This is one of the continuing series of reports from the National Conference for Media Reform in Memphis, Tennessee. The conference is sponsored by Free Press. This post concerns a presentation entitled "Children and Media Policy." Unfortunately, I was not able to hear this entire presentation. When I arrived, however,…
For the past two days, I've been reporting from the National Conference for Media Reform in Memphis. This conference is being sponsored by Free Press. Here is a link to the inspiring speech Bill Moyers delivered yesterday. I've sketched some notes below, as well, but there is no substitute for…
I’m still reporting from the National Conference for Media Reform, from Memphis. The conference is sponsored by Free Press.
This afternoon I attended a panel discussion exploring the issues set forth in the title of this post. The moderator, Geneva Overholser (of the University of Missouri School of Journalism), warned that when we criticize the press, we should not be too general. There are, after all, many good people doing honorable work in the profession.
The first speaker was Sonali Kolhatkar, who is a host and producer of a popular morning drive time program called Uprising she is also the co-director of a nonprofit organization, Afghan Women’s Mission.
Kolhatkar noted that the media goes where the violence goes, then moves on. At the present time, Afghanistan “is blowing up.” There are suicide bombs, as well as no liberation of Afghanistan women (a prime selling point for the war). Nonetheless, the media (and thus, the American public) no longer cares. She criticized the term “war on terror.” You can’t have a war “on an abstract noun.”
The second speaker was Paul Rieckhoff, who is the Executive Director and founder of the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans of America. Rieckhoff was an infantry officer in Iraq from 2003-2004 . He was one of the first Iraq veterans to publicly criticize the war. We’ve written about Paul before.
Rieckhoff described the war in Iraq as a “war of disconnect.” For instance, “you never see a dead American soldier on TV.” In fact, …
I’m reporting again from Memphis, where I am attending the National Conference for Media Reform sponsored by Free Press.
This morning, I attended a panel discussion entitled “Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America’s Media. The panel was headed by Eric Klinenberg, who teaches sociology at New York University. He is also the author of Fighting for Air: the Battle to Control America’s Media (2007).
Klinenberg indicated that we have been experiencing decades of deregulation in the media industry and we’re now paying for it. To those who attended this conference, however, he asked whether they remembered the moment when they figured out that they did not have to accept the toxic misleading filtered version of the media that they had been getting. He asked them if they remembered that moment when they realized that they could do something about this problem, about this media that has become “a war-mongering media.”
Large corporations are striving to finish the job of taking over the media. They are trying to take over the entire media system and to “plunder” it for their own profits. How bad have things gotten? Klinenberg states that he can’t find a single person who is more pleased with the media today than he or she was 10 years ago. No one he asks tells him that “after that newspaper chain took over, I learned so much more about my community.”
Pete Tridish of Prometheus radio was the first speaker. Prometheus is handing out flyers containing …
It wasn’t on the original schedule of the National Conference for Media Reform, but Dennis Kucinich agreed to hold a press conference tonight. Kucinich ran for president of the United States in 2004. He has indicated that he plans to run again in 2008.
I hadn’t ever before been to to a press conference of a presidential candidate. I learned of it at the last minute. I packed my press credentials (the media reform conference granted these to me on the basis of this blog), my video camera, a still camera, a pad of paper and a couple pens and dashed to the designated area.
In his prepared remarks, Kucinich pounced on the issue of media reform. He demonstrated himself to be familiar with many aspects of media reform and the Internet. In the not-too-distant future, he intends to hold Congressional hearings on media reform (“for an entire week, if necessary”). He believes that media issues are among the most important issues facing this country today. In response to a question I asked, Kucinich said he considers the media reform to be closely related to the possibility of campaign finance reform. At the point when we have more of the former, he said, we will have the opportunity to implement the latter. Campaign finance reform should take the form of public financing, he asserted.
He invited those attending to submit their ideas for issues to explore at his media reform hearings. Foremost among those topics will be media ownership. In …