
Princeton University Press
Heather Hendershot, When the News Broke: Chicago 1968 and the Polarizing of America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022)
Katherine Cramer Brownell, 24/7 Politics: Cable Television and the Fragmenting of America from Watergate to Fox News (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2023)
What Winston Smith, the protagonist in George Orwell’s 1949 novel "1984," keeps trying to avoid in the book is the telescreen. It’s a screen, a speaker and a microphone all in one; it’s in every home and every workplace, every street and forest and park; it’s always on, always listening, always seeing. Finishing the novel on the remote Scottish island of Jura in 1948, as Stalin was ascendant, after we had dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, and seeing the national security and surveillance state forming, Orwell imagined it to be oblong, a “metal plaque” – something that looks like “a dulled mirror,” he wrote. This was before television and well before desktops, laptops, and cell phones had become omnipresent. In 2024, of course, we can imagine it as an endless Zoom call (Good G-d!) – always on, on every device beside and surrounding you. And connected to Google. And the people controlling Google are the government. And the main thing the government is interested in using it all for is – to Google you!
Orwell had figured out that what goes into our heads – all the sights, all the sounds, sensations from the other senses, too – determines our reality, and that we can be conditioned by the media we absorb, especially if we are forced to absorb it, to believe anything that producers of that media want us to. “If one is to rule, and to continue ruling, one must be able to dislocate the sense of reality,” the novel tells us. And “reality,” Orwell writes, “is inside the skull.”
Orwell imagined a single Ministry of Truth, the “primary job” of which, he wrote, is not only to reconstruct the past but “to supply the citizens” with “newspapers, films, textbooks, telescreen programs, plays, novels – with every conceivable kind of information, instruction or entertainment, from a statue to a slogan, from a lyric poem to a biological treatise, and from a child’s spelling book to a Newspeak dictionary.” The Ministry in 1984 has “huge printing shops with their sub-editors, their typography experts, and their elaborately equipped studios for the faking of photographs”; a “teleprograms section with its engineers, its producers, and its teams of actors”; a records department, with “armies of reference clerks” whose job it is to draw up lists of books and periodicals “due for recall.” The Ministry produces music, too – songs that are “composed entirely by mechanical means” (ChatGPT, anyone?) “on a special kind of kaleidoscope known as a versificator.” But it’s the telescreen that’s the key instrument in dystopian Oceania for delivering what Orwell calls “reality control.”
Media scholars like Heather Hendershot (at MIT) and Katherine Cramer Brownell (at Purdue) do readers a huge favor in their work when they write extraordinary books like the ones above about television and look at its relationship to state power and control. These two books tell us how the national leaders we vote into power now are increasingly television, or telescreen, people. Kennedy was our first television president – the first to hold live press conferences in front of the cameras – and definitely our first telegenic chief executive. Lyndon Johnson’s family empire was based on broadcasting holdings across Texas; his wife, Ladybird, owned so many of them in her name, LBJ called himself the “broadcaster-in-law.” Nixon came out of the country’s biggest TV market – California. Reagan had been a movie actor on the silver screen and then a television spokesperson for General Electric. And Trump had been a TV star in NBC’s “The Apprentice,” one of our reality (reality-control) teleprograms, to use Orwell’s word, that portrayed him as a self-made millionaire and genius decisionmaker in front of millions of American viewers every week. With Trump, all this happened as Rupert Murdoch was building up a whole pro-Trump Teleprograms Department – Teledep, in Newspeak – at the Fox equivalent, replete with radio, internet, books, newspapers, a film studio, you name it, of a modern Ministry of Truth.
Control over media technology is never a quiet battlefield: it’s always the seat of warfare. Hendershot’s book – ostensibly about four days in Chicago – explores in extraordinary detail the fights – including the physical ones – over communications technology here. The Democratic Party set to nominate the party’s candidate for president at a time of war in Vietnam, violence against the Civil Rights movement, and the assassinations of President Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and JFK’s brother Robert F. Kennedy, among others. There were three and only three television networks then, and all three covered the proceedings. It became the top-rated television event of 1968. Fifty-one million households wound up tuning in.
