Rocked By Rather

Nick Gillespie | September 16, 2004

Via semi-defunct Web site Swamp City comes a timely reminder of and link to The Evolution Control Committee's fan-fucking-tastic 7 inch single, "Rocked By Rape."

Despite the salty title, the A-side is a series of Dan Rather soundbites from the CBS Evening News stitched together over a bunch of AC/DC riffs. The B-side, "Racked by Rope," explains how to sample, etc.

A great moment in DIY pastiche--and made even funnier by recent events.

Listen here.

When you hear stuff as good as this--stuff that really delivers on the promise of sampling, detournment, etc.--it somehow makes pop prototypes such as the execrable "Mr. Jaws" a little more worth listening to. (Please stop me when I lavish praise on "Disco Duck.")

The Reason story "Viewmasters: The audience's power over media's messages" took a long fun look at the way folks transform mass media into very different products.

And "Monster Mash-Ups" looks at "how musical collages are challenging traditional ideas of authorship."

Comments

|9.16.04 @ 2:41PM|#

Oh, damn, I remember that track! Fun stuff.

|9.16.04 @ 3:34PM|#

Hm. Negativland has been doing this for what? 20 years? Much more interestingly too, I must say.

|9.16.04 @ 3:45PM|#

I wrote a email to our local CBS station today:

I've been following this fake-memo controversy closely for a week. I admit that I've been glued to Rather's broadcasts (CBS Evening News and 60 Minutes,) so it's been good for the ratings, but my interest is more akin to rubber-necking a car-wreck than expecting to hear facts.

As far as I can tell, there remains only ONE expert cited by CBS (a person named Pierce) who still vouches for the authenticity of the 60 Minutes Killian memos. All other experts, and any layperson viewing the memos online, can tell you that they are fakes. Even last night, Rather's interviewee, Mrs. Knox, herself doubted the authenticity of the memos on the air! Yet Rather doesn't seem to care.

You, as the news department of a CBS affiliate, might want to pass the word up the line to CBS headquarters, that Rather is destroying his own credibility, and the credibility of CBS News, and that of 60 Minutes, by continuing to ignore the fact that the memos are fake. The issue isn't, as Rather would have it, that the overall story is true; the issue is that the memos are fake, and any objective competent newshound would investigate the fakery, find the faker, and report on it!

I can't for the life of me understand why Rather is doing what he's doing. Maybe you can find out.

The news director responded:

Thank you for your letter. The Dan Rather investigation has certainly generated a lot of response. I cannot answer your questions about these stories because I do not know. [I didn't ask any questions!]However, I am including in this correspondence two releases sent to affiliates by CBS News. I hope these provide some help for you.

The two releases he sent me predated last night's 60 Minutes broadcast. They still included the claim that nutcase Matley had authenticated the memos!

These guys don't have a single solitary clue. Are there any adult newspeople at CBS at all? Can anybody there slap some sense into Dan? I don't think so.

|9.16.04 @ 3:56PM|#

Thanks for the link guys -- "Old Man"

mr. sun|9.16.04 @ 4:10PM|#

Finally, some clear thinking:

Advice for Dan Rather from Goofus & Gallant!

|9.16.04 @ 4:34PM|#

I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate you for not using "rather" as an adjective in a healine.

"Rather Worried," for example. I'm sure it's tempting, but just...don't.

fyodor|9.16.04 @ 4:43PM|#

Mike,

So anyone else who does sound collage is just doing what Negativland has been doing? By that logic, any foursome playing rock 'n' roll is just doing what The Beatles were doing! Negativland are actually big fans of the Evolution Control Committee.

|9.16.04 @ 6:36PM|#

The funny thing is CBS has blown its reputation on an issue that, even if the memos were real, would change maybe twenty people's minds on Bush. Just another indication that Democrats are sooooooooooooo stupid.

Ernie Longmire|9.16.04 @ 7:09PM|#

ECC also did a wonderful recording of the Onion's classic story "HOLY SHIT! Man Walks On Fucking Moon".

|9.16.04 @ 7:32PM|#

Two latest developments: 1) CBS Evening Dan did not address controversy tonight. 2) The Rathergate guy got scared by a voice-mailed legal action threat, so dropped one of his site features.

CBS is going to bull their way right through this thing. The hang-tough route.

|9.16.04 @ 7:39PM|#

The funny thing is CBS has blown its reputation on an issue that, even if the memos were real, would change maybe twenty people's minds on Bush

Hank-

What you're forgetting is that if those 20 swing voters all live in Florida, then this is indeed a major story! ;)

Sadly, last I heard, 7 of them were living in NYC, 2 in South Dakota, 3 in Texas, 2 in Kansas, 5 in California, and the only one living in a swing state apparently designs printers at the HP facility in Corvalis, Oregon. Needless to say, he knew all about kerning and proportional fonts.

Doh!

Tim Higgins|9.16.04 @ 9:13PM|#

Hank Reardon,

C'mon, Hank. CBS's error is not evidence that the Democrats are stupid - it's just evidence that journalists are stupid.

|9.16.04 @ 11:49PM|#

What happened to the comments box on Kicking 'em While They're Down?

Its interesting that we may have gotten some responses on the blog from the NTU/NTUF.

|9.17.04 @ 1:23AM|#

Gary,

"What happened to the comments box on Kicking 'em While They're Down?"

I too was wondering about that. May be they thought there were enough already:-)

I wanted to call up a posse of Atrios readers to go and hang that SOB; well, I have to wait for the next high-crime :-)

|9.17.04 @ 2:09AM|#

zorel,

I had an e-mail exchange with one of the folks at NTU; I think he basically acted foolishly, if honestly. Apparently he was plastered with e-mails calling the NTU "fascists," brownshirts, etc.; he overreacted to this, and thus the cropping. So there was nothing especially sinister or conspiratorial about his actions from my vantage point. Anyway, the realy culprit here is the jackass who apparently kicked that so far unidentified woman.

|9.17.04 @ 8:08AM|#

Tim,
Democrat, journalist, what's the difference?

|9.17.04 @ 9:33AM|#

I've actually visited the ECC compound and events on a number of occasions...

One of the more astounding events that I attended was "Burning Corn". I saw a lot of crazy stuff when I was there, though it started some frank discussions in the associated Yahoo groups regarding the issuess encountered when you have naked people dancing around (who claim they don't want to be photographed) in an environment with lots of digital photographers.

|9.18.04 @ 7:13AM|#

Here's an interesting url on the guy who originally discovered the memos in question.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/

Pertinent excerpt:

"But it did not come from an expert in typography or typewriter history as some first thought. Instead, it was the work of Harry W. MacDougald, an Atlanta lawyer with strong ties to conservative Republican causes who helped draft the petition urging the Arkansas Supreme Court to disbar President Clinton after the Monica Lewinsky scandal, the Times has found."

"Reached by telephone today, MacDougald, 46, confirmed that he is Buckhead, but declined to answer questions about his political background or how he knew so much about the CBS documents so fast.

"You can ask the questions but I'm not going to answer them," he told The Times. "I'm just going to stick to doing no interviews."

Hmmm...

|9.19.04 @ 5:37PM|#

And here's another url showing that nobody has proved those two documents are forged.

http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/archives/2004_09_19_dneiwert_archive.html#109561579200025548

Double hmmm...