As the National Conference on Media Reform wore down, the mood among the activists and scholars had begun to run high. For the first time, there was a large gathering of media professionals and government employees to discuss the community's efforts in media reform, with talks by celebrities in the field like Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., comedian Al Franken, journalist Bill Moyers, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and \Democracy Now"" host Amy Goodman. After a weekend of talks showed a growing network of citizens they were not alone in a fight to save our nation's mass communications, Moyers previewed the battle ahead: ""What I know to be real is that we are in for the fight of our lives.""
Last year, the Federal Communications Commission decided to increase the number of television stations a single corporation could own in a single market. With a vested interest in the FCC's decision, Moyers said major networks chose not to inform the American people of the changing policy.
These policy debates are far from over. A re-regulation bill has passed through the U.S. Senate but not the House of Representatives, and the FCC is considering allowing owners of multiple digital channels to meet children's programming requirements on one of their stations rather than all of them.
""Keep grassroots activism up,"" FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said at the conference's keynote address. ""Keep flexing your muscles as you need to, and you'll make the country a better place.""
Locally, community television station WYOU faces losing funding at the hands of Madison alders. Cieslewicz's proposed budget, which will be discussed Tuesday, would include money for the station. He guaranteed conference-goers WYOU would survive.
Issues in media reform are not limited to policy. According to Goodman, news corporations bring Americans the story they want to see and the rest of the world the story as it actually happens.
""And I'm not just talking Al-Jazeera, I'm talking about the difference between CNN domestic and CNN international,"" she said. ""You have the same company, understanding well what they want to feed for domestic production and what the rest of the world demands.""
Goodman explained that when the famous scene of the statue of Saddam Hussein falling aired on CNN it was shown full screen. When it was shown on CNN International, it was a split screen between the statue and a death count.
The conference was marked by a lack of American network media. While the walls of workshops and lectures were lined with camcorders recording video for independent community television stations and media watchdog Web sites, and while audio was being Webcast for pirate and community radio stations as far away as New York and California to simulcast, only one news corporation, Channel 3000, sent a team to record the conference.
After the first paragraphs of the introductory speaker, the network packed up and left. Spurred by an audience question, Goodman asked the assembled crowd ""Is anyone here from traditional media?""
Calling upon the first hand she saw, Goodman asked a reporter ""Where are you from?""
The man replied, ""Canada.\
