It was a great opportunity to ‘talk back’ to those who are the stewards of our broadcasting airwaves. They were considering whether to relax the current restrictions on media consolidation and cross-ownership (the law that says you can’t own both a newspaper and a TV station in the same town). About 1,000 of us showed up--all ages & colors, with only 5 days notice.
I spoke about how the sale of the Minneapolis newspaper to an out-of-town venture capital firm was not serving the public interest in the Twin Cities, or so it seemed to me. I honored the youth who brought their voices to the hearing, and who said things I wanted to say better than I could have.
And I urged the commissioners to look at the big picture, to help us maximize our communications capacity as citizens, to think about what will serve us as we reinvent democracy for this century. I suggested they keep a copy of the Constitution nearby as they do that, to help us:
- To learn what we need to know about the common good and social capital – and how each of us fits into that equation – to form a more perfect union. To listen to each other. To establish Justice.
- To be able to communicate with each other, with our media, with our government in a way that allows us to insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare.
- To have accurate information about how well our institutions and government are doing to secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.
My two minutes were up quickly. And of course in retrospect, I could have done better. I wish I had brought the painting that my friend Josh, who’s one of the 2 million Americans in prison, sent me a couple weeks before. “Liberty Awakening,” it’s called, and it says more than I can say in words. It was painted by a fellow inmate.
Whew. (What does it say to you?)
Then I would have shared a bit of what we’re learning in our Journalism That Matters gatherings around the country:
- that media literacy is critical to our future
- that basic skills of journalism (verification, multiple sources, etc.) be part of our education from a very young age
- that media learn better how to mediate our conversations as citizens, by convening and encouraging conversations of all types
- that the 5 W’s of journalism need to be expanded beyond who, what, where, when and why to include a sixth: What’s possible now?
What’s possible now? A better, more diverse communication system that serves us and our communities as we reinvent democracy.
1 comment:
Wow! That picture says to me that the fires of liberty only burn brighter, with ferocity, in the face of oppression.
Recently our local paper had an editorial I thought interesting as a micro/macro view: the editor of the Las Vegas Optic was taking to task the editor of the Las Vegas Times for publishing as "news" an article describing the Mayor's annoyance with the Optic for its coverage of the city's mismanagement of the gas utility. The problem was that the Times simply gave voice to the Mayor's complaints, abdicating its responsibilities to the fourth estate.
It should be no surprise that the "editor/publisher" of the Times is a twenty something entrepreneur, certainly with no experience in journalism. He gets the advertising though, and his readership is far broader than the Optic. The Times is free, and publishes a steady stream of Catholic nonsense and good-old-boy truisms.
The Optic costs 50 cents, functions as a gadfly to the city council, and covers news from the whole region around Las Vegas, New Mexico. The editor is educated as a journalist, and it shows. But, its readership is in the minority in this economically and educationally poor corner of the world.
Journalism's ability to live up to its ideals takes all of our care, it is not only the journalists responsibility to make journalism work. Its all of a piece, and the fight for liberty is everywhere.
Nice blog Stephen. I like the format and colors. Your poem, "why blog," should be the bloggers anthem.
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