Mayor Richard J. Daley, the party boss of Chicago, wanted the cameras and print journalists to cover it only the way he wanted. He told the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to go on strike in order to limit the number of new telephone lines available to reporters for voice calls and the transmission of live images out of the city. He had pay phones near the convention jammed with dimes so journalists couldn’t call out. He made sure the phones in office buildings next to the convention site had their wires slashed, too. He denied parking permits for the networks. He sealed manhole covers with tar so that protestors couldn’t hide in the sewers. He threw barbed-wire around the convention amphitheater and put the entire police force of 12,000 men on 12-hour shifts. But he could not wield absolute control, and the extraordinary violence that erupted in Chicago that summer became the story that was broadcast live on our telescreens.
Brownell’s book is a fantastic read covering a much longer time period but also about reality control. People in charge – at the helm of media companies, the financial analysts, the politicians, even the journalists – sold us the coming of network television and then the coming of cable television as the answer to previous media systems that had failed democracy. But as Brownell puts it, the rise of cable, much like the rise of all the other media here, “was never about enhancing democracy.” “It was about making money and forging strategic partnerships between an industry and the elected politicians who wrote the rules in which that industry operated.” It was about “how to structure media institutions [. . .] central to political power.” It was Marshall McLuhan who said, “We shape our tools, and thereafter they shape us.” If that’s the case, we had better understand what’s coming next – and fast!
Peter B. Kaufman lives in Lakeville and works at MIT Open Learning and is the author of “The New Enlightenment and the Fight to Free Knowledge.”
Kaufman will discuss the award-winning book "Overreach, The Inside Story of Putin and Russia's War Against Ukraine" by journalist Owen Matthews on Saturday, Jan. 6, at 4 p.m. at Scoville Memorial Library.
Cornwall Consolidated School seventh graders Skylar Brown, Izabella Coppola, Halley Villa, Willow Berry, Claire Barbosa, Willa Lesch, Vivianne DiRocco and Franco Aburto presented a group research project on the life of Naomi Freeman Wednesday, April 23. In attendance were U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Conn., John Mills, president of Alex Breanne Corporation, Cornwall First Selectman Gordon Ridgway, Cornwall Selectman Jennifer Markow and CCS social studies teacher Will Vincent.
CORNWALL — “In Cornwall you have made the decision that everyone here matters and everyone’s story is important,” said U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Waterbury, to the seventh grade class at Cornwall Consolidated School April 23.
Hayes was in attendance to celebrate history on Wednesday as the CCS students presented their group research project on the life of Naomi Cain Freeman, the first Black female landowner in Cornwall.
To memorialize Freeman, the seventh graders petitioned the town selectmen to rename Great Hollow Road where the Freemans once lived. New street signs for Naomi Freeman Historic Road were created with some help from the town highway department.
“No one in this community, or the state for that matter, will ever forget that this happened here,” said Hayes.
Cornwall Highway Department helped the students create new signs to install on Great Hollow Road.Photo by Riley Klein
Per Cornwall Historical Society records, Freeman’s story began in 1794 when she was born in Vermont. John Sedgwick and his wife Abigail, of Cornwall, adopted her in 1801: an act that protected her from slavery, which was still legal in Connecticut at the time.
Sedgwick included Naomi in his will and she received a dowry after his death in 1820.
Naomi later married Obadiah “Obed” Freeman, a man who had been enslaved in Cornwall. She purchased an acre in Cornwall, becoming the town’s first African American woman to own land, and the two settled on Great Hollow Road in 1828.
Nearly 200 years later, the street itself bears her name.
“We are really proud of the work we’ve done and that Naomi Freeman will continue to be an impactful presence in our town,” said CCS student Vivianne DiRocco.
