Common Cause Blog

The Power of the Alternative Media

I have to give a lot of credit to the American public. As the mainstream media headed down in quality, we the people decided to take action and instead of just whining or resigning ourselves, we decided to create our own media.

There is no better example of that than here in Denver right now. The hundreds of bloggers at the Big Tent, the public access show producers crawling all over town with cameras, and the alternative media are all doing what the mainstream media isn't.

While the big cable news networks are focused on parsing the words in speeches to try to determine the impact on the horse race for president, the citizen media is out there reporting on everything from what is going on with the police in Denver during the DNC to how well the "greenness" of the convention is working.

Is Civil Discourse a Civil Right?

Yesterday at the Big Tent events in Denver, we held a workshop titled "Is Civil Discourse a Civil Right?". Right to left in the photo are:

Alex Nogales, President and CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition,
Cathryn Hazouri, Executive Director of the ACLU of Colorado,
Mark Lloyd, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and Affiliate Professor of Public Policy at Georgetown University,
and yours truly acting as the moderator.

We had a lively discussion about how access to the media, including media ownership, public access and net neutrality impact the communities fighting for their civil rights. Alex Nogales pointed out how Latinos in America have their civil rights violated day after day by the impact of hate speech on radio and TV. Cathryn Hazouri pointed out that from the perspective of the ACLU, she opposes censorship of the media to deal with hate speech, but does support the idea of a modernized version of the Fairness Doctrine so that issues are presented in a truly fair and balanced way. Among other issues that Mark Lloyd talked about, he brought up how the Digital TV Transition might impact low income and minority communities more than others, and take away their access to the information they need to participate in our democracy, unless they get the word now about how to be prepared for the transition.

This is just a short snapshot of the event, we went over our allotted hour. It was videotaped, so we hope to get that video out online in the future and possibly distributed on public access. �

In general though, while these discussions might not be happening over at the DNC Convention, they ARE happening here in Denver at the Big Tent.

Media Symposium at the Big Tent

Today is the Common Cause sponsored Media Symposium at the Big Tent in Denver. The goal of the day is to bring issues of media reform to the alternative media that is gathered here at the Big Tent as well as to many of the DNC delegates who are in town.

We have gotten started today with an address by FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein (introduced by Common Cause President Bob Edgar). Commissioner Adelstein made a clear call for stopping and reversing media consolidation, increasing media diversity and protecting net neutrality. He specifically called for the tax certificate for minority media ownership, which we called for in our recent plan for media reform in a new administration. As the day moves forward, come back to view more reports on the day's activities at our media symposium.

Obama and McCain on Media Reform Issues

Where do the two major party candidates stand on the media reform issues we highlight in our new report, "Media and Democracy in America Today: A Reform Plan for a New Administration"?

It's a mixed bag.

McCain has a strong record of supporting Low Power FM Radio, increasing diversity of media ownership, funding public broadcasting and free air time for campaigns. However, he has opposed stopping media consolidation and is against net neutrality.

Obama on the other hand has been a vocal supporter of net neutrality and has actively opposed media consolidation. While generally good on most of the issues we highlight in the new report, he has less of a record to show for it.

And there are gaps in our knowledge. That's why we would like to hear from their campaigns and anyone else who can tell us where they stand on issues like reforming the processes at the Federal Communications Commission and if they support PEG Access TV.

We have a full chart of their stands on the issues we raise in our new report - as far as we know them. Check it out, and let us know if you have any more information.

The Common Cause Media Reform Plan is Here!

Today I am proud to release Common Cause's plan for media reform. The report, titled "Media and Democracy in America Today: A Reform Plan for a New Administration," lays out a plan of action for the next President and Congress to take to ensure the media performs its appropriate role in our democracy.

This was a major undertaking, and I want to thank all who participated from within and without Common Cause to help put it together. Now the key thing is to make the recommendations in this report a reality.

That's going to take several things.

It's going to take other bloggers and journalists to spread the word about what needs to be done.

It's going to take politicians to listen to the people and take action on these recommendations.

And the biggest thing is that it is going to take the public to make some noise about how important these issues are to our democracy!

We're here to help facilitate the making of noise by you the people. Let's have our voices heard.

The text of our press release follows below:

Democratic Party Platform Embraces Media and Democracy

The Democratic Party has released its national platform and includes a healthy plank about media and democracy, according to TV Week. The platform reportedly includes support for a number of issues we at Common Cause have been advocating for. These include:

Net Neutrality,
Clarifying broadcasters' public interest obligations, and
Increasing the diversity of the ownership of the media

It also calls for the creation of what would probably be a cabinet-level position of Chief Technology Officer, which sounds like a very good idea. Right now we are deeply concerned that nobody is in charge of the digital TV transition, but if there was a CTO, that person would ultimately be responsible.

We commend the Democratic Party for embracing these goals. We look forward to seeing what the Republican Party platform says as well as what Senator McCain's media platform is.

Settling in at the Media Conference

It's Friday morning at the National Conference for Media Reform and I have just set up the info table we are sharing with LCCR. Free Press has done a wonderful job getting people to this event, and they expect over 3000 attendees over the weekend.

This has drawn the interest of Bill O'Reilly, who thinks everyone here is a kook, and has dispatched a film crew to try to find a few kooks and then air them on his show to say that everyone who cares about media reform is a kook. Cute.

There are a lot of Common Cause folks here at the conference. Staff, volunteers, state board members, and Bob Edgar.

Last night, Bob gave a rousing speech at the Claim Democracy event at the Hilton, reminding all the 400 or so people in attendance that we are now all part of a movement with different elements. It's no longer good enough to be just a member of an organization, but we all need to be part of a broader movement that organizations are one element of. After he was done, Democracy Now's Amy Goodman gave a fantastic and inspiring speech about the role of the media in our democracy (among other things).

Well, now I have to go network and learn a few things. more to come.