Inside Media Reform Conference, Day Three

This blog was also posted on Daily Kos.

The report I wrote up for Friday can be found HERE.

The first report I wrote up for the first part of Saturday can be found HERE.

And you can watch parts of the Media Reform Conference online HERE. I have heard that they were on C-Span already, and C-Span will surely show more.

CONTINUATION OF SATURDAY’S MEDIA REFORM CONFERENCE (I had internet access problems, and was unable to update inside the conference….. had to wait until I got home.)

The YES Men: Media Hacktivists Extraordinaire

The basic premise of this movie is that criminals steal non-criminal’s identity to commit crimes – well the YES MEN steal criminal’s identities to commit JUSTICE. They call it ‘Identity Correction’. I am not going to go in to detail on this very funny, very astute movie. I don’t want to wreck it for you! I highly recommend this movie. Their website is HERE.

Bubbling Up: My Space, YouTube, Social Networking & Political Change

First speaker here was James Rucker at Color of Change. Rucker said that corporate media will decrease in importance, mainly due to low costs on the internet and the ability to reach a large audience. Blogs have come to maturity and have come to prominence. Rucker also ran Video The Vote. He started this to capture any suppression of voting. This route allowed Americans to report from every polling machine in the country, while corporate media could not do this. Rucker said what YouTube is lacking is background and credibility. It is a hodge-podge place of video clips without someone to write them up and explain them to the public. This issue was addressed by Video The Vote, since they did write up content and context. He did not think corporate media will be able to compete with citizen journalists. He was asked about censoring on YouTube now that Google owns it. Rucker did not think they could go very far on that because commercial interests will stop them.

Dina Kaplan is the webmaster of Blip TV. She spoke about video blogging, and she made several points. 1) You are the reporter, for local events or world events. 2) You are the lobbyist. 3) You can create a community around blog videos, link common blogs together, and use them to lobby and promote issues. 4) Video blog for candidates and campaigns – can speak directly to voters – without buying expensive ads. Those who will do the best in this medium are the ones who are “real” and down to earth. 5) Political future is in your hands. 6) You (WE) are the media. Kaplan told the story of Alive in Baghdad and how this ordinary American went to Baghdad to make videos about what was happening there. This guy also trained Iraqis to use video cameras and make videos. He has won awards for his work. His latest video from Baghdad is called “Everyone’s A Target”. On Blip TV, if you upload video to the site, you retain 100% of content rights. There are no limits to how much programming you can post. People vote on what is most popular by mouse clicks.
Joan McCarter was the next speaker on this panel, and she is better known in Daily Kos land as “McJoan”. She says she is a professional blogger, and that she felt like a bit of a dinosaur since she only uses “words” for her blogging. She has seen a phenomenal change in the last few years. She spoke about how bloggers changed the debate (about Iraq) and the outcome of the elections. Blogs also got people involved in grassroots efforts – some became paid staff on campaigns or even became candidates themselves. She spoke about the Saturday morning garden blog on Daily Kos. She spoke about how a working group formed called ‘Energize America’ to work on energy policy – and that policy was presented to Bill Richardson who is trying to get this policy out there and acted upon. There is a group doing flu tracking, called flu-wiki. The CDC comes and checks with them for latest outbreak of the flu. The bloggers raised important questions on Gonzalez’s nomination. There are rescue rangers (thank you, rescue rangers for rescuing my first diary on the Media Conference) and comment rescuers also.

McJoan felt that the social networks lead to the activist networks, and that many of us are hungry for social networking from shared core beliefs. McJoan felt the Civil Rights movement showed this aspect in action. The people who worked together on those issues became very close and supportive of each other. The blogging brings many more people into action, including people who can not even leave the home; they still can make positive contributions. Some of the challenges she saw were the digital divide, the telecommunications industries and net neutrality, the complexity of the internet, and the need for more usability and flexibility.

