Re: Citizen Radio EDIT
Subject: Re: Citizen Radio EDIT
From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Date: 12/17/09, 14:51
To: Andy Battaglia <abattaglia@theonion.com>

Sure. I've sort of filtered the text through Notepad so that whatever the problem was should be fixed.

History is filled with couples who have been kind enough to illustrate their time, place, and culture. Something important is expressed by such pairings: Antony and Cleopatra, Sid and Nancy, and William F. Buckley and his wife; each set gives us some clue about the respective environments in which they thrived or at least set each other on fire.

Progressive blogger Allison Kilkenny and similarly progressive comic Jamie Kilstein are not akin to such power couples of the past. They are not all that powerful, for instance, and at any rate they do not even seem comfortable with the idea of power. Nor should we expect anything very power-coupleish from the two of them in the way of personal exploits - no civil wars, heroin addictions, or journals of increasingly mediocre conservative commentary are likely to emerge from this marriage. They are vegans, for instance, as well as co-equals by necessity: the background to their relationship is insufferably romantic insomuch as that the two of them met when each was poor and unknown and then together became slightly less poor and moderately well-known. "She was starting as a writer and I was failing as a comic, and we were both working at a book store," Kilstein recalls. "So we quit, left our closet in New York, and hit the road."

Their self-imposed exile worked out better than self-imposed exiles tend to. A stand-up comedian, Kilstein now tours internationally as a politically-oriented stand-up comedian, while Kilkenny is among the handful of journalists to have gained a solid readership by the direct and unorthodox means of the blogosphere. Together, they host Citizen Radio, a weekly public affairs webprogram that features a prominent array of leftist luminaries (Noam Chomsky has made three appearances so far) and which has so far garnered high praise from folks like The Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead for its particularly policy-oriented brand of humor delivered by two hosts with unusually effective on-air compatibility. Few other programs demand as much from their listeners, who in this case are not only subjected to high wonkishness on a weekly basis but are also routinely exhorted to refrain from being "apathetic hipster douchebags;" Kilstein and Kilkenny are both activists by nature and want other young people to start picking up the slack again. In January, the web show itself will switch to a live format with a studio audience of sorts; the first of these events will be held at UCB NYC with appearances by such reliably funny and ideologically sympathetic guests as Janeane Garofalo. They also live in a little apartment together in Queens and are in addition very much in love with each other and will probably have a bunch of little babies at some point.

What does the accelerating success of this couple tell us about the here, the now, and perhaps even the little bit later? Kilstein, whose act draws heavily on politics and religion and who now draws regular comparisons to Bill Hicks, has won particular acclaim in Europe, where the large crowds he routinely draws seem hungry for reassurance that Americans still understand irony; that he is far better known internationally than he is in the U.S. may probably be explained by this desire for an America that can once again evoke laughter of the intentional sort.

Kilkenny's increasing prominence as a journalist and commentator is perhaps more telling, and at any rate ought to reassure those worried about the degeneracy of America's opinion-making class. In a manner that would have been impossible fifteen 15 years ago, the 26-year-old writer managed to build her own audience by virtue of ability, a commitment to actually getting the story right, and other such novelties of modern media. She's now a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and True/Slant along with such more traditional outlets as The Nation.

That real journalists with talent are replacing fake ones with credentials is particularly heartening if one we considers how many mediocrities have risen to the top over the past decade or two. Kilkenny turns to Peggy Noonan when in need of something to ridicule. "Every column is a hysterical cry for a man to stick a penis in her and make the world right again," Kilkenny says. On the left, she looks to Maureen Dowd when in need of a reminder regarding how vapid the commentariat has become. "She's useless,” Kilkenny says, “and she's taking up valuable real estate. I've never read an interesting idea in her columns. All she writes is bad puns when she isn't plagiarizing or repeating gossip."

Like her husband, Kilkenny is too nice to make such criticisms on her own, and must be prompted to do so by vindictive interviewers. She's also quicker to praise those journalists who actually break important stories and provide accurate analysis - people like Amy Goodman of Democracy Now ("fearless and wonderful") and Glenn Greenwald of Salon ("the most morally consistent journalist I've ever read").

