The Movement in Memphis

THE MOVEMENT IN MEMPHIS
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: Harold Feld, Media Access Project]
[Commentary] More than 3,000 media reformers flocked to the Third National Conference on Media Reform (NCMR) in Memphis, the weekend before the Martin Luther King Day holiday. They left filled with momentum. But the growing movement is also wrestling with the internal contradictions that bedevil coalitions that try to remain simultaneously non-partisan while still appealing to a passionate base. The media-reform movement prides itself on being non-partisan. With Democrats in power and influential progressive organizations such as MoveOn.org in the mix, will Republicans such as Senators Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) continue to support media reform? In his remarks at the conference, Bill Moyers warned that progressive movements have an unfortunate history of focusing on their internal divisions and ripping apart just when they seem strongest. Can a movement that thrived on fighting defense against powerful forces successfully go on the offensive? As someone who attended the NCMR in Memphis, I strongly believe it can.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6408864.html?display=Opinion

BASHED, THRASHED AND ENCOURAGED
[SOURCE: Seattle Times, AUTHOR: Ryan Blethen rblethen@seattletimes.com]
[Commentary] I did not go to Memphis to get mugged. But that is what it felt like sitting through the National Conference for Media Reform. The conference might have felt like an assault against a journalist like me who works at a metropolitan newspaper. I heard about the evils, and incompetence, of the likes of me at almost every turn. Apparently, mainstream journalists are to blame for the war, for not connecting the Bush administration to 9/11, for the plight of the middle class, and whatever other grievances could be identified. I am glad I sat through the thrashing. Folks are unhappy with the press. I do not blame them. We are living in a divisive time, and the press is partly responsible for our nation's ills and the war. I left the conference encouraged about the future of newspapers even though most panels and speakers at the conference freely bashed journalism's mainstreamers. Why the optimism? The theme I kept hearing was a thirst for a substantive narrative.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003531090_ryan19.html