Although I gave no warning on the blog (I did mention it on the last two radioshows), I am here in rainy, but warm, Memphis, TN, for the 3rd National Conference for Media Reform.
I got in last night and attended the Save the Internet coalition Party for the Future at the Gibson Guitar Factory. To be honest, I was a little underwhelmed, mostly because the space was just kind of a couple of big rooms selling overpriced drinks. There was a DJ and videos playing in the biggest room, but it was too loud to carry on a conversation. These kind of parties are best for meeting up with people, and it served that function at the very least.
The conference kicked off this morning with a keynote from Bill Moyers who turned in another witty, smart and well-spoken speech on the state of today’s American media. He struck a tone of optimism in the face of the insatiable corporate media monoliths.
Moyers noted that with the 2003 FCC media ownership proceeding the public, “turned a little publicized vote… into a big public fight.” Now that Martin and his fellow Republicans are gearing up to do it again he urged us to “get ready to fight.”
I’ll be broadcasting the radioshow live from Memphis at 5:30 CST on my home station WEFT 90.1 FM in Champaign, IL. You can listen to this broadcast live on the ‘net, too, thanks to my friend John from DIYmedia.net who’s running a very temporary server. The link is: [broadcast over]
On the show today I’ll have some audio from Bill Moyers’ morning keynote and from a press conference held this morning for the release of critical research reports on media ownership that pose a serious challenge to the big media lobby’s arguments for allowing further consolidation.
Technorati Tag: NCMR2007
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