The National Conference for Media Reform Was a Call to Action

I attended the National Conference for Media Reform here in Minneapolis last weekend to absorb all I could about our national crisis of misinformation. With camera in hand, I documented the event and these photos are up at www.carney.com.

While at our site, I urge you to see the TED presentation, designed by the Carney Group for Alisa Miller, President of Public Radio International. It demonstrates how widely concerned the American people are about poor media coverage. On line papers like the Twin Cities Daily Planet are a critical link to the truth and to regaining power where it should reside in a democracy—with the people.

Here in the Twin Cities we have an abundance of activity in public media. American Public Media (APM) and Public Radio International (PRI) are both national distributers of broadcast content. As consumers of public media (I am making an assumption, here) we have the opportunity to pay attention and know that our neighbors are the decision-makers at these networks.

Public Radio International has, with the video in question, established their position concerning this matter. Please watch the video at our site. Then, the next time you hear something on the radio or read something on line or in print that you agree with or disagree with—something that you know that isn’t the truth or perhaps just part of the truth engage in the conversation. Send an email. Put in your two cents worth.

The media has to know you are listening. They need to know what you are thinking. How will we ever change things if no one knows what we want.

If there is anything I’ve taken away from National Conference for Media Reform it’s that nothing good is going to happen if we don’t make it happen. Here in the Twin Cities we are closer to the source than most of the country—in radio, anyway. It’s time we use what we have been given.