Newscoma

My father was sitting in a restaurant called the Wagon Wheel on Madison Avenue in Memphis when a police officer entered the restaurant and told the restaurant to close.
Immediately.
A curfew had been set for the entire city of Memphis. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated at the Lorraine Motel at 6 P.M. that very evening.
King was pronounced dead on arrival an hour later at St. Joseph’s hospital. It was April 4, 1968.
My grandfather was in the National Guard and had been called to Memphis to assist in the garbage strike that had, in many ways, crippled the city.
The strike was being held by the AFSCME Local 1733 and had started March 12. Black garbage workers had walked off the job to protest the fact that white workers were being paid when sent home due to inclement weather.
Black workers, making $1.70 an hour, were not paid when sent home. Thus, a strike began for equality in the work place.
And remember the signs saying simply “I AM A MAN.”
The air was charged with racial tension, my father said in retrospect. He sent his pregnant wife and daughter back to northwest Tennessee to stay with her mother in Dresden just a couple of days before King was murdered.
That daughter was me.
The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and Bobby Kennedy for that matter, were a huge part of the young married lives of my parents.
Their lives were impacted by the tumultuous times of the ‘60’s. It was a time when politicians were murdered, the introduction of the sexual revolution and Vietnam.
And the issue of race.
King’s message of nonviolent civil disobedience regarding racial inequality was one that molds the world we live in today. The issue of racial inequality still exists, there is no doubt.
My mother once said, “I hope that it is better but it is in no way fixed. And the thing is, it needs to be fixed.”
King’s message still lives on.
People we know, that we love, lived through hell because of the color of their skin.
And it should not be forgotten.
And today, if you are sitting home because this day is a national holiday in honor of a man who helped change the way of history, remember, the reasons why.
It’s that important for all of us to recall his famous words “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
The lessons of King still hold so much value.
They are lessons about human decency which should be passed on from generation to generation.
It is important.

When Paul Rieckhoff returned from Iraq, the news was filled with compelling drama but not about Iraq.

Janet Jackson’s exposed breast was everywhere he looked, but he didn’t see very much about the war that he had just spent a year of his life fighting and this shocked him.

“Where was the news coverage on the war?” he asked.

He also took on embedded reporters covering the war questioning how reporters can actually report accurately when the unit they are with is usually keeping them safe. How can that person, Rieckhoff asked, be objective?

He was but one of many speakers who discussed about the corporate ownership putting a muzzle on  the public’s need for information.  Many people will be dismissive of the National Conference for Media Reform, but there was an urgency on how the change between local ownership of media compared to media monopolies.

To say that the conference had a liberal slant is correct, but according to Ben Scott, who works for freepress in Washington, conservative public officials were asked to come and did not. I find this unfortunate. I believe that both sides of the political spectrum would have benefited from the dialogue at the conference.

Phil Donahue explained he was fired from MSNBC and although the news channel said his termination was due to lack of viewership, later an investigation from FAIR who received an internal memo citing he was not a good face to have on the channel as he was a critic of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It’s okay to have the O’Reillys and the Matthews on the tube, but not a voice asking the question “Why?”

MSNBC is owned by NBC Universal.

I bring that particular situation up because of this, the question of  whether stockholders in large media outlets hold the cards on the dissemination of information, or does the public’s right to know come first. It is a worthy dialogue on whether or not profits are driving news outlets.

The conference did not make large media the “boogeyman” as one pundit reported, but it did question.

And should we, as Americans, not be allowed to question?

Carter has this post from Friday, and I think if anyone on the planet would have enjoyed this conference, he would have because the message of the conference hinged on the freedoms of the press and the public’s right to have a voice. Doesn’t matter if you are a liberal or a conservative, don’t we all want that?

Although Carter cleverly cites Bill Moyers quoting Antonio Gramsci, I think he missed the point as Moyers spoke for more than an hour on a variety of issues that, as Mary Mancini so eloquently wrote, highlighted the messages of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Payne and one of Carter’s favorite issues of immigration reform.

Helen Thomas spoke of the deafening silence from the Press leading up to the invasion of Iraq and the blogosphere for keeping issues alive(for Pete’s sake, she is 86 years old and was one of the only members of the Press asking questions starting with the word “Why” in the White House Press Room and of course, we remember the Jeff Gannon debacle. She also cited blogosphere’s need for accuracy) Congressman Maurice Hinchey of the 22nd District in New York and Steve Cohen were asked where the conservative voices were and that is when Ben Scott said they were invited but did not accept the invitation (although I would have thought it would have been more prudent to tell the crowded room which conservative politicians were invited.) They also talked about media reform and the deregulations that have been set aside over the past 25 years allowing media companies to buy everything in site.

And there in lies the debate. Did the Telecommunications Act of 1996 offer competition or did it only set up consolidation of the industry, creating monopolies?

Anyone?

I have more than 500 pieces of literature from the conference, but one that I want to post within the next couple of days is a website where you can put in your zip code and see who owns what in your community.

It’s eye-opening.

I’m sure I will be talking about this for the next few days. I was so busy over the weekend that what I really need is about a day of sleep and sorry that I didn’t post as much as I would have liked to. Squirrely will have pictures over on her site probably later today as well.

I’m finally home.

So sorry that we couldn‘t get more to you, but alas, every table was full and the hotel didn’t have reliable wireless.

Oh yeah, go here and see me made fun of. Ironically, I don’t get the advantage of going on CNN as a regular speaker and hired as a pundit (which you have done) to express my opinion, when you Mr. Jarvis didn’t even show up at the conference but are still filled with opinion about my statement on a blog which is a little fish in the big pond.

Wow.

The conference was really great. The issue of corporate entities owning so many media outlet was widely discussed. Your voice would have been a fine edition.
As I work for an independent owner who has no corporate ties in the ownership of a small chain of independent newspapers, Mr. Jarvis, thanks for the hits and I must also say, I really am intrigued by your argument being that you weren’t even there. Why didn’t you make the trip to discuss your stance on media reform. I’m sure it would have been a lively discussion.

I do appreciate your comments. Quite interesting.