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The Fake News 2

Rod Amis - Unbound

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31 DECEMBER, 2000 - Here's an interesting little parlor game for you. It would have been great for about one a.m. this morning, wherever you were. We'll list (See Chart Below) the top ten stories in two media outlets during the year 2000. After reviewing both lists, first try to guess who the publications were and then decide which one you would have chosen as your news source. Okay? Let's begin.

PUBLICATION ONE - TOP TEN STORIES OF 2000 (Not in order of importance)

Elian Gonzalez, a Cuban child who escaped to the United States, becomes the focus of political discussion and acrimony in the United States. This story effectively dominates coverage for weeks.
Microsoft Corporation, a computer software company, is sued by the US Justice Department in an anti-trust law suit.
Numerous Web sites, among them large "e-commerce" sites, are assaulted by "hackers" in a Denial of Service attack that cribbles them for hours. The issue of Internet security is explored.
In early Presidential primaries, in small states uncharacteristic of the rest of the US, a Vietnam War veteran and former POW seems to be ahead of the son of a former US President.
The Harry Potter novels, about a youth attending a sorcery school, are the best-selling books in the United States.
A television program in the Unites States, "Survivor," about people who volunteered to live on a remote island to win $1,000,000 is the top-rated television program in the US.
The Democratic and Republican parties of the US choose their Presidential nominees but most Americans don't seem to care because of the Elian Gonzalez story and the up-coming Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.
The Democratic party nominee for US President picks a Jewish person as his running mate.
Palestinean-Israeli peace talks break down, possibly affecting the legacy of the lame-duck US President, Bill Clinton.
Often reviled US First Lady runs for Senate seat in New York; her presumptive opponent steps down facing a marital scandal. US First Lady wins New York Senate seat.

PUBLICATION TWO - TOP TEN STORIES OF 2000 (Not in order of importance)

An update on Methyl Tertiary-Butyl Ether (MTBE,) a gasoline additive leaking into the US water table in 48 states and how it is likely contaminating the US water supply at great cost to the health and welfare of US communities.
A Special Report on how Newsweek magazine suppressed coverage of President candidate Al Gore's excessive marijuana use produced by a close associate of Gore when he worked on a Tennessee newspaper's staff.
A two part series on the Haider ascendancy in Austria, and how the following international condemnation, impacts the future of the European Union.
The Chinese repression of the religious sect Fulan Gong is explored.
Indian Congress Party leader Sonia Gandhi, wife of the later Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, is profiled.
A twelve-part series on the on-going Russian war in Chechnya from the perspective of the Head of Mission of a reknown international relief organization, on his second tour of duty in that troubled country, is presented.
A look at botanist John Fay's work on charting unexplored regions of the Congo rainforest for the National Geographic Society is presented as part of perspective on the Information Age.
An update is provided on the tensions between the Tamil "Tigers" and the government of Sri Lanka and the special pressure it puts on the Indian government.
A Special Report from Belgrade on how youthful dissident group OTPOR impacted the downfall of the Milosevic regime.
The publication gives background on its involvement in bringing eyewitness testimony to the new "Bloody Sunday" inquiry in the United Kingdom.

It should be transparent to regular readers that PUBLICATION TWO is The World's Magazine. The other publication is a very popular US weekly, hard copy, newsmagazine. What's scarey about the above survey is that the majority of stories I listed in "our" column were published during the first six months of the year. I stopped looking seriously after that because I was afraid I couldn't limit our list to ten stories. Limiting the other magazine's was cake. They self-limit, as far as I'm concerned.

So I must apologize to the writers and contributors of the G21 this year for the arbitrariness of that list. Obviously, I could have gone on for days. The Brendan Hughes interview by JOE O'NEILL, for example should be included in a true Top Ten list... But I think my point is made.

That comparison should give you some idea of the pressure I feel going into the year 2001. It's like herding cats, I often joked last year, trying to act as editor of this magazine. Between the pressure to prioritize stories, and nurture this talented team of writers as best I can, I often find myself at wit's end.

I think as you begin to use our new TABLE OF CONTENTS & BACK ISSUES page to "data-mine" in this Web site, you'll get a clear idea of what I mean. There are over a thousand stories on our server that you could explore, if you are so inclined. From Fiji, to Singapore, to Austin, TX, to London, to Novi Sad and Prague, Honduras and Havana, we've got your world covered here at G21. Just go explore.

And this year, expect our world-wide coverage to get even better. That's a promise.

But while we do cover serious and often dark issues from around the planet here, we have not for one moment lost our sense of HUMOR. As RADIO RAHEEM says in his RADIOACTIVE column this week, our commitment remains to laugh down the tyranny we see afflicting humanity. Our commitment remains the affliction of the comfortable and the comfort of the afflicted.

FEED THE HUNGRY.You can help someone else in this world and IT WON'T COST YOU A DIME.If you simply remember to drop by The Hunger Site every day that you surf and click a simple button ONE LESS PERSON WILL GO HUNGRY.The food is distributed by the United Nations World Food Programme and paid for through the sponsorship of companies that care.Do your part.

