National conference for media reform

Michael Balter 6/05/2008 12:23:00 PM
I am posting a note from the organizers of this upcoming meeting in Minneapolis, which includes links for those who want to follow it online via audio and video clips, etc. While I have some reservations about the approach this group is taking, it should be interesting--and there is no question that the media need to be reformed one way or another.

2008 Nat'l Conference for Media Reform

Dear Michael,

National Conference for Media Reform

Not in Minneapolis?

Join Us Online

Dan Rather, Bill Moyers, Arianna Huffington, Amy Goodman and more than 3,000 people from across the country are now on their way to Minneapolis to attend the National Conference for Media Reform.

We're sorry you can't be here. But you can still take part in this amazing event at www.freepress.net/conference.

Here's what you'll find online:

  • Video streams of the main events and keynote speakers, including Moyers, Goodman, Huffington, Rather, Larry Lessig, Naomi Klein, Van Jones, FCC Commissioners, members of Congress and many more;
  • Full audio clips from nearly 70 panels and workshops;
  • Live blogging and updates throughout the conference;
  • Flickr photos.

We're also excited that Free Speech TV will be providing live coverage from throughout the conference. Tune in to Dish Network Channel 9415 or go online to www.freespeech.org to see more than 20 hours of coverage from the Twin Cities.

Better yet, invite your friends over. Host or attend a Media Reform House Party and watch live events with friends, family and other concerned people in your area.

Take a moment and join us via the Web or your TV for an incredible weekend of action and organizing!

Onward,

Yolanda Hippensteele
Outreach Director
Free Press
www.freepress.net/conference

P.S. Want to help promote the conference? Become a Free Press Rapid Responder and spread the word about breaking news from the conference.



Michael Balter

Posted by Michael Balter

I have been a working journalist for more than 40 years, beginning in Los Angeles as an investigative reporter and then in Paris as a travel, food, and science writer. For more than 20 years I have covered anthropology and archaeology writer for Science, Audubon, Scientific American, SAPIENS, and other publications. I have also covered sexual misconduct for The Verge, Scientific American, and others; I write about mental health, especially schizophrenia; and I engage in occasional media criticism. I returned to the USA in October 2017 after 30 years in Paris, and now live in the New York City area, where I currently teach journalism at City College of New York (I previously taught journalism at Boston University and New York University.) For more about me and what I do, copies of my articles, information about my book, and other goodies, please visit MY WEB SITE

Post a Comment

4 Comments

Woody said…
A bunch of left-wing wackos getting together to plan how to promote Obama from now until the election.
June 5, 2008 at 6:34 PM
Michael Balter said…
Although I am reluctant to censor comments for their content, I am not keen to have the comments section of this blog cluttered by gratuitous remarks such as this one by Woody, which is simply based on ignorance of what the group is up to. Therefore I have turned on moderation for this blog and will expect that comments at least be useful to intelligent discussion. Woody, you are welcome on this blog if you follow that basic guideline.
June 6, 2008 at 2:46 AM
Woody said…
As soon as I posted that last comment, I saw this, which adds something.

The hard-left hootenanny known as the "National Conference on Media Reform," -- usually ahem, distinguished by a long Bill Moyers rant about the media being saps for the neoconservative war machine -- has a new star this year: Dan Rather. The former CBS anchor will join Moyers, Arianna Huffington, Katrina Vanden Heuvel and Pacifica's Amy Goodman in calling for courageous, independent (read: radical left) journalism, free of corporate cowardice, from June 6 to 8 in Minneapolis.

Former UPI reporter Helen Thomas is also hitting the left-wing hustings, this very weekend, in fact. She is a keynote speaker at the Women, Action & Media (WAM!) Conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts, sponsored by a group called the Center for New Words and the Women's Studies program at MIT. Leftist sponsors also include the sites Alternet, Feminist.com, the Feministing blog, and the magazines Bitch, Dollars and Sense, and In These Times.

I'm not the only one. Maybe my comment is not "simply based on ignorance of what the group is up to" after all. I'm closer to the truth than your mind will grasp.

The "free speech" that you encourage in the post must simply be speech that is in agreement with your views. Okay, that's all.
June 6, 2008 at 12:21 PM
Michael Balter said…
A little explanation, I rejected an idiotic comment by Woody but will allow this one as it expresses a point of view. My moderation policy is not based on political censorship but minimum standards of intelligence so as not to abuse readers of this blog.
June 6, 2008 at 12:26 PM
Post a Comment