...How To Change Media - Why Making Media The Issue Is Crucial For Saving Democracy

[babylonsister]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/14132

After The ABC News Debacle: How To Change Media - Why Making Media The Issue Is Crucial For Saving Democracy
Media
by Danny Schechter | April 19, 2008



How ironic that in the same week that the National Association of Broadcasters gave actor Tim Robins a platform to challenge media gatekeepers to open the airwaves to more perspectives, ABC NEWS gave us all a classic example of how a network can dumb down a presidential debate and turn it into a disgraceful hit job rather than an enlightening hit.

Rather than advance the political high that so many are having with an exciting campaign, it set a new low in TV coverage and was a blow to our political discourse.

snip//

While obscene amounts of money are being raised to fund political campaigns, the Indy Media sector is actually being defunded as foundations pull back and donors give everywhere but into a dynamic counter media.

We need to get anti-war activists to start campaigning for honest coverage from media companies that are complicit in the war. We need to challenge the media failure to tell us that the economic crisis was coming too. And investigate its causes, the people responsible for the plunder.

We need to get so-called media reform "movements" like Free Press to stop putting their main focus on Washington lobbying and internet petitions or holding rallies they call conferences with little follow-up to mount an activist campaign for media accountability. Let's put some organizers in the streets, not more lawyers and experts in the suites.

The sad truth is that many of the organizations engaged in media advocacy won't work together or cross-promote each other's work and, instead, compete for funding and bragging rights. That's been our experience at MediaChannel which was set up as a network to promote the whole movement. We are hanging on when we should be flourishing as media concentration and media crimes persist --yes, the word crime is not too strong, a crime against democracy is what many media outlets have become.

These are some of the ABC's of media change. Anyone listening? Anyone willing to act?
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[defendandprotect]

1. ...begin by calling it what it is: Corporate-press, corporate-mass-media . . .