March on the media: why we protest

For the past few years, the mainstream media have marched in lockstep with the
Bush administration. Now it’s time to march on the media.


Whether the issue is corporate abuse, the 2000 Florida recount, the Patriot Act
or post- 9/11 detentions, the mainstream media have behaved more like lapdogs
than watchdogs. When the Bush administration pursued a plan to attack Iraq, the
media amplified the charges of the Bush partisans and ignored or downplayed dissenting
views.

And it’s important to remember that the media giants aren’t yet happy with their domination of the public sphere. They have serious business before the government— the business of getting even bigger. When the Federal Communications Commission sought to "relax" the limits on media ownership in 2003, big media companies were thrilled. Despite overwhelming public sentiment against the plan, the FCC went ahead with part of its plans. Thanks to hard work, media activists have successfully blocked these changes. We know where the media stand when it comes to their own self interest. But what can they say they’ve done in the public interest?

The network newscasts are still the most popular source of news for Americans. But what kind of news are we getting? A study of all the sources appearing on the newscasts in 2001 by the group Media Tenor found that the networks tilted heavily in favor of white, male Republican sources. Women and people of color were scarce; women made up between 14 and 18 percent of those appearing on the newscasts, while Arab-Americans and Latinos each were less than one percent of the sources on the network newscasts.

The media giants are granted licenses to broadcast on the public airwaves; in return, the public has the right to hold these companies accountable for their collective failure to present a wide range of viewpoint and perspectives.

Why We Celebrate

We have tired of your complicity in yet more lies. We demanded a media that sought truth and dignity, instead you gave us more weapons of mass distraction, more idle consumption, more waste and more death.

In 1990 and 1998 thousands came to the doors of Viacom, ABC, CBS, NBC PBS, CNN and FOX. We posted these demands on your doors and were received with silence. Not only have you not responded to our requests, you continue to mock even your own purported sense of professional ethics. The fourth estate has become a prison camp for consciousness and we refuse to be your prisoners. We no longer hold out hope for you, we celebrate your passing from reality into oblivion.

Our memory is our resistance, our word and images are our weapons. We now record the history before us and we reject the altered reality you construct. We have opened a crack in history and people around the world now reject you for your lies, your misinformation and your congratulatory self importance. The day is coming when the people will stop paying attention to you, on that day you will become irrelevant, you will cease to exist. We are here to celebrate that moment.

In your place we are building our own networks, spaces built from humility but whose strength comes from a desire for truth and dignity. We come here to celebrate what we have built thus far, and to note your continued self destruction. We are here to celebrate what the people of the world can achieve through a communication based a trust, responsibility and a commitment to justice.

Locations and Times (subject to change - watch this page! )

(1) 7:00 Converge on 52nd street at 6th across from CBS.

(2) 8:00 Rally at Time Life/CNN plaza at 50th Street and 6th Ave.

(3) 9:00 Rally at FOX 48th Street and 6th Ave.

Best transportation:

Take the BDFV to 47-50th Street Rockefeller Center

Take the EV to 53rd and 5th Avenue

Take the 6 to 51st and Park Avenue

We advise avoiding the Times Square area as there may be street closings that will cause you delays arriving and leaving.

http://www.marchonthemedia.org/toprotest.html