You will note that I didn't send out a Chicago Media Action newsletter on August 2, 2024. This marks the second month in a row when I missed my deadline to send a newsletter.

There were two big reasons why: One, I was in Pennsylvania and in New York City in late July 2024 on vacation (!) and I didn't have time to assemble a newsletter before August 2nd.

Two, I've been busy with other things. Chief among them, a website that now can serve as a virtual bulletin board for left and progressive activism in Chicago. I'm happy to report that the website launched on July 30th and you can see it here.

The big motivation for creating that website is that, for only the third time in the past fifty-six years, Chicago will play host to the Democratic National Convention. Everyone knows about the DNC and affiliated protests in Chicago in 1968, but much less well-remembered is the DNC held in Chicago in 1996. (Unrelated tangential fact: I first moved to Chicago in October 1996, two months after the DNC ended in August 1996.)

Activists in Chicago built a media project to cover the protests around the DNC in 1996; this project was called Countermedia, and it is cited as an example of the independent grassroots media that inspired media projects like the Independent Media Center. One of the contributors to Countermedia (from whom I first learned about Countermedia) is CMA's founder, the late Chris Geovanis.

Another unrelated tangential fact: I recall a story that was relayed at a Chicago Indymedia meeting that Chicago activists sued the DNC in 1996 for the right to hold a protest march to the convention itself, and the activists won! -- nine months after the DNC ended. :-/

And in a case of history somewhat repeating itself, grassroots activists media resource of sorts in the context of a DNC in Chicago. And I get to be a part of it. I count myself fortunate to be a part of it, and a part of these efforts for a better tomorrow and a better world. Thank you for reading.

By way of closing, I'll end with three updates related to past issues of this newsletter.

1. I have shared this with some folks, but I'll now share more widely another plan I have for these newsletters. With these monthly newsletters I have been writing (this present one marks my 22nd newsletter since their resurrection), I intend to continue this at least until the end of the calendar year 2024. At that point, I plan to approach book publishers with the compiled newsletters, as well as some additional material, with the hope of getting these newsletters published as a book. If I have no luck with that, I will publish it as a book myself (and there are now resources to do just that). Whether or not I continue these newsletters beyond 2024 is something I'll decide when we get to that time.

2. Net neutrality, the principle of non-interference of internet content which CMA worked on a great deal and which the FCC re-approved in April 2024, got a setback in August 2024 when the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati blocked the FCC's rules, pending a final ruling. The expectation now is that the FCC and the net neutrality ruling may well lose in court -- given the Supreme Court's recent overruling of the Chevron precedent that gave courts the prerogative to overrule agency expertise, but we shall see and we will fight on.

3. Readers will recall the case of Jen Angel, longtime media activist and organizer who died in a robbery early in 2023. The person charged in Jen Angel's death was sentenced to seven years in prison. A group of Jen Angel's friends under the embrella Loved Ones of Jen Angel released a statement reiterating the need for restorative and transformative justice that frankly is not possible under our current legal system, while at the same time acknowledging that the legal outcome of the case was the best that could be had under current circumstances. Do read the statement; it's very much worth your attention. Additionally, in Jen's memory, the Jen Angel Anarchist Media Grant Program was launched this month and announced its first class of recipients.

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