May 14, 2005
More blogs covering the NCMR
In addition to the blogs listed on the right-hand column that are covering the NCMR, there are several others, in which conference attendees write about their experiences here.
- Changing Words has reports up about Day One and Day Two of the conference.
He wrote about Day Two, "The areas of interest here are across the board. Cable access, low-power FM radio stations, peer-to-peer file sharing, media ownership, FCC regulations, newspaper ownership and on and on."
Note to Changing Words: The first conference was in Madison, Wisconsin, November 2003.
- The Democracy Cell Project blog reported from the conference, reporting on presentations by Naomi Klein, Bob McChesney, Amy Goodman, and other conference happenings.
The writer concluded, "The one message I take away from today's sessions is that there is so much more happening in the world -- and specifically Iraq -- that we're not being told. This is nothing new to many people here at the DCP, but it was amazing and enlightening to hear in a public venue from notable people/jounalists/reporters who have been there and have seen what's happening, only to return to the US and find out how they're being silenced by corporate media."
- Jim Gilliam co-producer of Outfoxed, wrote about "filming the News Hounds for a follow-up to the Outfoxed behind the scenes."
- Majority Report at Air America briefly mentioned the McChesney and Nichols presentations.
More blogging about the NCMR can be found in this Technorati search.
Posted by kfk at 12:43 PM | Comments (0)
May 13, 2005
Newshare coverage
Bill Densmore at Newshare is covering the conference too.
Posted by andrew at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)
May 10, 2005
Coverage from bloggers and more
Several more pieces about the NCMR today, including a short piece in Editor and Publisher and several bloggers blogging about their plans to attend NCMR and its preludes. I've already briefly met one of them, Timothy Karr of Media Citizen, and I'm guessing there'll be many more such meetings over the next few days.
Posted by andrew at 09:19 PM | Comments (0)
a fireside chat with Seymour Hersh
After the opening Bush jokes and a few asides- "when we get in trouble we always arrest more people," referring to new prisons being constructed in Iraq- Hersh spent the bulk of his speech recounting the grisly facts about the disaster going on in Iraq. He lamented the lack of quality journalists within the ranks, with reference to the lack of quality opposition in power circles.
He mentioned offhandedly a new generation of jihadists that have much better english, are much more familiar with the system, and are much more strategic. This is partly a result of the terrible job done by the administration in Iraq. "The good officers keep their kids from going after civilians." But the PR battle is in pretty sad shape, to say nothing of actual violent combat. Hersh consistently emphasized that it is the inaction of Bush that has caused the most damage to his "hearts and minds" campaign. "He didn’t do anything" about the abuses at Abu Ghraib that became quite apparent before the story broke in the press (by Hersh).
As far as a media critic, Hersh can be pretty cynical: "Alternative media’s great, but it’s alternative." A harumph from around me signaled a nerve was struck. Yet he’s realistic in his concerns: "I’m tired of worrying about the networks, they just are what they are."
The Q&A produced some gems: Cheney and Rumsfeld tried to convince the FBI to break into his apartment in 1975. There was, of course, the standard challenge from a standard smugly self evident neocon (that elicited a stir from indignant liberal members of the crowd) which allowed Hersh to bring up the "nuclear option" as an example of democracy in action. And a final zinger- What’s your answer to hopelessness? Based on his non-answer, I’d say that he doesn’t have much of a career as a politician ahead of him.
Posted by drew at 07:47 PM | Comments (0)
May 09, 2005
Schechter on the NCMR he'd like to see
As the start of the National Conference on Media Reform gets ever closer, Danny Schechter writes today about the NCMR he'd like. In essence, he'd like a broad sweep of groups so that the conference is not just "preaching to the choir." You'll have to read the article to see the full list but there are two main thrusts to this - first to create coalitions across ideological boundaries, with media critics from the right being brought into the discussion, and second to involve interest groups from teachers and PTAs through journalists and media professionals.
Posted by andrew at 02:03 PM | Comments (0)