Month: January 2007

NCMR2007 – First Report

Posted by on January 12, 2007 at 11:39 am. NO Comments :

The National Conference For Media Reform opened this morning with speeches by FreePress’ John Nichols, and Yolanda Hippensteele, as well as the Mayor of Memphis, Dr. Willie Herenton. But the runaway rock star of the day (and of conferences past) was Bill Moyers.

Moyers delivered an inspiring and infuriating discourse on the similarities between today’s government and corporate dominated media, and the domination of African Americans imported to this country as property. He called it the “Plantation Mentality.” The crux of this view could be boiled down to this brief and powerful line from his presentation:

“This is the moment Freedom begins. The moment you realize that someone else has been writing your story and it’s time to start writing it yourself.”

That is why I began News Corpse two years ago, and that is why I relentlessly advocate that everyone recognize that each voice in the world adds to the tide that will eventually erode the barriers to Liberty, Equality, and Free Expression.

Each voice = your voice. No matter how insignificant or futile you feel, the cumulative force that we can produce cannot be ignored or defeated. Your voice is rare and precious. Don’t let it go to waste.

FreePress generally posts video, audio, and transcripts of their featured speakers after the event. Be sure to catch the whole experience of the Moyers speech. But you don’t need to wait wait to start writing your own story or, at least, putting together a first draft.

National Conference On Media Reform

Posted by on January 10, 2007 at 1:13 pm. NO Comments :

I will be attending the National Conference On Media Reform this week. And hope that many of my readers will be there as well. From the Conference website:

The National Conference for Media Reform is for anyone who is concerned about the state of our media and committed to working for change. This energizing weekend presents ideas and strategies for winning the fight for better media and connects you with thousands of media reformers from across the nation.

Hopefully we will have an opportunity to meet one another. I will be blogging the conference and should have some useful and entertaining treats for y’all when I return.

MSNBC Stands Alone In 2006

Posted by on January 4, 2007 at 3:43 pm. NO Comments :

MSNBC has beaten the competition in terms of audience growth consistently for the last twelve months. So it should come as no surprise that MSNBC’s tally for 2006 shows not only the highest gain over 2005, but the only gain amongst cable news networks.

As usual, it was Keith Olbermann’s Countdown that fueled the increase. Countdown was up 60% in total viewers and 67% in the 25-54 demo. Keith’s nemesis, Bill O’Reilly, can still boast about being the number one program on cable news, but those footsteps he hears are not the pitter-patter of the Culture Warrior Youth.

Primetime CNN FOX HLN MSNBC
Persons 2+ -12% -20% -4% +6%
Persons 25-54 -17% -25 -3 +8%

Total Day CNN FOX HLN MSNBC
Persons 2+ -7% -14% -7% +8%
Persons 25-54 -5% -18% -7% +12%

If you kiddies are looking for something constructive to do, here’s a project for you:

Fox News is currently renegotiating its contracts with cable carriers. They have been lumbering under one of the worst deals in the business because they were desperate for carriage when they started out. Now they believe that they are entitled to substantial upgrades. On the surface, they have a pretty good case since they are the top cable news network. But as this marketing burst is coming at a time when they are also the fastest declining network, cable operators should not be bullied into accepting sky high licensing fees. If Fox was stupid enough to lock themselves into low fees in their formative years, cablers should learn from that and not lock themselves into high fees while Fox is sinking.

This would be a good time to write your local cable company and stress that you are not willing to pay more to have continued access to Fox News. Any deal that they make with Fox must not result in an increase of your monthly fees. If that happens, you will quickly cancel and get a dish.

The end result of this is not to keep Fox off of the air. The cable companies are surely going to re-up with the current Nielsen leader. But you can have an impact on their profitability by giving your cable operator the ammunition to bargain Fox down. So sharpen those pencils and let your carrier know that you will not tolerate rate increases to fatten the wallets of a network you don’t even watch.

