What really went down at the National Conference on Media Reform
Since I know some readers here are also fans of Fox News and Bill O’Reilly, and since I’ve been talking up the NCMR like crazy, I thought I should note that O’Reilly’s characterization of the event and the people attending was pretty inaccurate. Others agree.
Minnesota reporter Paul Schmelzer notes that O’Reilly’s report failed to mention
. . . views from the kind of people I met, from mainstream reporters to church-based peace advocates to activists working to get accurate representations of rural life into corporate media.
Attendee Larry Hollon reports
. . . I heard humane values and a concern for social justice and human dignity that was solid and deeply moving, and I believe this is where progressive faith and media reform intersect.
A young, fourteen-year-old female spoke of her concern about a misogynist print ad for a Latino radio station that she believed promoted both violence and sexual abuse of women. When she showed the bus card for the ad, it was clear she had a genuine complaint.
Her recounting of the efforts of a group of young women to get the ad pulled was harrowing. The full force of a corporate media headquarters was brought against these teenagers in an effort to discourage them and scare them away. Yet they persisted and eventually the ad was withdrawn.
As she spoke, I don’t think she was aware of the tears in the eyes of many who’ve been in such struggles and know the costs firsthand.
And from Josh Silver, Free Press executive director:
The conference . . . was about the failure of corporate media to inform and reflect our communities and our democracy. It is about consolidated TV, radio and newspapers turning the news into sound bites, trivializing critical issues like elections and war, and failing to hold power accountable.
It is a free speech movement at its core, calling for a stronger democracy. We want more channels and more opportunities for voices and views of all kinds.
This is the conference that I saw. I heard some terrific stories and concerns — and questions.
If we own the airwaves, and broadcasters are required to serve the public interest, why are parents always being told to just turn off the television if we don’t like it? How do we trust journalists to tell us the truth about, say, a multi-billion dollar toy company’s problems with lead paint if that company is also a huge source of the owner’s revenue through advertising? If we get ninety percent of our news from only six companies, how will we get a diversity of opinions?
My complaint about the conference was that there was not one session dedicated to how these problems are affecting children and how we raise them. Not one. Several speakers mentioned, in passing, the problems with advertising to kids — Robert McChesney called it obscene — yet no panel formally addressed it.
The conference organizers were taping attendees and asking them to describe why they were there in five words. My five would have been I’m Raising Citizens Not Consumers.
Is it accurate for O’Reilly to call me “unstable” and a threat to America?
(And was O’Reilly referring to me when he says that “these people” don’t want “dissent in America?” I guess he hasn’t been reading Corporate Babysitter.)
The back and forth of the left and right is tiresome. There really are some values that we all hold as important. I believe that media reform is one of them.
Photo courtesy edkohler
June 11th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Someday I look forward to meeting a Republican who wants media reform. I didn’t know there were any.
June 11th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Mark, the Christian Coalition backs net neutrality, and I’m *guessing* there’s a Republican or two among ‘em.
June 11th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Not to be argumentative, but net neutrality is a phrophylactic measure needed only because big media is trying to further consolidate their stranglehold.
Kinda like saying you’re against drawing and quartering prisoners, but capital punishment is still OK.
My question for Republicans for media reform would be, what part of the current system do you have problems with?
June 11th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Perhaps you are right. And perhaps a reader may answer your question.
June 14th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Fox shouldn’t be allowed the have the word “News” in their name. What is there to say after watching Bill O’Reilly’s editorial “reporting” except for “I need a shower.”
June 20th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Thanks for the link. Your concern about advertising aimed at children is well-placed. The integrated marketing that is possible when a company owns a cable television channel, website destinations, entertainment content such as films and television programs and, then in addition, also owns toy products outright, or the right to license them, is unparalleled marketing. Yet, it’s happening. We can expect advertising in video games matching product placement (already happening) in television programs and movies. It’s quite remarkable that we permit this, having no idea what it does to the perceptions of children who grow up in a world saturated with commercial messages targeted at them.