The National Conference for Media Reform got off to a great start this morning.
[Friday January 12]
The first speaker, master of ceremonies for the opening event, was John Nichols, Editor of The Nation magazine. He introduced the Mayor of Memphis, Dr. Willie W. Herrington, who welcomed us and invited members of the local media to attend some of the sessions about media bias!
Next up was Yolanda Hippensteel, of the Free Press, who announced that over 3000 people are attending this conference from almost every state in the U.S.
Then, Danny Glover, well known actor and activist quoted extensively from a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speech, delivered on December 27, 1962, at a church conference in Nashville, Tennessee, and related it to the need for unbiased and accurate media.
Then came Bill Moyers. The crowd greeted him with a standing ovation and I’m proud to say I was the first on my feet at the front of the room.
[DETAILS EDITED OUT, SEE VIDEO LINKS BELOW!]
He went out with another standing ovation and had to return for a curtain call before the audience would quit…
Later tonight there should be video available at the Freepress.net site and perhaps at youtube also. I highly recommend you watch it. I’ll be back to update and give you a link here as soon as I can and to blog about the afternoon sessions.
You can get lots of other viewpoints of this conference by googling the NCMR2007 tag that has been set up for youtube and flickr, etc.
I’ve got to run to a break out session, but I’ll be back when I can to respond to comments.
UPDATE [Saturday January 13]:
Senator Bernie Sanders spoke to us this morning and delivered a barn-burner. I’ll try to blog it more extensively later, but he delivered a line that perfectly expresses why I am here in Memphis this weekend:
“If you’re concerned about healthcare, if you’re concerned about foreign policy, if you’re concerned about the economy, or if you’re concerned about global warming, you’re kidding yourself if you’re not concerned about corporate control of the media.”
Here’s the video of Bill Moyers’ opening talk from yesterday on YouTube.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Attending, participating in, AND blogging this conference concurrently is proving to be quite a challenge. I’ll do my best to get a new diary out later today or tomorrow.
Hmmm…that street looks awfully familiar š
But somewhat less populated, as I remember it.
That’s not my photo, but I did indeed think of you when I saw it and when I went down there Thursday night!
Thanks for the report, blueneck. I’m very glad one of us is able to be there. I’m looking forward to more from the conference.
I wouldn’t have known about it if it weren’t for you!
You help us feel like we’re there. I’ll look forward to more reports, as time permits!
Wow, it’s really hard to participate AND blog about it, concurrently. I’ll be trying to post another diary later today about yesterday afternoon and this morning…we’ll see if I can manage it.
Bill does it again.
He (and your report, BN), have rested some of my skepticism about this conference. I’ll admit to not liking the front-loading of celebrities e.g. Jane Fonda, Danny Glover, Geena Davis used to advertise the conference. They are too much the celebrity “lead the people away from the important stuff” that the MSM uses to cover real news. I”m not speaking of their personal political interests, but rather that the MSM will focus on their presence, rather than more substantive messages from the conference.
But Moyers is the opposite of that. Now, if they just had Molly Ivins there to close things out (wish she were up to that)!
OOh, yes, Molly would just about put the icing on this cake! I hope she recovers well and can come to one of these in the future.
As for your comments about the celebrities, I agree to a certain extent. It does raise the visibility to the outside world, but I don’t think, from what I’ve seen, that anybody at this conference is here because of the non-media celebrities. I have been focused on the nuts and bolts activism sessions and the policy discussions with elected representatives and haven’t spent a speck of time celebrity-hunting.
The real celebrities, to me, are the great reporters, Bill Moyers, Amy Goodman, etc. I do think that the presence of those types of celebrities led me to double my efforts to get here, but they are true champions of the facts, and worthy of some celebrity-worship, I think š