Salon: Slaves of a different color. “In writing a book on the mixing of black

and white life throughout American history, I discovered

that white slavery did occur before the Civil War in small

but significant numbers. And in unearthing this fascinating

lost chapter in American history, I also discovered how

slavery has been partitioned into a piece of

African-American cultural property — made sacred by black

Americans, abandoned by whites. Petrified by politics and

shame, the richest and most central drama of early American

history is now playing to segregated houses.”

Good news: [Chuck Taggart at Looka! chose to cluster these three news items together and I’m taking his lead.] First, in the Louisiana case, the Supreme Court ruled that schools can’t be required to include a disclaimer mentioning creationism whenever they teach evolution. Dissenting were (of course) Rehnquist, Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Next, in the Texas case, with George Dubya weighing in on the other side, the Court ruled that school districts allowing student-led prayer are violating the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state. Supporters of school prayer were hoping to be allowed to continue using student pawns to attempt to circumvent government-religion separation. Dissenting? Rehnquist, Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Lastly, Bob Lucente, the NYPD officer who had called Bruce Springsteen a “fucking dirtbag” and a “floating fag,” found that his apology to those he had offended was not enough, and he handed in his badge. Law enforcement officers around the city have protestedSpringsteen’s new song “American Skin”,

which they perceive as critical of police actions in the 1999 shooting of Amadou Diallo, the West African

immigrant who was shot and killed during a confrontation with police.

Flesh or Fiction? Special effects capabilities in modern film have reached the point where it’s becoming more and more difficult to suspend disbelief…and it’s only going to get worse. [Hartford Courant]

Disney snubbed Churchill’s plea for comic relief.

Winston Churchill’s wartime government secretly urged Walt

Disney to make an anti-Nazi cartoon based on the legend of St

George and the Dragon.

Documents discovered by The Telegraph disclose that ministers

desperately wanted a popular film to be made with a strong

pro-British message which would appeal to a large audience in

an isolationist America.

The papers, dated 1940, show that Noël Coward, the playwright

and actor, and officials from the Ministry of Information went to

America to try to persuade Disney to help with Britain’s

propaganda campaign. Their requests, however, were ignored

by Disney who was determined to keep America out of the war

and was anxious to protect the international market for his films.

There is also speculation that he may have snubbed Britain

because he was unhappy with the way his films had been

received by the London critics. He is known to have been

particularly hurt by a suggestion by some censors that Snow

White and the Seven Dwarfs was too dark a film for children and

should not be shown in cinemas.

This lack of respect for his efforts was in contrast to the critical

acclaim his films received elsewhere, particularly in Germany

where even Hitler was a fan.

Moyers Challenges PBS on Public Affairs Coverage.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he told attendees of the PBS annual meeting in his keynote address. “What we do is good. It’s just not enough. We need to

respond more to the needs of America as a democratic society, not just a

consumer market. We need more hard-hitting public affairs programming on

controversial issues. We’re good, but we’re bland,” he said, adding that too

often, producers and stations are fearful of offending Congress or driving off

the corporate underwriters who sponsor shows.

Moreover, said Moyers, “With media ownership consolidating, public

television stands alone in our ability to provide independent journalism free

from corporate strings.”

Consumers of classical recordings locked in cutthroat competition. “Classical-recording consumers are becoming the new counterculture.” [Philadelphia Inquirer]

Brill’s Content: Southern Exposure “The Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion-Ledger is prying open

murder cases from the ugliest days of the civil-rights era. In

the process, it has come to terms with its own role in fueling

the racism of the South.”