Now, where was I?... #1 - I take full credit for saving Amy Goodman’s life! I did this by staying in and eating lots of chicken soup the day of the forum at Northwestern U. I had a rotten flu.

And, #2, like a stuck record, giant thank yous again and again to public housing activist and columnist Beauty Turner, National Hip-Hop Political Convention publicist La’Keisha Gray, Paul Street, author of the books “Segregated Schools: Educational Apartheid in Post-Civil Rights America” (2005) and “Racial Oppression in the Global Metropolis” (upcoming - 2007), and Steve Macek, author of the book “Urban Nightmares: The Media, the Right and the Moral Panic over the City“ (Univ. Of Minnesota Press, 2006 - pictured), for their heartfelt and eloquent contributions to the October 4th CMA public forum on urban media issues held at the Chicago Temple. Between La’Keisha and Beauty, I can’t decide whom I liked better. A high point was when part of this study and related information was distributed and discussed.

I had a chance at the end of the forum to make a few points and I'll repeat them here because I was told they were worthwhile: I stressed the need to stay on the cases of both WVON, because we are not sure what its ownership status will in reality be, and the case of Chicago Public Radio because we are not sure the innovative forum it promises will necessarily flow from its proposed expansion. I explained to skeptics that it is possible for individuals to influence the FCC, reminding that with a lot of work, together, three million people were able to influence the FCC in the media ownership battle of 2003. I warned that we are going to have to do that again. I stated that the minority voices were barely heard in 2003, partly due to shortcomings within the media reform activist community. I said that we need to hear more from minorities about media ownership this time around, that minorities were like a shark beneath the water’s surface in the 2003 ownership struggle, and that we all need to see that big fish.

TAKE ACTION: Tell the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) - Stop Big Media: Put Diversity Back in the Picture (click here).

Posted by Scott Sanders, Chicago Media Action
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