'Our Media, Not Theirs'

By: Louis Trigg

Posted: 10/6/08

John Nichols, co-founder of Free Press, held a talk about the issues surrounding media policy at the event "Our Media, Not Theirs" at the downtown branch of the Kansas City Public Library.

Concerned about the direction of an advertisement-driven business, he described the current state of the media as nothing more than an entertainment vehicle driven by clowns and crooks.

Publicly funded radio and television, procedural structure in license renewal, and citizen action each resonated as solutions to bias and propaganda in the media.

Overlapping, Nichols indicated a belief in the media currently as a gatekeeper of information, instead of an intended medium.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein joined Nichols on Friday night via video broadcast to share exasperation about cozy relationships between big money interest groups and media executives.

"We've forgotten that the public airwaves belong to the American people to benefit everyone," Adelstein said.

According to Copps, minorities represent 3 percent of mainstream media owners and women count for 16 percent, while comprising over 30 percent and 50 percent of the countries' population respectively.

Friday night kicked off weeklong activity of media reform events in Kansas City, presented by a movement called Media 4 Us. The events this week are aimed at encouraging public reflection and action for democracy against media monopolies.

Topics on the agenda include minority ownership, localism, media democracy and civic dialogue.

U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill also appeared via video recording to remind attendees about the lack of a single FCC media reform hearing during the last two years in Kansas City. She illuminated a Kansas City market that plays local artists on radio stations during peak hours, and represents the eclectic interests of people in Kansas City.

With a crowd comprised mostly of collegial activists, each speaker talked about the decline of autonomy and quality in mainstream media. In response to questions about media quality Nichols replied, "We keep dumbing down the media of this country."

The audience remained actively engaged for much of the evening, but became increasingly electrified by clear examples of media involvement in bad fact reporting.

Participation surged when Nichols related media instigation to the formation of putative panic in favor of the War in Iraq and recently, the bailout of Wall Street above Main Street.

"George Bush is not responsible for the War in Iraq. The media is responsible."

Nichols rushed to Kansas City, after covering the debate the night before for "The Nation Magazine." He ended his speech by serving rhetorical questions about the amount of participants allowed to take part in Thursday's debate compared to the amount of vice-presidential candidates in the race.

Tilted in support of media diversity and democracy, Friday night's theme deviated from mainstream acceptance of big media giants controlling radio and television airwaves.

"This is not the America we signed up for."

ldt6v8@umkc.edu