MEDIA ROOTS — The San Francisco Bay Area, particularly Berkeley, is known as one of the progressive or revolutionary regions of the USA, being the home of the 1946 Oakland General Strike, the Free Speech Movement, ‘60s counterculture, the Black Panthers, and the listener-sponsored free speech radio model popularised by Berkeley’s KPFA and its Pacifica Radio Network (later bastardised by … Read More
MEDIA ROOTS — If you’re like me, you’ll do your darnedest to make sure you catch the lovely J Mascis or the tender and mighty Dinosaur, Jr. anytime they come to town. For some of us, this means catching life-altering gigs at venues like San Francisco’s Fillmore or Slim’s. So, imagine my delight when my dear brother Mónchis said Henry … Read More
MEDIA ROOTS — Media Roots contributor Chris Musgrave documented and edited inspiring and moving footage in the Downtown and Fruitvale areas of Oakland to capture the festive and optimistic spirit of engaged citizenry petitioning their government for a redress of grievances on May Day, May 1, 2012, under the universal banner of the Occupy Movement and in solidarity with immigrant and … Read More
MEDIA ROOTS — Suzanne Maloney is a mainstay within élite U.S. foreign policy circles. A former employee of ExxonMobil and the U.S. State Department, Maloney now works for the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy. She recently presented testimony to the United States Congress entitled Progress of the Obama Administration’s Policy toward Iran. The Saban Center later provided … Read More
MEDIA ROOTS — The function of the U.S. presidency, essentially, is to give a human face to the empire, to offer a humanizing appeal to barbarism abroad and domestically—at least under our rigged de facto two-party dictatorship. A point Obama doesn’t deny: “People have a sense the game is rigged…” Enter Obama, to assure them otherwise. So, when uncritical corporate … Read More
