Did ESPN pull out of doc on NFL & concussions due to pressure?

Here is ESPN ombudsman Bob Lipsyte (former star NY Times sports columnist) exploring why ESPN pulled out of its collaboration with PBS "Frontline" in producing a documentary on the NFL, football and concussions. The documentary was not going to portray the NFL put the Nat'l Football League in a good light, and the NFL is a key business partner with ESPN. They make huge profits together. Was the pull-out due to pressure from the NFL or from corporate parent Disney? A longtime ESPN journalist/consultant told Lipsyte that many ESPN journalists are "demoralized by the capitulation."

"Stickin' It To The Man"

In the movie "School of Rock," a substitute teacher (played by Jack Black) explains the purpose of rock 'n' roll to his 5th grade students. Do independent media share a similar purpose?  (The School of Rock kids in the original cast just had a 10-year reunion with Jack Black. H/t Sabrina D.)

The Daily Show segment on "End Times" at NY Times

The Daily Show's cruel 2009 look at the New York Times' "day-old news."  It made me feel quite sympathetic toward the Times.

As the U.S. prepares to bomb Syria . . .

. . . over chemical weapons, it's only in independent outlets like CommonDreams.org ("US Complicity in 'Some of the Most Gruesome Chemical Weapons Attacks' Revealed") and Democracy Now! ("Ten Years Later, U.S. Has Left Iraq with Mass Displacement & Epidemic of Birth Defects, Cancers") that I've learned about the U.S. government's complicity in the use of chemical weapons by Iraq in 1988 -- or the hardship from U.S. use of depleted uranium and white phospherous arms against Iraq. (I'm glad no super-superpower bombed us back then in "punishment"for what our government had done.)

David Carr: "War on Leaks is Pitting Journalist vs. Journalist"

The New York Times media columnist explores why a number of traditional, mainstream journalists are so outraged at independent journalists like Glenn Greenwald (who exposed NSA spying on Americans) and indy online whistleblowing publishers like Julian Assange. Part of it is envy:

If the revelations about the N.S.A. surveillance were broken by Time, CNN or The New York Times, executives there would already be building new shelves to hold all the Pulitzer Prizes and Peabodies they expected. Same with the 2010 WikiLeaks video of the Apache helicopter attack.

Syllabus for Fall 2013 Independent Media course

Here you'll find word doc of syllabus (with links).

Links to Student Blogs

Katherine Alexander . . . Christian Araos . . . Tim Bidon . . . Sabrina Dorronsonro . . . Allie Healy . . . Emily Helwig . . . Jordana Jarrett . . . Candace King . . . Alex Leslie . . . Dylan Lyons . . Kristin Mansfield . . . Mia O'Brien . . . Max Ocean . . . Kristin Tomkowid . . . Mark Warren