who just want the free ride. People who have never considered giving of themselves.
    Heavens, yes! These people spend thier time running independent media, trying to scrap together enough to afford their web site bills or to publish their next issue, effectively working for free to produce articles and films in an effort to make the world better. These people dont' deserve to be Americans. The next thing you'll know they'll be bitching about social justice, spending their money and time to travel to various meetings to protest, organizing unions in places where it may cost them their jobs, or working in the Peace Corps to provide clean water to impovershed villages. God, these people are so selfish! They think life is just easy street.
    The scumbags who made that waste of film will have hopefully forgotten to have gotten the rights to one of those clips and will be sued blind.

    God, I hate those scumbags who take short clips of other works for purposes of commentary and political speech! If you can't afford clearances, clearly you have no right to show examples of how the media and politicians are acting! Leave the free speech for true patriots like Fox News.

    Humans will always like wars -- deal with it.

    Yeah, you filthy hippy liberals. Don't bother trying to change the world for the "better". Humans fundamentally like wars. Heck, we should try and start some more! Canada looks prime for the taking to me!

  22. Re:For it's art value only. by bani · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Bin Laden himself says he only wants the US out of Saudi Arabia, he wants his holy land to be left alone."

    He also said he wants every christian, jew, hindu, and atheist in the entire world dead.