29. Media Blackout

 

Keynote Address to the National Conference on Media Reform (Bill Moyers)

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1112-10.htm

 

Thank you for inviting me tonight. I’m flattered to be speaking to a gathering as high-powered as this one that’s come together with an objective as compelling as “media reform.” I must confess, however, to a certain discomfort, shared with other journalists, about the very term “media.” Ted Gup, who teaches journalism at Case Western Reserve, articulated my concerns better than I could when he wrote in The Chronicle of Higher Education (November 23, 2001)

 

that the very concept of media is insulting to some of us within the press who find ourselves lumped in with so many disparate elements, as if everyone with a pen, a microphone, a camera, or just a loud voice were all one and the same. …David Broder is not Matt Drudge. “Meet the Press” is not “Temptation Island.” And I am not Jerry Springer. I do not speak for him. He does not speak for me. Yet ‘the media” speaks for us all.

 

A video of the speech is available at http://www.freepress.net/conference/audio05/freepress-closing40515.mov

 

An audio recording can be downloaded at http://www.freepress.net/conference/audio05/moyers.mp3

 

Cronkite Fears Media Mergers Threaten Democracy

 

http://www.commondreams.org/scriptfiles/views03/1108-01.htm

 

The most trusted name in news is worried about what is happening to the news media in America.

 

"I think it is absolutely essential in a democracy to have competition in the media, a lot of competition, and we seem to be moving away from that," said Walter Cronkite, the former CBS News anchorman, whose name remains synonymous with American journalism.

 

The Moment Has Come For Media Reform

 

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0105-20.htm

 

The New Year is here, and as we take stock of the state of the world and our nation, we must put media reform even higher on our priority list. The movement to fix our badly broken media system is gathering momentum, but the decisions made this year could resonate for decades to come.

 

The Internet of Tomorrow (Video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CHzuSTowRg