Visit Defend the Press and learn how the U.S. Army is attempting to force a journalist into helping chill the speech of conscientiously-objecting soldiers and the coverage of their statements. The case of Lt. Ehren Watada itself stands to clarify the boundaries of what is considered acceptable public speech for those in uniform – but in no way should a journalist be hauled into court to substantiate this persecution.
I had the opportunity to interview Sarah Olson during the National Conference for Media Reform in Memphis earlier this month, and was proud to be her first signatory to the coalition seeking to keep her free to report such important stories, and journalism in general free from fear of being drafted.
Tag: national conference for media reform
NCMR '07 Ahoy
This week the 2007 National Conference for Media Reform kicks off in Memphis, Tennessee. More than 2,500 folks are expected to converge and discuss the future of media over what should be a grueling but fruitful weekend.
The day before the official start of the NCMR, a media policy pre-conference is taking place, hosted by the Social Science Research Council. I’ll be presenting on the dangers of digital radio. The rest of the weekend I expect to be running around, mic and portable recorder in hand, to gather soundbites of notables for special daily editions of Media Minutes.
One of these years I hope to be more participant than observer….
Scene Reports: California, Illinois
California: Skidmark Bob just interviewed Monkey of the infamous Pirate Cat Radio. Monkey scored an early copy of Stephen Dunifer’s TV transmitter kit and put Pirate Cat TV on the air six months ago; its 80-watt signal can be seen on Channel 13 in the San Francisco area. Programming consists of a growing catalog of DIVX .avi files on a homebrew server with a terabyte of storage, and the station is actively soliciting more content.
As for Pirate Cat Radio, Monkey says there’s about 30 DJs presently, and the dues-paying fundraising model takes care of their needs. At the end of the interview he says the station will soon “upgrade” from 220 to 1,000 (!) watts, mostly by moving to a directional antenna system. Continue reading “Scene Reports: California, Illinois”
Work Noise
During the National Conference for Media Reform I was lucky enough to sit down and throw a few questions at FCC Commissioner Michael Copps in 
formal interview-style (24:52, 11.4 MB), courtesy of Free Speech TV producer Lee Buric and John Grebe (Sounds of Dissent). As you can hear, we basically took turns in the chair.
The interruption of Grebe’s line by Jordan Goldberg, Copps’ senior legal advisor, kind of threw things off and made my own lines of inquiry a bit more circumspect (IBOC, microradio, and the future of the Telecom Act). Grebe was trying to get at the translator speculation/trafficking controversy. I felt like Copps played an adroit politician, in that he didn’t give up any substantive information. Continue reading “Work Noise”
The St. Louis Experience
I cannot claim to have participated much directly in the National Conference for Media Reform, given that I was paid to observe: busy recording, editing, and uploading stuff as the radio-centric house organ of sponsor Free Press. All of the conference audio and video is now up on their server and should be publicly available within the next few days. I expect Be the Media! blog traffic will continue to trickle in for a while as well.
Personally speaking, the best parts of the conference were not even related to the event itself. Thursday night’s benefit party for KDHX at the City Museum blew minds. Think of a funhouse for adults, with live bands and beer: it puts the vaunted Arch to shame. Then there were all of the friends both old and new who’d come into town for the weekend. The ratio of extracurricular fun to sleep that was taking place should have killed me (14 hours of crash time upon return home helped). Finally, I had the chance to tag-team (with Free Speech TV and Sounds of Dissent) an interview with FCC Commissioner Michael Copps (audio forthcoming), who artfully mostly-deflected questions on microradio, IBOC, and other sundry subjects. Watching politician-sweat break out up close can be fun! Continue reading “The St. Louis Experience”
NCMR Ahoy
It’s off to St. Louis for the National Conference for Media Reform. Things will be quiet here till next week, so I suggest clicking over to the Be the Media! blog where several of us attendees will be collectively chronicling thoughts. The action has already begun to flow, which is a good sign. I will do my best to satisfy the ear with daily summary pieces and, hopefully, oodles of raw audio enjoyment.
Be the Media! Blog Resurrected
In preparation for the second National Conference for Media Reform, the Be the Media! blog is back online. The blog served as a venue which provided attendees of the first NCMR a chance to report critically on the proceedings. The 2003 Be the Media! blog archives have been re-established (though all the comments were lost, sorry).
Although I may be biased, I think the blog did a better job of covering the ’03 proceedings than any of the mainstream media reportage that surfaced, although it was kind of a last-minute project and admittedly catch-as-catch-can. This time around it would be great to have more attendees participating: if you’re going to NCMR ’05 and would like to help create an independent archive of coverage about it, contact Paul@Mediageek for details.
Summer of Media Conferences
Looks like a busy May and June, for sure. The same week of the National Conference for Media Reform there will be two other events: Can Freedom of the Press Survive Media Consolidation? will be held May 10-11 on the U of I campus and features a progressive mega-star-studded lineup of speakers and the like. This event is free and open to all.
On the day before the NCMR starts in St. Louis, scads of academics will be stuffed into a single room to form the Academic Brain Trust, the goal of which is to build “an organization that will encourage and mobilize academic talent and resources to the cause of increasing informed public participation in the media policymaking process.” Continue reading “Summer of Media Conferences”
New Tracks from Wax Audio; Free Passes to Free Press Conference
Tom Compagnoni first dropped the world-leaders-as-rappers tip last year with WMD…and other distractions. He’s back (with crew) as Wax Audio, featuring a new album, Mediacracy. It’s a broader sonic critique of the geopolitical follies of the last couple of years, with special attention given to the media’s role in them. Not as much rapping, save GWB’s cover of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” which is a feat in and of itself. Several of the cuts will eventually make their way into Truthful Translations this week but you can get ’em direct at a better bitrate from the link above. Continue reading “New Tracks from Wax Audio; Free Passes to Free Press Conference”
LPFM Notes; Media Reform Conference Redux
Last week REC Networks released a comprehensive report on all LPFM stations which face interference, displacement, and the varying degrees of signal encroachment in between from full-power FM stations. The report runs 110 pages. REC’s also been keeping a close eye on the DTV transition, and reports that of all of the stations currently broadcasting on Channel 6, only five have requested to stay on their analog channel past the transition cutoff date (to be determined).
Got some reliable information on the political situation in D.C. It seems that the National Association of Broadcasters is busy fighting bigger problems, like losing its request that all DTV channels be carried on cable, and the indecency hot potato, and others. At the LPFM Day not so long ago a new LPFM rulemaking was hinted at. Perhaps this can accomplish at the agency level what the Local Community Radio Act of 2005 is trying to do. There’s definitely a better chance of expanding LPFM at the FCC level, especially while the NAB’s playing defense on the legislative front. I think the folks at NPR are mature enough to see that it’s time to cede the issue. Continue reading “LPFM Notes; Media Reform Conference Redux”