DiRocco and her classmates Skylar Brown, Izabella Coppola, Halley Villa, Willa Lesch, Willow Berry, and Claire Barbosa discovered Freeman’s story earlier this year while conducting research into important women in Cornwall’s history. The full project will be presented at Troutbeck Symposium May 1.
“One of the archaeologists who excavated the Freemans’ home told us about a gap in Connecticut’s history concerning the everyday life for free African Americans. We hope that we filled that gap a little bit,” said Lesch.
There are no known photographs or portraits of Freeman. The students utilized artificial intelligence to create images of what she might have looked like during her life in Cornwall.
The students created artwork to show what Naomi Freeman, her husband Obed and daughter Sarah might have looked like living in Cornwall.Photo by Riley Klein
“What an incredible example of what happens when young people are given the tools, the encouragement and the space to lead,” said CCS Principal Leanne Maguire. “Thank you for showing us what is possible when curiosity meets courage.”
John Mills, president of the Alex Breanne Corporation in West Hartford, was consulted by the students to help unearth census data and track down living descendants of Freeman. His company researches formerly enslaved people and brings their stories to light.
Mills said he was surprised to see the extensive research that was conducted by the students by the time he was contacted. His company sometimes helps render images for individuals lost to history, but the students had even taken that on themselves.
“I’m incredibly impressed with what you’ve done here,” said Mills to the students. “Now you’re a part of the celebration and civic engagement.”
Town of Salisbury
Board of Finance
Notice of Public Hearing Hybrid Meeting
Wednesday,
April 30th, 2025
7:30pm
A public hearing called by the Board of Finance will be held in-person and via Zoom at 7:30pm on Wednesday, April 30th, 2025 at Salisbury Town Hall, 27 Main Street, Salisbury, CT 06068 with the following agenda:
1. To receive public comment on the proposed Board of Education budget as presented.
2. To receive public comment on the proposed Board of Selectmen, town government budget as presented.
Note: Copies of the proposed budgets are available at Town Hall.
Board of Finance Meeting Immediately following the Public Hearing
1. Final Budget Review; Discussion and possible vote to present the Board of Education and Board of Selectmen, Town Government Budget to the Annual Town Budget meeting, which will take place on Wednesday, May 14th, 2025 at 7:30pm
Please Note: The Annual Town Budget Meeting date has been changed to Wednesday, May 14th, 2025 at 7:30pm.
Topic: Public Hearing on Budgets immediately followed by Board of Finance
Time: Apr 30, 2025 07:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
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04-24-25
Legal Notice
The Planning & Zoning Commission of the Town of Salisbury will hold a Public Hearing on Special Permit Application #2025-0280 by owner Richard Cantele for Structures Located less than Fifty (50) feet from a Waterbody or Watercourse at 204 Between the Lakes Road, Salisbury, Map 58, Lot 03 per Section 404 of the Salisbury Zoning Regulations. The hearing will be held on Monday, May 5, 2025 at 6:45 PM. There is no physical location for this meeting. This meeting will be held virtually via Zoom where interested persons can listen to & speak on the matter. The application, agenda and meeting instructions will be listed at www.salisburyct.us/agendas/. Written comments may be submitted to the Land Use Office, Salisbury Town Hall, 27 Main Street, P.O. Box 548, Salisbury, CT or via email to landuse@salisburyct.us. Paper copies may be reviewed Monday through Thursday between the hours of 8:00 AM and 3:30 PM.
Salisbury Planning & Zoning Commission
Martin Whalen, Secretary
04-24-25
05-01-25
Notice of Decision
Town of Salisbury
Inland Wetlands & Watercourses Commission
Notice is hereby given that the following action was taken by the Inland Wetlands & Watercourses Commission of the Town of Salisbury, Connecticut on April 14, 2025:
Approved - Application 2025-IW-050 by Engineer Pat Hackett to install a new septic system. The property is shown on Salisbury Assessor’s map 59 as lot 09 and is known as 36 South Shore Road, Salisbury. The owner of the property is Noelle G Becker, Trustee.