Even if they represent a restorative dynamic in American discourse, Kilkenny and Kilstein remain pessimistic about the uphill battle against terrible-yet-respected talking heads. "The news," Kilkenny notes, "exists to turn a profit." It used to, anyway. Having delivered a startlingly necessary program, the couple is now in early talks regarding a television pilot; if other youngish social commentators whose output is informed by the pace, resources, and hyperlink-laden accountability particular to the information age are elsewhere landing their own deals, they will perhaps soon replace the same old guard responsible for bringing the political news media to its current absurdity, and then perhaps the profits will return. Probably not, though.




On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 2:42 PM, Andy Battaglia <abattaglia@theonion.com> wrote:
Hi Barrett,

Yikes, I don't know what happened but it appears that Google docs doesn't display the document as it should. Basically most of my edits or deletions are visible via that, and some of the notes I put in were therefore out of order. Very weird. 

Here it is pasted in. See things like I trimmed the top, etc. Please give this a look and maybe flow in what you did into this. That doable?

Andy

History is filled with couples who have been kind enough to embody their time, place, or culture. Allison Kilkenny and Jamie Kilstein are not one of those couples. They are not all that powerful. We shouldn't expect anything interesting from them in the way of personal exploits. They are vegans. CAN YOU THINK OF A WAY TO CINCH UP THIS GRAF? I TRIMMED, OBVIOUSLY. I LIKE 'THEY ARE VEGANS,' BUT THINK IT ACTUALLY MAKES THEM SEEM OF THIS TIME MORE THAN AGAINST IT… SO MAYBE JUST ADD ONE MORE CHARACTERISTIC.

 

But the background to their relationship is highly romantic, insomuch as that the two of them met when each was poor and unknown and then together became slightly less poor and moderately well-known in a realm where… [HERE, WE NEED SOME HINT AT LEAST OF WHAT THESE PEOPLE DO AND WHY THEY SHOULD INTEREST US. IT'S A SIMPLE MATTER OF GIVING A SENSE OF IT IN THE NUT-GRAF, MOVING A HINT OF IT UP. I LIKE THE WRY JOKE OF IT, BUT ADD SOMETHING TOO THAT WILL ALSO INTRIGE THE READER]. "She was starting as a writer and I was failing as a comic, and we were both working at a bookstore," Kilstein recalls. "So we quit, left our closet in New York, and hit the road."

 

Their self-imposed exile worked out better than self-imposed exiles tend to. Kilstein now tours internationally as a [ADJECTIVE? TRY TO DISTINGUISH HIM] stand-up comedian, while Kilkenny is among the handful of political journalists to have gained a solid readership by the direct and unorthodox means of the blogosphere. Together, they host Citizen Radio, a weekly political talk-show on the web that regularly features leftist luminaries. (Noam Chomsky has made three appearances so far). The Citizen Radio duo also make appearances up on-stage at comedy shows around the city, including one at "Tell Your Friends" on Monday (Dec. 21). And, on January 10, the web show itself will switch to a live format with a studio audience of sorts; the first of these will be conducted at The PIT and will include Janeane Garofalo alongside other, similarly nifty guests [LIKE WHO? AND/OR, IS THERE A WAY WE CAN DESCRIBE THEM MORE SPECIFIC THAN 'NIFTY'?. ALSO, HERE: ADD ONE GOOD, STRONG SENTENCE OF YOUR OWN STATING WHY YOU LIKE THE SHOW AND THINK IT'S IMPORTANT.

 

CUT TALK OF BIGGER PROJECT UNLESS WE CAN PRESENT SOME INFO ABOUT IT. NOT A GOOD IDEA TO BASICALLY TELL A READER, 'HEY, THEY HAVE SOMETHING BIG BREWING BUT WE/THEY ARE NOT GOING TO BOTHER TO TELL YOU ABOUT IT.'

 

What does the success of this couple tell us about the here, the now, and perhaps even the little bit later? Kilstein, whose act draws heavily on politics and religion, has been called" a combination of George Carlin and Bill Hicks" (by Janeane Garofalo), and he's won particular acclaim in Europe [IS THERE A WAY TO ILLUSTRATE THIS, BY WAY OF EXAMPLE?]. The denizens there are hungry for reassurance that Americans still understand irony; that he is far better known internationally than he is in the U.S. may probably be explained by this desire for an America that can once again evoke laughter of the intentional sort.