This went into a questions session, and the man who runs Tom Paine website asked about how to open up the site to comments without allowing people to act badly. McJoan said that SCOOP is used to moderate trouble makers on Daily Kos, and there is other software available also (like ability to see how long email was established). Moderation in Daily Kos is community based. Another question was on how do we get more people to participate. Blip.TV (Kaplan) said that they do instructions that walk people through the technology. McJoan said that many will be passive users. Another audience question was how to get on line activists to be real life activists. He said FACEBOOK was mainly used by college students, and when he could get 2000 to sign an on-line petition but only 30 to show up for a protest. Kaplan suggested having one person who was coming to the event to make a video blog on why they are going, and then get some more people to video blog why they are going, and then have more people do that, and it will grow. They warned not to start the process until the details of the event are well established. Someone commented that MY SPACE is facing censorship now that they are under Murdoch.

At the end of this session, I had the pleasure of going up to McJoan and let her know that I would be blogging on her later today! Well done session there, McJoan! (I didn’t get it up last night – internet connection problems. That WiFi at the conference was pretty dicey for me.)

The Press at War & the War on the Press

In the introduction to this panel, the moderator quoted Amy Goodman’s saying that “lies lose lives”.

Sonali Kolhatkar was the first speaker on the panel. She works with Afghan Women’s Mission and is a drive time radio journalist at KPFK. She said much of the portrayal of Afghan women was horrible. They were portrayed as helpless beings that were waiting for us to liberate them with our bombs and our bullets. Some of the “after” photos of burka-free women were faked. They women were paid to be photographed without burkas and then they put their burkas right back on. Kolhatkar said that the media was not monitoring when things went bad in Afghanistan and that they now have suicide bombings in a country that never had them before. She urged coverage of war when others are not paying attention.

Paul Rieckhoff, a veteran of the Iraq war, was on this panel. He wrote the book “Chasing Ghosts”. He came home from Iraq and the biggest story was the exposed nipple. He said that there is a big disconnect between the media and the public and war in Iraq. We never see a dead American soldier on TV. Policy wonks, politicians, and talking heads were on TV instead of people who know what was going on in Iraq. He said we never heard the Iraqi perspective at all – that side is really missing. He saw the Bush administration attack the press for stories. Rieckhoff felt embedding did not give Americans the full picture of the war and compromises journalistic integrity.

Helen Thomas has lived with Iraq every day, and feels it is probably the most dangerous place in the world. She feels the press corps lost their way in this war, and the media gave up the one weapon they had which was skepticism. Congress rolled over too, and the result is a disaster. The US government created the disinformation mill. She noted that some papers issued an apology and some still take pro-war positions. The US press came out of their coma with Katrina. After 9/11 the press had gone silent. Thomas says the newspapers were more relevant than ever even though they are being cut. She said the US government is chipping away at civil liberties, and she asked where were the voices against the “signing statements”. Thomas asks “where is the liberal press?” – we have been intimidated for too long. She said we will not have a democracy until press goes into action. There is no free country without a free press.

Eric Boehlert was also on this panel. He said that we need to be careful not to paint all the press with a broad brush. He talked about war bloggers and how conservatives want to dismantle the press so that it is one less institution to deal with, one less check on their power. Liberals do not want that. Boehlert claims that the Bush administration could not have sold this war without the press, so the Iraq war is not only the worst foreign policy decision in our nation’s history; it is also the worst press disaster also. He talked about the last press conference before the Iraq war started and how it was all staged and scripted. He also said that journalists sending back photos of the wounded and dead civilians were told not to send such pictures. Boehlert said that the war could not have happened without the Washington Post.

Questions followed the panel discussion. The first question was how has the war on the press impacted on journalists? Kolhatkar answered by stating her concerns about journalists being arrested by the Department of Defense. She feels that independent journalists are the most vulnerable and their only protection in the USA was the consumers of independent media. Sarah Olson then came to the stage and spoke about how she is being subpoenaed for Lt. Watada’s trial. She interviewed him early on, and now she is supposed to testify against her own sources. She stated that the public’s right to know outstripped the Pentagon’s right to know. She feels she has to pick between personal freedom and professional integrity. She would like to have all of us contact the US Army and let them know that we care about what happens to her and that we care if they eviscerate the First Amendment.

