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Turn off the TV! Relief from Mainstream News -- by Jeff Imbach
"Turn off the TV!"
"I would love to, but I need to hear the news!!"
"The news you hear on mainstream TV is just that -- "mainstream" owned by corporate giants. There is another way..."
"Yeah, if I was a tekkie maybe, but the web is not friendly to me. So massive that I get lost and angry."
The above has been the kind of conversation that has run through my mind over and over. Is there really an alternative to the traditional news media? I don't mean "neutral" as they supposedly are on national TV news, but at least a thoughtful and non-abrasive alternative.
Here in Canada we have the CBC, which is publically owned rather than owned by a big corporation. But, CBC radio is a lot closer to being open than CBC TV. CBC TV pretty much spouts the party line on most news items. For example, in reporting the Occupy movement, typically all the major TV news outlets have trivialized the movement whenever possible.
At first they harped on the twin trivializers of "They have no leader, and they have no message." Lately, it has been trivialized by saying it has lost its protest and has become about camping on other peoples' property. The first simply isn't true. There is a clear message, even though a number people have joined the movement from their own particular protest issue. The message is that the structural and institutional economic power that has co-opted government decision-making and policy has to change. I happened to be down at Occupy Vancouver in the early days of the protest and was interviewed by Stephen Quinn of CBC On The Coast. Here is a link to my statement and a testament that CBC radio was willing to listen. www.cbc.ca/onthecoast/episodes/2011/10/17/occupy-vancouver.
The second is true, only in the sense that the media has made it into a "camping issue" rather than engage it in a respectful and listening way. The mainstream simply does not want to deal with the message that is being given and the challenge that is to our whole economic and political system. And just in case we are not clear that the mainstream media is manipulated, here is link to a very hilarious but sobering experience – Media reaction to Conan O'Brien having a gay marriage ceremony on his show. Watch the newscasters from all sorts of different channels spout the same thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GME5nq_oSR4
But, I have found an alternative! Joy and I have been enjoying the daily news stream from Democracy Now. http://www.democracynow.org.
It is not neutral, but it is a very articulate and reasonable example of another voice, a voice that is more committed to justice than to profit. A recent example was their broadcast on the news of the Occupy Wall Street the day after the tents were taken down. They were there at 1 am when none of the mainstream media were there (told no to come?). They had on an 84 year old Seattle woman who was pepper sprayed in the face recently. They had on the former Seattle chief of police that has openly said that he will regret for the rest of his life the decision he made to use chemical means (tear gas and pepper spray) on the riots in the "Battle for Seattle." He is saying that the police institution has become increasingly para-militaristic and violent. They had a retired New York supreme court judge who was there this morning and was manhandled by the police even though she was obviously a legal observer. Etc. http://www.democracynow.org/2011/11/17/paramilitary_policing_of_occupy_wall_street
Again, I am not suggesting that Democracy Now has an objective viewpoint and thus broadcasts the "truth." But I am willing to say that there is much there that is food for thought and that gives us a different perspective than what we get normally on the big TV stations.
Take a chance. Watch it. And share your own insights into alternative media that can help us through the morass we call news. Maybe we all can move toward a more open and inclusive understanding and move toward positive action that could transform our world!
November 29, 2011 | Permalink