Witness the creation of a new form of art in late empire: the news media agent provocateur

Yes, of course, we saw it first with Geraldo, at at something resembling either the apex or the nadir with Jerry Springer, but unless we’re prepared to start making clear, honest, and public comparisons between, say Julius Streicher and Der Stürmer, and institutions like Fox News with Lou Dobbs, this next segment is going to confuse you, as much as he (pretended to be/was) confused about this crowd’s anger at them. Thanks to Maximilian for uncovering this. [via Open Anthropology]

BTW, I first learned of Julius Streicher from an essay by Ward Churchill, the supposedly ‘disgraced’ professor referred to by this man, who deserves to be a figure as high-falutin as pinocchio, or quixote; perhaps a short story by Borges, or  ‘phantasmatic production,’ (riffing on Derrida riffing on Marx’s obsession with consumptive devils and vampires in his writings): media as agent provacateur.