Some bits and pieces...Snowmail

Among my short iPod uploads each week is a thing called "Snowmail" from Channel 4 News in the UK. Actually, Snowmail itself is a daily email from whomever is hosting the Channel 4 News broadcast that evening, but the podcast is typically a once-a-week issue from the host, Jon Snow. Jon Snow, the "Jim Lehrer" of Channel 4 News, is an old "leftie" whose integrity and personna are beyond question. Unlike US the typical US network news anchors he does not pander to the masses or the mass audience, -- and unlike Lehrer he does not attempt to maintain the fiction of neutrality. He is as close to Walter Cronkite as today's media has, and it is too bad we lack his kind in the US. In any case, each week he issues a short podcast called a "Snowmail" that is usually a sharp observation and OpEd piece worth more than the two or three minutes he offers. This week it was about oil, and in a short commentary he highlights the radically altered world order in oil, with special attention to the unchanging dependence of the US, the emerging market for oil in Asia, the political shifts in South America (especially in Venezuela and Mexico), etc. All this leads to his noting the release of Kevin Phillips' book, American Theocracy, in the UK this week, and its depressing message for the uS and the world economy. Give it a listen. Tags: Snowmail, Jon Snow, Channel 4 News (UK), Kevin Phillips, American Theocracy, Jim Lehrer, Walter Cronkite, oil, Mexico, Venezuela, podcasts, accountabilitybloke, Mel Dubnick