A Report From the Media Reform Conference
Media issues have been an important focus for the Neahtawanta Center for many years. The coverage of the first Gulf War in 1990 was a wake-up call about how much the media was just a propaganda agent for the government’s war policies.
The Center has sponsored several conferences about media issues and Sally and I traveled to several conferneces about media and democracy. Despite all the attention on the issue of media consolidation and the decline of quality journalism in much of the mainstream media, things have gotten worse.
But the light has started to shine more brightly on the media reform movement with a recent conference I was able to attend in Madison, Wisconson November 7-9, 2003. The organizers were hoping for 200 people; instead over 1,700 ended up attending the Media Reform Conference -- an indication that the time is ripe for media reform. The large attendance coupled with the fact that over 2 1/2 million people submitted comments to the FCC (Federal Communications Committee) over its relaxation of the media rules concerning ownership (99.9% opposed) indicates that media reform has caught the attention of many people. The spectrum of people and organizations opposed to the relaxation of rules is broad, from conservative Trent Lott in the US Senate to progressive Bernie Sanders in the US House of Representatives and organizations from the National Rifle Association (NRA) to the Neahtawanta Center. Imagine being on the same side of a political issue with the NRA! For articles on the Media Reform Conference held in Madison, visit their web site <mediareform.net> and follow the link to “selected press coverage”. You can also follow links to “Audio and Video” and find the link to Al Franken’s Saturday night address for a good laugh.
Free Press, the main organizers of the conference, are hoping that this conference is a catalyst to help ignite the media reform movement and make media reform an issue in the 2004 presidential campaign. I hope they are right.
Our nation and communities need a reformed media, one that would have questioned the current administration’s reasons for going to war in Iraq. A publicly supported and funded media would have challenged the corporate mainstream media’s propaganda mouth-piece of the Bush administration. Many of the Bush lies have been uncovered by foreign news services and independent media while ignored by the mainstream consolidated U.S. media.
Bill Moyers has been an inspiration to me for many years and seeing him in person at Orpheum Theatre in downtown Madison was a thrill and gave me hope. It is hopeful that someone with the spirit and knowledge of Bill Moyers spoke so clearly about the need for media reform and with a packed house of 1800 plus people listening.
You can read his speech on the Internet, but here is a small fragment of what he had to say:“It’s a reality: democracy can’t exist without an informed public. Here’s an example: Only 13% of eligible young people cast ballots in the last presidential election. A recent National Youth Survey revealed that only half of the fifteen hundred young people polled believe that voting is important, and only 46% think they can make a difference in solving community problems. We’re talking here about one quarter of the electorate. The Carnegie Corporation conducted a youth challenge quiz of l5-24 year-olds and asked them, “Why don’t more young people vote or get involved?” Of the nearly two thousand respondents, the main answer was that they did not have enough information about issues and candidates. Let me rewind and say it again: democracy can’t exist without an informed public.”
There were many notable media activists that spoke and conducted workshops. Another of my favorites was Danny Schechter, a news dissector and executive editor of MediaChannel.org. He spoke of the need to be critical of our own alternative media as well. In fact he objects to the term “alternative media”; instead we need to challenge the mainstream corporate media with good journalism of our own.
Free Press is a national organization working to increase informed public participation in crucial media policy debates. The ultimate aim of Free Press is to generate a range of policies that will produce a more competitive and public interest-oriented media system with a strong nonprofit and noncommercial sector.
Contact:
Free Press
26 Center Street, 2nd floor
Northampton, MA 01060
413.585.1533
www.mediareform.net