[Dialogue] Emailing: This Way to Better Media - CommonDreams.org.htm

Thu Jun 12 19:01:33 EDT 2008

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Published on Thursday, June 12, 2008 by TruthDig.com
<http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080611_this_way_to_better_media/>  

This Way to Better Media

by Amy Goodman

"This way to better media," read the floor sign directing people through a
skyway to the Minneapolis Convention Center. Thousands of people gathered
there for the fourth National Conference for Media Reform, hosted by
freepress.net. They came from all walks of life and all ages to address a
central crisis in our society: our broken media system. I was one of the
invited speakers.

Despite increasingly complex digital-media offerings and hundreds of
channels, we see the diversity of media ownership shrinking, along with the
diversity of voices that are broadcast. People are fighting back,
organizing, creating alternatives and holding the corporate media giants
accountable. The corporations are pushing back. With life and death, war and
peace, at stake, hinging on an informed and engaged populace, the stakes
have never been higher, the media never more important.

Prominent traditional journalists with decades of experience mingled with
the emerging generation of new media producers. Journalist Bill Moyers, who
has won more than 30 Emmys, authored four best-sellers and currently hosts
the popular PBS weekly news program "Bill Moyers Journal," opened Saturday
with a plenary address, saying:

"Our dominant media are ultimately accountable only to corporate boards
whose mission is not life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for the
whole body of our republic, but the aggrandizement of corporate executives
and shareholders." Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is the poster child of media
conglomerates. Murdoch's media empire spans the globe, with 35 TV stations
in the U.S., the Fox News Channel (so-called) and many other cable channels,
The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, HarperCollins, 20th Century Fox
movie studios and a slew of interrelated sports and entertainment
properties.

Moyers' outspoken critique of the corporate media has provoked Murdoch's
chief attack dog, Bill O'Reilly. Last week on his Fox show, O'Reilly said of
the media reformers, "These people are crazy . real nuts!" Josh Silver, Free
Press executive director, responded: "He's a mouthpiece for the largest
media corporations. And that kind of omnipotent power that these large
networks have, taking control of that and taking that power back from them
is what this conference is about."

As Moyers finished signing his latest book, "O'Reilly Factor" producer
Porter Berry and his camera crew pounced. Dan Rather was at the conference
but eluded the Fox stakeout. Moyers turned the Fox ambush back on Berry:

Moyers: "Rupert Murdoch said the best thing that will come out of the Iraq
war will be [oil] at $20 a barrel. Now, today, when I came here, I looked,
and it was $130-something. When is Rupert going to explain why the war
didn't give us $20-a-barrel oil?"

Making the link between media conglomerates and militarism, Moyers
questioned Berry further about Murdoch:

Moyers: "Does Bill O'Reilly work for Rupert Murdoch?"

Berry: "He works for Fox News."

Moyers: "But who owns Fox News?"

Berry: "News Corp. ."

Moyers: "Rupert Murdoch is the boss."

Indymedia videographers crowded around the two, and the video clips soon
found their way onto the Internet. O'Reilly ran a heavily edited clip of the
exchange, with none of the above included, but had a "body-language expert"
on his show, attempting to smear Moyers. The fact that Murdoch producers
were at the conference trying to discredit prominent participants
demonstrates the need for honest, strong, countervailing media outlets.

Sen. Byron Dorgan also addressed the conference. On Monday, he and Sens.
John Kerry, Robert Menendez and Frank Lautenberg introduced a bill that
would end Pentagon use of funds to spread propaganda and charged both the
Pentagon inspector general and Congress' Government Accountability Office to
investigate allegations that retired generals were used to push for war with
Iraq.

Elected officials will not solve our media crisis alone. The grass-roots
movement for media reform is growing, and with mass layoffs in newspaper and
broadcast newsrooms, critical elections, burgeoning military budgets and
multiple wars and occupations, and with emergent and accessible
digital-media tools and networks increasingly available to most people,
there is no better time to join it.

Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy  <http://www.democracynow.org/> Now!,"
a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 650 stations in North
America. Her third book, "Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/1401322883?tag=commondreams-20&camp=0&creative=0&l
inkCode=as1&creativeASIN=1401322883&adid=0WDC1Y8FYVP1KVMAD7YZ&>
Extraordinary Times," was published in April.

C 2008 Amy Goodman

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10 Comments so far 

1.	

	FreeTheMedia June 12th, 2008 2:33 pm 

	Great analysis as always Amy. The conference provided for a
fantastic weekend for myself and many others who deeply believe in media
reform. 

	O'Reilly and others try and make this a partisan issue when they
throw around terms like "far left" and even calling us "fascists", but all
he need to do is actually speak to an organizer or attendee to get the real
story. Then again, factual information doesn't always drive ratings so they
are not inclined to do any REAL journalism.

2.	

	JaneM June 12th, 2008 2:35 pm 

	I'm thinking seriously of giving up my TV altogether and just
watching the news and downloading programs on my computer. Why bother?

3.	

