Blogothon: Reflections and Revelations from the News Dissector

Danny Schechter

May 2012 · Cosimo, Inc.

About this ebook

In just a decade, blogging changed from a fad to a phenomenon with an estimated 51 million participants, mostly creative citizens with something to say or express. Citizens who want to participate in media rather than be subjected to it. Blogothon is a selection of blogs and essays posted by raconteur par excellence, gadfly of the media, and "News Dissector" Danny Schechter in an award-winning daily blog that he began writing in 2000. In Blogothon Schechter demonstrates the importance of blogging as an alternative media in an age when mainstream media has come under increasing scrutiny for a lack of credibility, real news and social value. This compilation of Schechter's blog posts describes the financial crisis developed during the first decade of the 21st century, the influence of activists such as Martin Luther King and Jesse Jackson on Occupy Wall Street, the ascent of Al Jazeera, the expulsion of Helen Thomas and Keith Olbermann from mainstream media, and increased partisanship and polarization in U.S. politics. Blogothon is a fascinating read for followers of Schechter's blog, anyone interested in an authentic account of historic events still unfolding, and aspiring bloggers. A graduate of Cornell University and the London School of Economics, DANNY SCHECHTER is a writer, television producer, and independent filmmaker who also speaks about media and financial issues. He is the editor of Mediachannel1.org, the global media issues site, and blogs daily as the News Dissector at NewsDissector.net. Schechter is the author of fourteen books and has produced and directed more than thirty documentaries and television specials. His blog was named the 2009 "Blog of the Year" by the Hunter College Media Department of the City University of New York.

About the author

Daniel Isaac Schechter was born in Manhattan, New York on June 27, 1942. He received a bachelor's degree from Cornell University. While there, he organized rent strikes in Harlem and marched for civil rights in Washington, D. C. and in the South. He received a master's degree from the London School of Economics, where he became active in the antiapartheid movement. In 1971, he joined the Boston rock station WBCN-FM, where he found a following as Danny Schechter, the News Dissector. As a producer of the ABC News magazine 20/20, his work won two Emmy Awards. In 1988, he and Rory O'Connor founded Globalvision, which produced Rights and Wrongs: Human Rights Television and South Africa Now, a weekly public affairs program that won a George Polk Award in 1990. During his lifetime, he wrote 17 books including The More You Watch the Less You Know: News Wars/(Sub)Merged Hopes/Media Adventures and Madiba A-Z: The Many Faces of Nelson Mandela. He also made more than 30 films, including six documentaries on Nelson Mandela and another entitled WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception. He died of pancreatic cancer on March 19, 2015 at the age of 72.