CHICAGO MEDIA ACTION NEWSLETTER, April 1, 2004 http://www.chicagomediaaction.org In this month's newsletter... * April is the busiest month... * Media politics: Two FCC-related delays * Factoid: Sexism in the New Yorker's pages * Quote: Inspiring words from Amy Goodman * Website: The State of the Media (1) ANNOUNCEMENTS AND UPCOMING EVENTS We've got a busy April on tap: * Robert McChesney, noted author and media critic, will be giving a lecture in Naperville (this was the lecture which got snowed out back in January). The lecture, "The Emerging Struggle for Control of U.S. Media", will take place on Tuesday, April 13, 7:30pm, at the White Activities Center, North Central College (325 E. Benton Ave., Naperville). For more information, call 630-637-5369 or visit: http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/news.php?id=164 * CMA will participate in the McHenry County Peace Group's Current American Issues Series, to be held at McHenry County College, Crystal Lake, IL, on Wednesday, April 14. More details to come. * Members of CMA will be participating in the 2004 conference of the Union for Democratic Communications, to be held April 22 - 25 in St. Louis, Missouri. More details about the conference are online at: http://www.udc.org/conference.html * CMA will be also be in Lisle, IL, to take part in the Unitarian Universalist Association's Central Midwest District Annual District Assembly. A presentation is scheduled for Saturday, April 24, at 10:45 AM, on "Living Our Principles in Media Activism". Learn more at: http://www.cmwd-uua.org/pdfs/Brochure.pdf * CMA will also partake in the WLUW Record Fair, also on Saturday, April 24. We'll have a table and also participate in one of the event's panels. That'll take place at the Pulaski Park Fieldhouse, 1419 W. Blackhawk, from 10am to 6pm. Learn more at: http://www.wluw.org/wluwrecordfair/index.shtml Additional plans are in the works for another Chicago visit with Robert McChesney in May, and journalist/author Robert Jensen in June. Chicago Media Action is also organizing a general membership organizing meeting -- a mass meeting to bring more people involved in actions and planning on media activism. Learn more at: http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/news.php?id=165 What's more, Chicago Media Action has begun organizing protests planned for the Philadelphia ruling in the court case against the FCC. Stay tuned. (2) WHAT'S NEW WITH CHICAGO MEDIA ACTION? * CMA members helped organize and participate in the March 20, 2004, antiwar march and protest. * On Monday, March 22, CMA took part in the radio show "Toxic Frequency" on Chicago's Red Line Radio (99.1 FM). The interview will be archived on the CMA website. * And there's the continuing campaigns to get Democracy Now! on WBEZ and to clean up WTTW, Channel 11. Be sure to do your part by visiting our Rapid Response form at: http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/index.php?link=rapid_response and by calling the WBEZ comment line at 312-948-4701, and encourage the station to air Democracy Now! (3) WHAT'S HAPPENING IN MEDIA POLITICS? * Good news: The Senate Commerce Committee voted on March 9 to delay for twelve months the FCC from implementing its heated media ownership rules. Learn more at: http://www.freepress.net/news/article.php?id=2756 * The cable provider Echostar has been in a dispute with Viacom (the media company which owns MTV, CBS, UPN, BET, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon, plus Simon and Schuster, Paramount Studios, and Blockbuster video). The dispute was over claims that Viacom was engaged in unfair price increases. At Midnight, March 9, Echostar dropped the signal feeds from all of Viacom's cable networks. The two firms resolved their differences after about 36 hours, but the situation highlighted the overwhelming power that giant firms hold over ordinary media consumers. * The FCC has announced a time for its Midwest Localism Hearing. The hearing, to be held in Rapid City, South Dakota, will take place on Wednesday, May 26, 2004. (The hearing was originally scheduled for April 2004.) CMA might organize a roadtrip to Rapid City. Is anyone interested in taking part? If so, contact us (cma@chicagomediaaction.org or call 1-866-260-7198) to let us know if you'd like to be involved. (4) MEDIA FACTOID OF THE MONTH In 2002, more than 80% of the stories written in the magazine "The New Yorker" were written by men. Those which were written by women primarily were written by staffers and appeared in the magazine's back pages. For an informative personal essay on the topic, visit: http://www.mobylives.com/Talk_of_the_rest.html (5) MEDIA QUOTE OF THE MONTH "[W]hen the media spotlight shines somewhere, it matters. When people in this country, the greatest superpower on earth, learn about what's happening in another part of the world, it matters. Unfortunately, all too often, it is a country suffering because of a regime supported by the United States. But when people know, they do something about it. The key is that they must know about it. And that's the role of the media -- to go to where the silence is and say something." -- Democracy Now's Amy Goodman, in an interview on workingforchange.com (for the whole interview, please visit: http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=16345) (6) THIS MONTH'S WEBSITE http://www.stateofthemedia.org/ The State of the News Media 2004 is an inaugural effort to provide a comprehensive look each year at the state of American journalism. The study is the work of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** This is an email from Chicago Media Action, a Chicago activist group devoted to media issues. Chicago Media Action, P.O. Box 14140, Chicago IL 60614-0140 Call toll-free: 1-866-260-7198 Web: http://www.chicagomediaaction.org E-mail: cma@chicagomediaaction.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, simply send an email requesting removal to mailinglist@chicagomediaaction.org