	FrederickJohnson June 12th, 2008 2:53 pm 

	JaneM,

	Exactly. That's how the rightwing came to power. In the 1960s, after
they lost very badly, they took time off the tubes to build an
infrastructure and taking advantage of people enjoying the TV-free nature,
found ways to REPROGRAM the airwaves and the cable networks. By 1968, the
rightwing engine was ready to rumble. Now, the 1970s was not favorable and
the Demos got a break because of Nixon's scandal but they were wise to use
that decade to fine-tune its engine. By 1980, the rightwing engine was 10
TIMES POWERFUL and in that decade, America witnessed and accepted the rise
of rightwing activism even as the progressives and liberals allowed
themselves to languish with or without realizing it. The cons were building
more think tanks and getting ready to invade and takeover justice and
education. They were careful in the 1990s to do it "silent and safe" and by
2000, things were even worse. So you see, rightwing fascism didn't occur
overnight. They took advantage of we the sheeple and took the time to FRAME
and PROGRAM the media and government to its ideological liking.

	We the sheeple will just have to take plenty of time off the TV,
radio, and even the Internet to some degree and build a better media and
government that actually represents us.

4.	

	Thomas More June 12th, 2008 4:09 pm 

	As a matter of interest, I keep seeing this reasoning:

	"make this a partisan issue when they throw around terms like "far
left" and even calling us "fascists"

	Whats the difference when I hear "far right, fascists, Nazi's thrown
around from our side of the media?

	Air America and Amy can get wound up sometimes themselves.

5.	

	Daniel David June 12th, 2008 4:24 pm 

	Amy is good. But no one can make sense of:

	"Elected officials will not solve our media crisis alone. The
grass-roots movement for media reform is growing..

	Except via elected officials THERE IS NO REFORM POSSIBLE.
Elect your Democrats and a lot of them if you want your media "reformed". No
one (NO ONE) else is going to do it.

6.	

	tlcs_3 June 12th, 2008 4:26 pm 

	It is good that we have alternatives and the time and will to check
them out. The problem is that when the news is controlled by the
corporations who don't want us to know things, this nation becomes a lot
less like a democracy and more like a fascist state. When Jane Average
American can't go home from her job and plop down and get basic information
uncovered with partisanship, she will be unable to participate in any way
and may become either cynical or apathetic. As an example, in the 2nd
largest city in Indiana (the "heart" of America), there was not one mention
of Dennis Kucinich's Impeachment Articles. NOT ONE. How are my "regular" mom
friends (yeh - I'm irregular) going to be able to decide if they want
impeachment if no one tells them in that little time during fixing supper
when the news is on in the kitchen and the kids are busy elsewhere? I am
truly concerned about our nation.in too many ways to even think about in one
sitting.
Bill Moyers is my hero!!!!

7.	

	Doom n Gloom June 12th, 2008 5:09 pm 

	Bill Moyers said: "Our dominant media are ultimately accountable
only to corporate boards whose mission is not life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness for the whole body of our republic, but the aggrandizement of
corporate executives and shareholders."

	I don'k now why progressives let Moyer's off the hook. Moyers too
excludes American Indians from his broadcasts. Moyers participates in the
continuing genocide by doing so. Does his Christian religion prohibit him
from recognizing American Indians as human or are we just savages to him?
I challenge Bill Moyers to invite Steven Newcomb to his public television
show. He won't do it. Moyer's has a hole in his soul and progressives should
recognize that.

8.	

	mikero22 June 12th, 2008 5:14 pm 

	This was my post yesterday which I resubmit since subseqent posts
have shown even further the way in which the liberals, Moyers et al.,
convelute an already sad politic
of matching the so-called progressives against the right wing Nut-jobs.
Screaming at each other about a sad and worn ideology which I think all of
you call democracy:

	Frankly ALL OF IT is a reflection of a seriously pathological
societal bent which thrives exclusively on Pop Culture and Celebrities. Pop
culture, of course, meaning that which we are fed as information and
entertainment that sells in the marketplace called the Media (as an
example). Celebrity-ism is Pop Culture brought to its obvious result of an
elite of so-called professionals who have the last word and are always and
without exception, apologists for the pathogoly we could call (if we were
Marxists anymore) bourgeois society .

	It is all the reflection of a society which has profit and
vain-glory as its motive and orientation. And nothing stands apart, rises
above, this corporate capitalist scheme of things. Liberals out there and
so-called progressives buy into the scheme except if they entertain and
inform us according to the only thing that is necessary in these times,
which is mass organization of angry people sick of ALL of the Bullshit. And
liberals and progressives won't do that. All of them are hanging by a thin
hair by which they will feign intelligence and objectivity in order to avoid
the call for real change.

9.	

	ericgalatas June 12th, 2008 5:32 pm 

	Don't get rid of your TV. Just make sure it's connected to Free
Speech TV, which broadcast gavel to gavel coverage of the conference. Free
Speech TV is independent, non-commercial, broadcasting daily news like
Democracy Now and Grit TV with Laura Flanders. You don't have to decide
between reform or creating media, you can do both (Watch FSTV on DISH
Network ch 9415, www.freespeech.org, and on over 170 cable access stations).

10.	

	joseph paquette June 12th, 2008 6:35 pm 

	When will the Maine press, mainly the Blethen
newspapers, The Waterville Sentinel, the
Kennebec Journal, the Portland Telegram,
do an investigative newspaper story on the
Political front? For example, how much are the
lawfirms getting paid by Plum Creek for their
Political Connections?? After all, the northern
Maine Woods are about to be destroyed..

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