Boehlert made the comment that the war on the press started well before the Iraq war started. The Bush administration does not want them around. Thomas commented that the truth cannot be buried, and the support for the president has almost vanished. Rieckhoff asked that we push back on the media and NOT let them blame the press or the Iraqis for this disaster. He said the blame goes to those issuing orders from the top.

The mother of Josh Wolf spoke briefly to the group. Her son has spent 144 days in jail because he believes in a free press. He needs our support and publicity.

Another question was: “Where is the press before the Iran war?” Someone pointed out that the war was not a mistake, it was a crime. Another questioner asked “why are we still using the ‘war on terror’ phrase?” Kolhatkar said that we should call it a war of terror. Thomas said that this was one of the shifting rationales and it was just accepted. Rieckhoff said the phrase is just bullshit.

Media, War and Impeachment

Any Goodman, John Nichols, Jeff Cohen, Norman Solomon, Larry Everest, Peter Hart, David Swanson, Sam Husseini, and Mark Manning were present for this panel. John Nichols wants to impeach Bush. He said that if we had a media that covered politics instead of spin, we would know that 51% of the country said Bush should be impeached due to his lies about the war. He says we need to force the political class to put impeachment back on the agenda. Vermont will vote on impeachment in March. San Francisco voted 58% in favor of impeachment in November. Nichols said to cover the news and hold protests outside major media outlets.

David Swanson said the problem with the media is that they do not cover impeachment. He says evidence for impeachment is clear and overwhelming. Dem staffers say that they are not pushing for impeachment because they are afraid of the press. Swanson says failure to impeach is politically dangerous.

Larry Everest is concerned about the gap between dislike of this administration and protests against the war and for impeachment. He said that war will not stop until Bush/Cheney is out of office. He feels that Bush will push war into Syria and Iran and he feels that people don’t recognize the danger of the threat. Far too many people are waiting for the Democratic Party to take action, but they are not going to do this unless they are forced to do so. After Bush’s speech to escalate, the Dems did not speak out or offer alternative plans. We have to take it on ourselves to stop this administration and stop this escalation. Iraq war was not a blunder, it was a crime.

Mark Manning is with Conception Media. He made the movie “Caught in the Crossfire” about the November 2004 assault on the city. He feels embedded journalism has a place but should never be the only view. It also makes things more dangerous for un-embedded journalists. He went in under cover in Fallujah. What was never covered was the suffering of the Iraqi civilians. There were 250,000 refugees with no shelter, no food, no clothes, no water. Many are still living that way today. There are seven to ten mass graves in Fallujah from 2004 assault. Babies are dying routinely in Fallujah today.

Manning said that Iraqis now view journalists as the enemy, possibly as spies, because of embedded journalists. No matter where US journalists goes in the world, they will often be seen as part of the US military.

Amy Goodman talked about how the embedding process brought them to an all time low. She said that we need war reporting on the peace movement, Iraqi hospitals, Iraqi citizens, and that reporters should be embedded with those groups. She said the problem with Rumsfeld is TORTURE. What we have come to represent to the world on the war on terror is that WE ARE THE TERRORISTS. Goodman said we need a media that has a table that stretches to every community in this nation.

Robin Anderson wrote “A Century of Media, A Century of War”. He spoke on information management – and that we cannot have what we saw after the TET offensive. Video games are based on actual images from the war, which serves to make us numb in the face of war. The digital technology in war has permeated our culture. He called on us to divest media from weapons of war. Video games are most profitable aspect of media today, and this is desensitizing our society to the violence.

Sam Husseini is an independent journalist who interviews people on the streets of DC. He has a website called Washington Stake Out.

Norman Solomon talked about Sarah Olson (journalist) and how she is being subpoenaed by US military. Bush and Cheney will one day be history but military adventurism will still be here with us, and we need to widen the debate around that. To engage in war of aggression is to be guilty of the worst crimes on the planet. Bush and Cheney will not do something because it is morally correct~ but only because they are forced to do so.