 

Kilkenny's increasing prominence as a journalist and commentator is perhaps more telling, and at any rate ought to reassure those worried about the degeneracy of America's opinion-making class. In a manner that would have been impossible 15 years ago, the 26-year-old writer managed to build her own audience by virtue of ability, a commitment to actually getting the story right, and other such novelties of modern media. She's now a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and True/Slant along with more traditional outlets like The Nation.

 

That real journalists with talent are replacing fake ones with credentials is particularly heartening if we considers how many mediocrities have risen to the top over the past decade or two. Kilkenny turns to Peggy Noonan when in need of something to ridicule. "Every column is a hysterical cry for a man to stick a penis in her and make the world right again," Kilkenny says. On the left, she looks to Maureen Dowd when in need of a reminder regarding how vapid the commentariat has become. "She's useless,” Kilkenny says, “and she's taking up valuable real estate. I've never read an interesting idea in her columns. All she writes is bad puns when she isn't plagiarizing or repeating gossip."

 

She's also quick to praise those journalists who actually break important stories and provide accurate analysis - people like Amy Goodman of Democracy Now ("fearless and wonderful") and Glenn Greenwald of Salon ("the most morally consistent journalist I've ever read").

 

Even if they represent a restorative dynamic in American discourse, Kilkenny and Kilstein remain pessimistic about the uphill battle against terrible-yet-respected commentators. "The news," Kilkenny notes, "exists to turn a profit." CAN YOU EXPAND ON THIS GRAF A BIT? LET'S MAKE IT THE LAST GRAF, AND THUS TRY TO GIVE IT A MORE PURPOSEFUL THRUST. IT'S GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION, SO MAYBE OPEN UP ITS VIEW TO THE FUTURE OF CITIZEN RADIO IN PARTICULAR. BETTER TO FOCUS ON THIS ONE CR ENTERPRISE THAN "THE MEDIA" AT THE END.

 




 
On Thu, Dec 17, 2009 at 2:19 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
Let me know if this version address everything.

History is filled with couples who have been kind enough to illustrate their time, place, and culture. Something important is expressed by such pairings: Antony and Cleopatra, Sid and Nancy, and William F. Buckley and his wife; each set gives us some clue about the respective environments in which they thrived or at least set each other on fire.

 

Progressive blogger Allison Kilkenny and similarly progressive comic Jamie Kilstein are not akin to such power couples of the past. They are not all that powerful, for instance, and at any rate they do not even seem comfortable with the idea of power. Nor should we expect anything very power-coupleish from the two of them in the way of personal exploits - no civil wars, heroin addictions, or journals of increasingly mediocre conservative commentary are likely to emerge from this marriage. They are vegans, for instance.

 

But the background to their relationship is insufferably romantic insomuch as that the two of them met when each was poor and unknown and then together became slightly less poor and moderately well-known. "She was starting as a writer and I was failing as a comic, and we were both working at a book store," Kilstein recalls. "So we quit, left our closet in New York, and hit the road."

 

Their self-imposed exile worked out better than self-imposed exiles tend to. A stand-up comedian, Kilstein now tours internationally as a politically-oriented stand-up comedian, while Kilkenny is among the handful of journalists to have gained a solid readership by the direct and unorthodox means of the blogosphere. Together, they host Citizen Radio, a weekly public affairs webprogram that features a prominent array of leftist luminaries (Noam Chomsky has made three appearances so far) and which has so far garnered high praise from folks like The Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead for its particularly policy-oriented brand of humor delivered by two hosts with unusually effective on-air compatibility. Few other programs demand as much from their listeners, who in this case are not only subjected to high wonkishness on a weekly basis but are also routinely exhorted to refrain from being "apathetic hipster douchebags;" Kilstein and Kilkenny are both activists by nature and want other young people to start picking up the slack again. In January, the web show itself will switch to a live format with a studio audience of sorts; the first of these events will be held at UCB NYC with appearances by such reliably funny and ideologically sympathetic guests as Janeane Garofalo. They also live in a little apartment together in Queens and are in addition very much in love with each other and will probably have a bunch of little babies at some point.