The Best is yet to come!

Life of Rod

I have a lot to ponder this year. March of 2001 will mark eleven years of having done the G21... Longer than I've done anything in my life. Eleven years is longer than I lived in a single city, stayed with my ex-wife, held a single job. G21 has now been here on the Internet for six years and on the Web for five. Except for three weeks when I claimed not be the Managing Editor, I've edited every single issue. I've designed them all. I've had the pleasure of dealing with almost sixty writers, at this point, from every corner and cranny of the globe. Wow!

This is not the first New Year's Eve when I've sat pecking away at my keyboard working to finish up another event, either. God Willing, it won't be the last...

It was always my dream to grow this little venture into "The World's Magazine," but when I started it, angry, in a condo in Richmond, California, it was little more than a satirical joke railing against corporate culture as I saw it under the first President Bush. It was called The Bounty Times and came out in three xeroxed pages. I chuckle thinking about it now. I had NO IDEA that it would become this.

Besides all of the other writers who saw something special in the torch I was carrying, there are also all the readers --- now on every continent --- who've magically appeared. I cherish your mail and the encouragement I've received over these years. It has been because of all of you, and your response to our core message of caring and compassion, that I have been driven to keep doing this for so long.

The real spark started in San Francisco. That's where we dropped the name Bounty Times in favor of our enduring GENERATOR 21, now shortened to our "nickname" G21 so that you'll remember our URL. Heh!

The idea at the time was that the name of the magazine reflect its spirit. It was our plan, on that sunny afternoon in 1992, that we should generate the energy we felt humanity needed to bring it together in the 21st Century.

Ohmigod! Here we are! The 21st Century will have begun by the time you read this, and we're still generating like a bolt of lightning. Who knew?

Well, since that first night in Richmond, CA, the "world headquarters" has moved with me from San Francisco --- where the magazine germinated and finally took off --- to Santa Rosa to Manhattan and now here to Baltimore...

I know tonight this is not the last stop on the Hejira, either for me or G21. I would love it if the next stop was somewhere like Tahiti or Rio de Janeiro, but I suspect it will be more pedestrian. New Orleans, perhaps...

IF, as I suspect, the magazine is a true reflection of my psyche, the end of its days will come in Rio. That city has always been the goal of this wandering life of mine. It calls to me. Manhattan does, too, yes. But one is visceral and the other is merely energetic.

N'Orleans, on the other hand, could be a good waystation in my current state of abject-poverty-revisited.

So it goes.

MY GLASS HOUSE

A friend in London offered to buy me an airline ticket to see my mother during the holidays. I had to graciously decline because I continue to believe things will improve enough so that I can visit my mother on my own speed. It's not like I'm an inexperienced writer or inexperienced with the ups-and-downs that choosing this life afford. Still, the offer was generous and wonderful...

Now I must make my prideful stance hold true. After tonight's champagne, after I finish this column and the newsletter, I must find a means of raising, earning, begging, borrowing or stealing enough to move on from Baltimore, to keep the magazine as reliable as ever, to find the waystation for the next part of the journey.

And still respond to writers and friends. And still believe that I will find The Next Woman. And still maintain the talent of herding cats...

It will be time to open the champagne soon. Cheers! And Happy New Year.

THINGS THAT I'M PONDERING THIS WEEK

1. Getting out of Baltimore. Is it New Orleans?

2. Seeing my mother before the Spring.

3. Drollery.

4. Where is she?

Thanks for coming back this week.

"Work like you don't need the money,
"Love like you've never been hurt,
"Dance like no one is watching..."
Rod

This is another Web site made on a Macintosh.

ROD AMIS has published this magazine since 1990. It first appeared as a hardcopy 'Zine. In March, 1996, he launched it here on the Web. Rod was a Contributing Editor at Suite101.com, where he wrote the " 'Net Publishing" feature. His work has been featured in the San Francisco Bay Guardian Online, NRV8, and at WebLab's Reality Check site. Rod was also a contributing writer on technology for Faulkner Information Services.

Rod was a columnist for the Andover News Network, where he wrote over two hundred articles on web design and development issues. He was also principal writer and Editor for IT Manager's Journal, where he reviewed technology issues weekly, producing 383 editorials. He became the Managing Editor for Electronic Mail/Newsletter Publications at Andover.net at the end of February, 2000, and left in September of the same year. He is now a contributing writer for ACCESS magazine, which appears both on- and offline for 10 million readers in 100 newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Post, Boston Herald, Austin American-Statesman, Denver Post and Orlando Sentinel, among others.

Rod lives in Baltimore, MD, at the moment (though it seems to most people he *actually* lives on the Web,) edits the writing of people from six continents for The World's Magazine, and wonders if New Orleans is actually the next stop on the hejira.

He continues to be committed to integrity, chastity and a dose of humility.

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