FBI Ends Harrassment Of Jack Anderson’s Ghost

Posted by on January 4, 2007 at 12:14 pm. NO Comments :

Last April it was reported that the FBI intended to seek documents from the estate of investigative reporter, Jack Anderson. I wrote at the time that this presented some ominous threats to freedom of the press and the well being of reporters:

“News sources, whistleblowers, and others with information, the disclosure of which is in the public’s interest, would be far less likely to come forward if they know that their identity could be revealed in the event of the reporter’s death […] The government cannot presently force the reporter to reveal his sources without the intervention of the courts. But if the reporter were to die, under the principle being advanced here by the FBI, the government could retrieve the data they want from the reporter’s estate. Consequently, it would be in the government’s interest for the reporter to die.”

It seems that the FBI has decided to back off. James H. Clinger, an Acting Associate Attorney General, responding to questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, now says that…

“The FBI met with the Anderson family in an effort to review the files with their consent. At this time, the FBI is not seeking to reclaim any documents.”

There was no further comment from the FBI or any explanation for the change. For the time being we should just be glad that the inquisition is over. But there is still a need to be vigilant given the history of abuse of the press by this administration.

Bush Sucks Up To Congress – Or Just Sucks

Posted by on January 3, 2007 at 3:53 pm. NO Comments :

The Wall Street Journal published a very special guest editorial today by one of its favorite public figures, the President of the United States. In the editorial, Bush takes a stab at bipartisanship, but the knife must have accidentally slipped, because it ends up going for the throat.

He starts off dispassionately stating a fact that must still cause acute gnashing of the teeth:

“Tomorrow, members of the 110th Congress will take their oaths of office here in Washington. I will have the privilege of working with them for the next two years…”
That “privilege” has been available for the last six years. You just chose to ignore, and even disparage it.

“I believe government closest to the people is more responsive and accountable.”
You have certainly proven that by presiding over a distant White House that has been the least responsive and wholly unaccountable.

Much of the interior of this editorial is devoted to a rehashing of the President’s long-time agenda of fighting terrorism, cutting taxes, privatizing Social Security, and the rest of the Republican nonsense that he has been harping on since being put in office by the Supreme Court. There is not a whit of compromise or concession that might reflect an honest desire to work with Democrats. In fact, he takes the opposite view and issues this warning:

“The majority party in Congress gets to pass the bills it wants. The minority party, especially where the margins are close, has a strong say in the form bills take. …If the Congress chooses to pass bills that are simply political statements, they will have chosen stalemate.”

What he doesn’t say is that any bill that is contrary to his designs on power will be considered a “political statement.” And no one should find it curious that he is now championing minority rights in Congress when for the six years that the Democrats were in the minority, there was ne’er a word of support for the concept.

I hope that the Democrats are smart enough to recognize this for what it is: a thinly veiled attempt at deception coming right out of the Trojan horse’s mouth. The President has no intention of bipartisanship and the priorities enumerated in the article prove that. The American people voted overwhelming for change, and the Democratic beneficiaries of that must realize their duty to set their own agenda and fight for the changes that the people demand.

As for the press, they still haven’t learned. Despite the decidedly combatative tone and content, here’s a sampling of how the media is presenting this news:

  • Associated Press: President Reaches Out in Rare Editorial.
  • Reuters: Bush seeks positive tone for new U.S. Congress.
  • Fox: Bush Urges Cooperation Between Democrats, New Priorities.
  • ABC: Bush Seeks Cooperation From New Congress.

You have to leave the country before you start to get near the truth.

  • Agence France-Presse: Bush warns Democratic Congress against ‘stalemate’.

Sigh…..

Osama, Obama?

Posted by on January 2, 2007 at 7:05 pm. NO Comments :

I have little to add to this graphic disaster. Raw Story fleshes it out with other examples of similar slip-ups and some that were not even accidental.

There is plenty of room to debate whether these sort of things are deliberate, but just the fact that they make it on to the air is an indictment of the carelessness of modern media. What a bunch of amateurs.