Charles ☭ is now tooting from queer.party

Did you know? #Eurovision's primary business activity is as a TV news wire. The song contest was designed to show off their ability to use satellites to broadcast from all of the countries they cover at once. This is still a core part of the contest! When every country "calls in" their results, all of the representatives are broadcasting via satellites!

The song contest helps the news wire in other ways as well, in terms of access for reporters. Every country in the contest is also covered by the news wire. When they could no longer do news from Russia, then Russia also was excluded from the contest. Indeed, their ability to report on news in some countries would be very negatively impacted if those countries were excluded from the contest, as it's become very prestigious in it's own right.

Follow me for more facts and history about #NetworkMusic!

Mar 20, 2025 at 10:50pmWeb
Show threadCharles ☭ is now tooting from queer.partyMar 20, 2025

I think one thing virtually the entire political spectrum agrees on is that it's good to have reliable, international news from Israel and Palestine. Anti-Zionists, non-Zionists and even virtually all Zionists all agree on this!

So, essentially, if Eurovision kicks Israel out of the contest, their news bureau there might as well board itself up. So would you rather have reduced international scrutiny and no songs? Or songs and reliable, sometimes very critical, news reports?

Those are the choices.

Show threadCharles ☭ is now tooting from queer.partyMar 20, 2025

The US version of #NetworkMusic involving exploring the possibilities of space age telecom was less commercial.

In the 1970s, NASA put out a call for art proposals. In 1977, Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz music and danse project, The Satelite Arts Project was a result of this. Their goal during that era was to erase distance and create virtual telepresence, sometimes in virtual spaces. This has been influential in VR and also platforms like Jitsi Meet.

You can learn more about their experimental arts here: https://anthology.rhizome.org/mobile-image

NET ART ANTHOLOGY: Mobile Image

Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz’s early collaborative work, which took place under the moniker Mobile Image, imagined “new ways of being-in-the-world” that would be made possible by multimedia telecollaborative environments.The duo developed a series of ambitious projects that brought communi...

NET ART ANTHOLOGY: Mobile Image
Show threadJacquelineMar 20, 2025

@celesteh

I think that the vast majority of Israeli companies should be boycotted. I don't believe in a total boycott of Israel, however.

For example, I follow Israeli communists and communist organizations on some social media.

Show threadCharles ☭ is now tooting from queer.partyMar 20, 2025

@burnoutqueen

I would argue very strongly that foreign news offices operating out of Israel and/or Palestine should not be boycotted, except in case of unreliability.

Show threadJacquelineMar 20, 2025

@celesteh I agree.

What I'll say is that the only Israeli news source I interact with is Haaretz.