Any aggrieved person may appeal this decision to the Connecticut Superior Court in accordance with the provisions of Connecticut General Statutes §22a-43(a) & §8-8.
04-24-25
TAX COLLECTOR TOWN OF
SALISBURY CT
LEGAL NOTICE
Pursuant to Sec. 12-145 of the Connecticut State Statutes, the taxpayers of the Town of Salisbury are hereby notified that the fourth installment on the Grand List of October 1, 2023 is due and payable on April l, 2025. Payments must be received or postmarked by May 1, 2025. If said Real Estate and Personal Property taxes are not paid on or before May 1, 2025, interest at the rate of one and one half percent (18% per year) will be added for each month or a fraction thereof which elapses from the time when such tax becomes due and payable until the same is paid. Minimum interest charge is $2.00.
Pursuant to Section 12-173 of the Connecticut State Statutes, unpaid Real Estate tax on the Grand List of October 1, 2023 will be LIENED on JUNE 6, 2025. Payment must be received by 12:00 p.m. on June 6, 2025 to avoid a Lien. Tax Office is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 9am- 4pm. Closed 12:30pm- 1 :30 pm.
Taxes can be paid by mail addressed to: Tax Collector, P.O. Box 338, 27 Main Street, Salisbury, CT 06068, There is a drop box in the vestibule of the Town Hall which is available 9am-4pm, Monday-Friday as well as a 24-hour drop slot at the rear of the building adjacent to the parking area. The Town is urging taxpayers to mail checks or use the option of paying by credit card or E-Check. Please see the Town website salisburyct.us for additional information. Dated at Town of Salisbury, CT this 15TH day of March 2025.
Jean F. Bell, CCMC
Tax Collector
Salisbury CT 06068
03-20-25
04-03-25
04-24-25
Experienced horse equestrian: to train three-year-old white Persian Mare for trail riding. 860-67-0499.
Help wanted: Small Angus Farm seeks reliable help for cattle and horses. Duties include feeding, fence repair, machine repair. Will train the right person. 860-671-0499.
The Town of Cornwall has several job openings for the Town Beach: Beach Director, Water Safety Instructor, and Certified Lifeguards. For more details and to apply, contact First Selectman’s office 860-672-4959.
Hector Pacay Service: House Remodeling, Landscaping, Lawn mowing, Garden mulch, Painting, Gutters, Pruning, Stump Grinding, Chipping, Tree work, Brush removal, Fence, Patio, Carpenter/decks, Masonry. Spring and Fall Cleanup. Commercial & Residential. Fully insured. 845-636-3212.
Hay For Sale: Round Bales. First Cutting covered hay, round bales. First cut hay covered with plastic. $25 for bale loaded. 860-671-0499.
PUBLISHER’S NOTICE: Equal Housing Opportunity. All real estate advertised in this newspaper is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1966 revised March 12, 1989 which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color religion, sex, handicap or familial status or national origin or intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination. All residential property advertised in the State of Connecticut General Statutes 46a-64c which prohibit the making, printing or publishing or causing to be made, printed or published any notice, statement or advertisement with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, marital status, age, lawful source of income, familial status, physical or mental disability or an intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination.
3b/3b home in Sharon:fully furnished, lake access, 3.84 acres. $5000 per month. 860-309-4482.
MT RIGA Two Bedroom LAKEFRONT: Log cabin. Private beach, canoes and kayaks. $1350/Week. 585-355-5245.
Seasonal rental: Very private and comfortable 4B/3B home set back from the road. 6/15-9/15. sun rm/dr, upper and lower decks, ping pong and knock hockey, den, FP, W/D, fully equipped. 15K seas. 917-887-8885.
Sharon Rentals: 1b/1b home on a private lake. Avail 4/1/25. Yearly. $2750/Furnished, weekly house--keeping, garbage, water, ground maint. included. utilities addtl. 860-309-4482.