 

What does the accelerating success of this couple tell us about the here, the now, and perhaps even the little bit later? Kilstein, whose act draws heavily on politics and religion and who now draws regular comparisons to Bill Hicks, has won particular acclaim in Europe, where the large crowds he routinely draws seem hungry for reassurance that Americans still understand irony; that he is far better known internationally than he is in the U.S. may probably be explained by this desire for an America that can once again evoke laughter of the intentional sort.

 

Kilkenny's increasing prominence as a journalist and commentator is perhaps more telling, and at any rate ought to reassure those worried about the degeneracy of America's opinion-making class. In a manner that would have been impossible fifteen 15 years ago, the 26-year-old writer managed to build her own audience by virtue of ability, a commitment to actually getting the story right, and other such novelties of modern media. She's now a regular contributor to The Huffington Post and True/Slant along with such more traditional outlets as The Nation.

 

That real journalists with talent are replacing fake ones with credentials is particularly heartening if one we considers how many mediocrities have risen to the top over the past decade or two. Kilkenny turns to Peggy Noonan when in need of something to ridicule. "Every column is a hysterical cry for a man to stick a penis in her and make the world right again," Kilkenny says. On the left, she looks to Maureen Dowd when in need of a reminder regarding how vapid the commentariat has become. "She's useless,” Kilkenny says, “and she's taking up valuable real estate. I've never read an interesting idea in her columns. All she writes is bad puns when she isn't plagiarizing or repeating gossip."

 

Like her husband, Kilkenny is too nice to make such criticisms on her own, and must be prompted to do so by vindictive interviewers. She's also quicker to praise those journalists who actually break important stories and provide accurate analysis - people like Amy Goodman of Democracy Now ("fearless and wonderful") and Glenn Greenwald of Salon ("the most morally consistent journalist I've ever read").

 

Even if they represent a restorative dynamic in American discourse, Kilkenny and Kilstein remain pessimistic about the uphill battle against terrible-yet-respected talking heads. "The news," Kilkenny notes, "exists to turn a profit." It used to, anyway. Having delivered a startlingly necessary program, the couple is now in early talks regarding a television pilot; if other youngish social commentators whose output is informed by the pace, resources, and hyperlink-laden accountability particular to the information age are elsewhere landing their own deals, they will perhaps soon replace the same old guard responsible for bringing the political news media to its current absurdity, and then perhaps the profits will return. Probably not, though.


On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 4:56 PM, Andy Battaglia <abattaglia@theonion.com> wrote:
Ah, OK. But yeah, just give a good read and you'll see the changes. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks!

Andy


On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 2:49 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
Unfortunately, I don't have track changes as I don't have access to Word and work in Google Documents, but I can decipher what changes you've made by way of the differences in phrases, etc. I'll tweak this for you and have it back to you by Thursday.


On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 1:40 PM, Andy Battaglia <abattaglia@theonion.com> wrote:
Hi Barrett,

I like the piece. Thanks for writing it for us. I did an edit, in TRACK CHANGES and with notes embedded within the text. I explain in the document so will defer here to there. 

Could you take a look and get this back to us by Thursday at 3:30? We'd like to run it on Monday, and our production deadlines are moved up because of the holidays.

Feel free to give me a call if you like. 

Best,

Andy

--
Andy Battaglia
New York City Editor, The A.V. Club
536 Broadway 10th floor
New York, NY 10012
p NEW! 212.777.3700 x 258
newyork.avclub.com
twitter.com/AVClubNY





--
Andy Battaglia
New York City Editor, The A.V. Club
536 Broadway 10th floor
New York, NY 10012
p NEW! 212.777.3700 x 258
newyork.avclub.com
twitter.com/AVClubNY





--
Andy Battaglia
New York City Editor, The A.V. Club
536 Broadway 10th floor
New York, NY 10012
p NEW! 212.777.3700 x 258
newyork.avclub.com
twitter.com/AVClubNY