Jeff Cohen was the senior producer of the Donahue show when it was cancelled, and he feels that if Olberman was cancelled there would be mass demonstrations. Cohen said that the WaPo ran 30 pro-war editorials before the war started. He suggests marching on WaPo on 1/27/07. Cohen said recently that Michael Gerson is an op-ed columnist now at WaPo, and he was a former Bush speech writer (he came up with the “axis of evil” idiocy). Cohen says that the Iraq war is the most important issue of our time. Cohen is on the board of directors for Progressive Democrats of America. (I added that – he did not mention it in the speech.)

Day Three - SUNDAY

Closing Session

The person who spoke first (sorry, forgot the name) said that MLK and civil rights fight was also a fight for media rights. He said that all media will be delivered by broadband in the future (soon), except for print. He introduced Jane Fonda.

Jane Fonda recently founded an all-women’s media center and radio station. She is advancing the causes of people, justice and equality. Fonda asked who knew Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi, and I raised my hand. Fonda told the story of how US soldiers raped and killed Abeer and killed her family and then set them on fire. Her story is a tragedy, said Fonda, but even more of a tragedy when it is buried and not covered by the media. (I would disagree that the story was not covered by the media. Relative to every thing else going on in Iraq, it was covered fairly well and will be covered even more then the US soldiers have their trial. A picture of Abeer's brothers and their home can be seen HERE. Fonda made a small mistake in saying the attack happened at night. It happened at 10 in the morning, and Abeer's brothers survived because they were at school. Abeer was kept home because her parents worried for her safety since she was getting unwanted attention from US soldiers.) Fonda says that we need to create a media that is powerful – so powerful that it will speak for the powerless. So powerful it will stop a war instead of start one. (That last one has never happened.) She shared her goal of a democratic media and she said that the existence of independent media needs to be strengthened and media consolidation overturned. Fonda says that media that leaves women out is fundamentally flawed, and the absence in the media is glaring. Our media allows gender inequality to continue. Fonda created Women’s Media Center after the 2004 election to try to enact change. They have their own radio station also. The Women’s Media Center offer own content, links to news sources, and has a focus on collaboration. This center is the only one reporting on the “moral waiver” used by the US military during enlistment. No one else in the media is reporting on this. Fonda said the opposite of patriarchy is not matriarchy it is democracy.

Myhia Ciries came on state next to introduce the last speaker. She said that the movement must have leadership from the ground up, with adequate funding.

Van Jones was the last speaker and he founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. He has made this into a major center for activism and media. He has the website Color of Change and he writes for AlterNet and others. Jones said the future of Memphis hangs in the balance. They are planning to build the world’s largest for-profit prison in Memphis, and these companies are exchanged on the stock market.

Jones felt that this will be the tipping point year for democracy and media. He then went on to mention several advances, like Al Gore and the debate on the environment. He said that progressive blogs are now as powerful as right wing radio. He spoke about Video the Vote and how that impacted on voting in 2006. They had one million people sign up and 100 were called to go and video the vote. This is the beginning of a new technology that will bring citizen activists together. Jones said that Bush’s presidency drowned in the flood waters of Katrina. Katrina was when we saw people left behind. We saw sisters and brothers sinking after years of hearing ‘sink or swim’. This touched our hearts and rehumanized the mainstream media by engagement with the poor and forgotten.

Jones asked ‘what if this movement succeeds?’ It will do no good to win on net neutrality if we lose on democracy. He said that Martin Luther King Jr. did not get famous for his “I have a complaint” speech. I really enjoyed that comment.

Bonus: Link to Moyer’s speech on Friday night. Recommended.

From an email about the Media Reform Conference:

It's never been easier to be a part of the action. Visit the conference action site to post your comments to the FCC about media ownership, call your Senators and Representatives about Net Neutrality, help create an accessible online media resource for non-profits and much more.

Onward,
Josh Silver
Executive Director
Free Press

Free Press has created on line activists tools including Stop Big Media on Postcards and a petition you can sign for net neutrality.