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WNMU Update

On 15 May 2008

The WNMU Board of Regents met and in an unfortunate but unsurprising fit of pique & con- firmation of their inability to respond to citizens, staff or faculty, lashed out at Faculty Senate President Tom Gruska and other faculty members and members of the public.

More soon come!

Media Reform & Social & Change
Deepa Fernandes	Mark Lloyd		Amalia Anderson	Medea Benjamin
at NCMR / National Conference for Media Reform

With the recent publication of former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's book on Bush's manipulation of the press, the public and the US Congress following hard on the heels of the Pentagon's use of retired generals as "Message Force Multipliers" or simply propagandists and defense contractor whores, there can be little debate that McClellan was on the mark when he said that mainstream media were "enablers" of the Bush regime's lies and distortions.

The 2008 NCMR / National Conference for Media Reform convened in Minneapolis - site of the upcoming Republican Convention - from June 6-8 to address these and a broad variety of media deficiencies which are threatening the very fabric of democracy.

In a panel titled Media Reform & Social Change, prominent and emerging activists discussed the media landscape and the methods by which they navigate in the hostile environment known as mainstream media.

Deepa Fernandez was moderator and is the host of Wake Up Call on Pacifica's WBAI in New York and a grassroots activist with a sharp focus on the those on the downside of the digital divide and the issues of women and minoritiies.

Mark Lloyd is a longtime journalist and news producer who has worked in network and CNN newsrooms for many years. His work spans decades and his insights reflect that experience. He is the author of Prologue to a Farce - Communication and Democracy in America. He is now Vice President for Strategic Initiatives at the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. 

Amalia Anderson is a Minneapolis activist whose primary focus is not media, per se, but social justice issues related to rural communities. She Codirector of the Raices Project a part of the Main Street Project in Minneapolis which teaches isolated communities to use media as a tool to promote social justice, define their own identities and archive their individual and collective experiences.

Medea Benjamin has been in the trenches - and the holding cells - for many years now as a primary force in Global Exchange and more recently as cofounder of Code Pink. She and her colleagues have been tireless attenders of Congressional Hearings - and often the subjects of arrest - when not traveling the world to get on the ground insight in the Middle East, Asia and other parts of the developing world or organizing mass rallies in cooperation with other antiwar activists and citizen groups across the globe.

The NCMR was attended by over 3,000 activists, journalists, content creators, documentarians, public officials, academics, experts, alternative media and concerned citizens. Over 70 diverse panels were presented in addition to a dozen or more keynote spekers including Amy Goodman, Bill Moyers, Dan Rather, Van Jones and Naomi Klein. Visit the conference website for more audio, video and most importantly, how you can join the media reform movement that is gaining steam and heading our country back toward democracy.

Click here to watch Part 1 or here to watch Part 2.
Click here to listen to the complete audio version