National Conference for Media Reform #2

Memphis, Tenn. 4:07 p.m., 1/13/07
Winning Alternatives: Independent Media Success Stories
The largest early afternoon workshop was hosted by Laura Flanders, host of RadioNation on Air America. Panelists included: Ernesto Aguilar, program director of Pacifica Radio station KPFT-90.1 FM, the only publicly funded radio station in Houston; Duncan Black, who is best known under his blogging name Atrios at Eschaton and is a fellow with Media Matters for America; Robert Greenwald of Brave New Films (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices, etc.), who has pioneered a whole new model of film distribution; and Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now!

The panelists discussed a wide range of media successes as well as their own darkest days, when they felt their projects or careers had bottomed out. The common thread seemed to be that the indy media community had pulled them through – some examples:

The Ku Klux Klan bombed KPFT, twice, knocking the station off the air and then doing it again when they resumed broadcast. Listeners, church groups and community groups helped get funding together to rebuild, according to Aguilar.

Black had reached the end of his resources and was considering quitting his blog in spring of 2004 and he put the question to his readers – should I continue or quit? Readers put money into it to keep him online until advertising built enough to make it into a real job.

Greenwald didn’t have funding to produce his latest film, Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers, and he appealed to the network he had created for distribution of OutFoxed and Wal-Mart – more than 4000 people donated funds to get the new film produced.

Goodman recalled when Pacifica Radio imploded a few years back in a battle for control of the oldest community-radio network in the country. Her show was dumped, she thought it might be over, and community-media activists in New York came together to not only continue the radio show but put it on public-access TV. Now it is heard on more than 500 radio stations, two satellite TV networks and from more than 100 stations outside the U.S., with recently added Spanish-language headline service and a pending Spanish-language translation version.

4:30 p.m
Watchdogging the Media

The first presenter: David Brock a long time employee of CNN and founder of Media Matters for America, which acts as a fact-checking clearinghouse for national radio, TV and print news outlets.

“Last year the New York Times ran eight corrections based on research by Media Matters.” Brock said that factual errors are discovered on the Rush Limbaugh show on a daily basis.

“We fact-checked Scholastic’s teaching materials on Iraq and found numerous mistakes including the assertion that Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11. Scholastic withdrew its materials and made the corrections.”

4:40 p.m.
Janine Jackson, program director of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting and host/producer of CounterSpin, discussed the necessity for critical oversight of all media sources. “If you aren’t constantly stressing the importance of critical thinking, you run the risk of simply saying this source is bad and that source is good.” We need to teach people to read critically, she suggested. “It’s always my goal not to just say what’s wrong with a story but to point at the questions that are raised and better ways those questions can be answered.”

5:01 p.m.
Norman Solomon, of the Institute for Public Accuracy, said it seems that much of the media criticism that has been done is looking in the rearview mirror at past offenses, but that the inaccuracies continue.

“I think the Washington press corps has learned something from their failures leading up to the war in Iraq. They will never make the same mistakes about reporting lies from the administration about Iraq. However, if you change one little letter and the story is about Iran …”; Solomon left the sentence hanging amidst audience laughter.

“Five years into what we might call a media-warfare state, we need to ask questions, we need to go deeper. With the widespread disillusion about the war that is now present in the country, I think we can move beyond being seen as carping and contribute substantively to the debate.”

– Cecil Bothwell, staff writer