In
WikiLeaks'
Mediastan, NYT
Brags of UN
Coverage as
Garbage Shown
By
Matthew
Russell Lee,
2d of 2
Reviews
UNITED
NATIONS,
October 15 --
Wikileaks'
road
documentary
"Mediastan"
turns in its
second half
from Central
Asia, where a
US
State
Department
funded radio
station
refused to
publish any of
Private
Manning's
cables, back
to London,
Washington and
New York.
In
London the
Guardian's
editor,
looking
uncomfortable,
says that
names
of Mafia
members in
Bulgaria were
redacted due
to fear of
litigation.
In Washington
P.J. Crowley,
having already
left the State
Department,
dodges the
free press
implications
of a newspaper
being excluded
from
the payments
system due to
what it
publishes.
Worst,
though, is the
New York Times
and Bill
Keller. Smug
about his
"return
to the writing
life," Keller
brags that it
is UN General
Assembly week,
so of course
presidents and
foreign
ministers are
dropping into
the New York
Times
unannounced
asking to
heard.
Inner
City Press has
reported
not only on
Italian prime
minister
Letta's
desperate
press
availability
IN FRONT OF
the New York
Times as his
government was
collapsing,
but also on
the vaunted
New York Times
"going light," for
example
largely basing
an
unauthorized
profile of US
Ambassador
Samantha Power
on tweets
that, as Inner
City
Press detailed,
she
does not post
herself.
Mediastan
director
Johannes
Wahlstrom
dutifully
climbs the New
York Times
tower, and
listens as
Keller
explains to
him that the
Drudge
Report's
reader limit
their comments
to "scumbag,"
but "traffic
is traffic."
The camera
cuts to
traffic down
on Eighth
Avenue, a
Sbarro's, a
newspaper
blowing in the
wind.
The
production
values of
Mediastan get
better and
better. The
upbeat,
almost comedic
bell music by
Anton Kolbe is
a constant,
from
Turkmenistan
to Times
Square. Some
is hidden
camera, for
example the
editor of
"Neutral
Turkmenistan"
who demands to
know how
they got into
the country.
They
end up being
deported, but
not before
Neutral
Turkmenistan's
elderly
webmaster
tells them he
used to push
for stories
but now is
content
to not chase
everything
down -- like
some atop
the UN press
corps.
Under a dark
British sky,
Julian Assange
muses that if
such Leaks
don't change
the media, the
media had no
power anyway.
As the movie
puts it, the
answer is
emerging.
Watch this
site.
, 
