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Take Action against Media Madness
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by Terry Burke, W A M M
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The “success of the surge” in Iraq . . . “the imminent Iranian nuclear threat”. . . the “excellent police work” during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. . . we’re inundated with biased, inaccurate stories from the mainstream media. Do something! Blog, comment, write a letter, make a phone call, join the WAMM Media Committee—take action!
The WAMM Media Committee, which has been in existence for a few months, welcomes anyone who wants to help fight the disinformation from the MSM (mainstream media). We’ve been employing a variety of tactics to monitor the media and get out the real news.
After a week of outrageous, unprecedented repressive police actions in St. Paul during the RNC and the arrests of over 800 (including journalists and medics), Mayors Rybak and Coleman publicly praised the police. Target, Excel, and other corporations took out a full-page ad in the Pioneer Press to also commend the police. In an effort spearheaded by Ann Galloway, WAMM placed ads in three neighborhood papers criticizing the police tactics and praising the bravery of the participants of the Poor People’s March. Media committee members also had letters in the St. Paul Villager newspaper and the TC Daily Planet. We can’t let the militarization of St. Paul pass into history. We must continue to press for a real investigation. (You can watch the powerful movie Terrorizing Dissent online at www.terrorizingdissent.org to see many examples of police abuses.)
Don’t forget the local neighborhood papers for letters to the editor, op ed pieces, or event announcements. It’s often much easier to be published in these smaller local publications, and their ad rates are less expensive.
The Media Committee has also taken on Minnesota Public Radio’s refusal to air Jack Nelson Pallmeyer’s speech at the Westminster Forum in September. MPR is not serving Minnesotans very well by choosing to archive our leading progressive thinker’s only Westminster Forum speech. We placed an article on the TC Daily Planet’s Free Speech Zone and made phone calls. MPR is claiming that his talk wasn’t timely—that the economic crisis had just broken and they devoted the time to taking calls from listeners. They still have no answer for why they didn’t air the talk later.
TC Daily Planet and the Uptake are two online newspapers that encourage citizen journalists. They want people to learn journalism skills and participate in writing articles or submitting videos. Anyone can submit an entry to the Daily Planet’s Free Speech Zone. MNBlue and Minnesota Network for Progressive Action (mnpACT!) are also two excellent local blogs—there are many more. Check out their websites and consider getting involved in making the news! Http//:tcdailyplanet.com, http//:mnblue.com, http//:theuptake.org, and http//:mnpact.org
There have been innumerable articles on the effect of the Internet on the news media—I’m just mentioning a few aspects for this article. The issue of participation in local and national blogs warrants a separate article in the WAMM Newsletter. The Internet has created amazing opportunities for more public dialogue on issues. While we recommend trying, first, to get letters published in the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press for the larger audience, don’t forget to send them to the online newspapers and blogs. We can always be successful in getting our comments printed online somewhere!
While it’s hard to measure the results of our Internet articles and comments, we know we can influence the direction of a discussion or an article and even occasionally actually influence events. In November a candidate for an intelligence position in the new administration took his name out of the running because of a “firestorm in the liberal blogs over his association with Bush administration policies.” The Internet is an incredibly democratic tool—both as a way to bypass corporate media’s news and as an avenue for participation. One of the major goals of the Media Committee is to be an advocacy group for keeping the Internet open and preventing restrictions that would block access to some sites. Contact us if you want to receive alerts regarding legislation concerning Internet freedom.
Other activities organized by members of the Media Committee were three small demonstrations in front of the Star Tribune, KSTP, and WCCO offices. The actions were to protest the lack of media coverage of the impact of war on children. At each site, children read a statement about the imprisonment of children in Guantánamo and Iraq. The demonstrations were covered by Michael Moore’s site and on the Star Tribune website. More importantly, there were a couple of articles over the next month in the Strib that did cover some aspect of children in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, including a large front page picture of a U.S. soldier carrying a wounded child.
These small demonstrations did not take months to plan. They didn’t have more than a handful of people present, but they were creative and they were effective! It’s not only the big events that have an impact.
So use that extra 20 minutes or hour to write a comment on the Internet, send in a letter to a local paper, make that phone call, and come to the Media Committee meeting with your creative ideas! Send us your letters and comments, even if they do not get aired, so we know what kind of actions are being undertaken. It’s the many effects of our combined voices that produce change.
Join us! Let us know if you’re interested in participating in the WAMM Media Committee and collaborating with us on media actions. Email us at wammmedia@gmail.com or call 612-827-5364. |
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CO$T of WAR
The occupation is costing the U.S. at least $10 billion per month, not counting depreciation, $67 billion replacement costs for equipment, and billions for medical care of wounded and veterans benefits. By the end of 2008, Iraq will have cost U.S. taxpayers $1 trillion, a good part of its borrowed from Japan and China, making it America’s second most expensive war in history.
Half the U.S. Army is bogged down in Iraq. This war and Afghanistan have led the U.S. ground and air forces “to the breaking point,” in the words of senior American commanders. History shows that all occupation armies become brutalized, corrupted and demoralized.
At least 30,000 Iraqi prisoners are held by the US and routinely tortured or executed without trial. They should be considered political prisoners. Saddam Hussein’s prisons held less inmates. The brutality of the U.S. occupation of Iraq has enraged the Muslim world against America and, according to U.S. intelligence agencies, has created a whole new generation of anti-American militants.
—ICH, Eric Margolis, 10/2/09, contributing foreign editor for Sun National Media Canada, is the author of War at the Top of the World.
FFI: www.ericmargolis.com
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© 2008 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
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Complete December 2008/January 2009 Index - click here
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