One critical issue remains to be resolved before activists move out onto the streets of downtown Los Angeles for the DNC, and that is the apparent blackout of coverage by the national news media. Contrast the peri-RNC protests in Philadelphia with those surrounding the DNC in Chicago in 1968. In Chicago '68, the chaos stole the spotlight from the convention as the whole world watched. CBS and NBC documented the police brutality and overkill on prime time newscasts as Daley's thugs in blue turned that week into a tabloid exemplar of the dangers of a police state. Living rooms from coast to coast were bombarded nightly with lurid images of white suburban kids being beaten by shock troops in paramilitary gear, bringing compelling graphic evidence of America's level of social unrest and national disunity home to Middle America.

Fast forward 32 years to RNC 2000. The corporate media, especially television (where the majority of Americans go for news), totally ignores the protests in the streets and their violent aftermath in the Philadelphia jails, except for an occasional sound bite dismissing the protesters as "anarchists" and congratulating John Timoney for his fearlessness in spraying gas and kicking ass. Unless one picks up the Village Voice or other alternative media that Mr. and Mrs. Suburbia don't bother to read, one would barely know there were any protests at all.

Protests and demonstrations cannot change public policy. Their function is to turn the spotlight of public opinion on the abuse of power. If the national news media ignores the civil disobedience in Los Angeles as it did in Philadelphia, then all we will accomplish is to send a lot of devoted, good-hearted young adults home with black eyes, cracked skulls and red welts on their bodies, and we won't have accomplished a thing, and that is immoral.

The police don't care about our issues. The convention delegates and candidates clearly don't care about our issues. How can the activism community make the national media sit up and take notice in Los Angeles? How can we break through this corporate news blackout? We cannot in good conscience go out onto the streets of Los Angeles until we know how we are going to solve that problem.

The media is now controlled by the corporations which control the government, more often then not the corporate media has DIRECT ties to the very things we are protesting. I believe we should start many more IMC like websites, newspapers, radio, and public television broadcasts. It seems the only way to get a message across would be to practice against the media itself, blockade and pratice civil disobdiance against corporate media buildings not allowing people to enter, or possibly even sabotage the media's lie spreading technology (remember vandalism is not violence). The Corporate Media is just as much our enemy corporations. Unlike the corporations that exploit and destroy people, the corporate media brainwashes our neighbors into hating us, spreads lies about us, promotes the greed that pays them, and seeks the total totalitarianism of this country.

NEXT TARGET: CORPORATE MEDIA!

Lets get the message out and point the movement in the next logical direction. Without this step our messages will never be heard, the advantage MLK, Ghandi, and the 60's activists had was that there movemnets were heavly covered by the media creating public sentiment, ours are heavly slandered by the media creating public hatred of the very people trying to improve there lives and protect human rights.



NEXT TARGET: CORPORATE MEDIA!

Targeting the media does seem to be the next logical route to coincide with gaining what we hope achieve. Stopping the corporate-owned media should coincide with stopping the villains that have baught them---the corporations we are fighting in the first place. It should be a new aspect in civil disobediance--if we're in a bad sitiuation and the media is about to get out of dodge(or LA) so that they can leave with the footage that makes the LAPD look good, just before the real shit hits the fan (like in Seattle when the media turned its back when cops got violent) then sit in front of their vans and keep them from leaving...let them suck down some teargas with us!

TARGET THE MEDIA!

Mark Dixon's comments are good ones, and clearly written. One part of the solution is this website -- LA Independent Media Center -- and other independent media centers. These allow timely reporting and/or commentary from anyone. Each of us can e-mail these reports to friends around the world. And tell people in person of the reports.

The truth will get out about Philly, as it eventually did about Seattle, so it is not pointless to demonstrate in the face of a blackout. But it is a big and crucial challenge to lift the blackout, so that people know what's going on as it goes on, putting them in a much better position to pressure police, mayors, and others.

The media cannot hear too often how they blacked out Philly. They cannot hear too many specifics, or hear them from too many people. However they react on the surface, the journalists and their bosses are sensitive to accurate complaints, especially if voiced with respect. They know that they are not the centers of good reporting, and they'd like to know in their hearts that they are.

In the streets, it will mean a great deal if there are no unlawful acts other than being in the street. And certainly no stupid or unhuman acts. It would be hard to measure how many heads it would turn if there were a massive demonstration where there was no defacing of property, no one even touching a police car, etc., so that people hearing of it, or actually getting to see it on TV (a miracle?) could concentrate on the issues of homelessness, theft (the "defense" budget), murder (the "death penalty"), etc.

It is not enough that various groups have agreed to respect each other's methods. That is a first step, but some of the methods are simply wrong and counterproductive. They contribute to distorted impressions, and if the blackout is lifted, they will contribute to people feeling that it is the demonstrators who are wrong. The message is that much of what is accepted in society, much of what drives the nation, is wrong. And people can hear that, contrary to popular wisdom. They must be allowed to hear it, free from distractions caused by the speakers/demonstrators themselves.

There also needs to be a bit of vision, as much as one can get on the soundbites permitted by signs and media. "No more homelessness" is a vision. Yet, "Use the 1/4 of our tax dollars going to the military for homes" is a little more. What happens if people start asking the government why it wastes 1/4 of their income tax dollars on "defense?" Right now people in the U.S. tend to value civility over making things right, and it's okay to appeal to that by making demonstrations and civil disobedience completely civil.

A street demonstration is very much like a movie or a play. The audience that is the general public actually likes truth. They like to see Julia Roberts take on corporate polluters in the movie about Erin Brockovich. It's okay if Julia/Erin says "fuck" once in a while, but they don't want her turning over police cars or breaking windows at the power company. And why should they? Let's not water down the messages. Keep them strong, but make a movie that people want to see, without any scenes or actors that come from the wrong spirit.

Then greater quantities of people will ask the media -- why didn't you let us see that important stuff? And the media will run out of excuses.

After comparing local and national T.V. news footage from both the protests in Seattle and Philly, I 've noticed a pattern, almost a script in the mainstream coverage. An emphasis on the youth and "odd appearance" of the protesters. Much is made of tattoos, dreadlocks, and "dirty clothes." The commentators stress however, that these are NOT like "hippies the '60's",this will hopefully sway the Boomer into not indentifying with them and to continue snoozing on the couch. Then, after stating, "It was not clear what they were protesting," they cut to footage of protest related violence of some kind, struggling, glass breaking, often a highly ranking high profile law officer is shown personally arresting, restraining or otherwise "taking care of" a protester (i.e. Sheriff Whatshisname in Seattle and Timoney in Philly) The blackout surrounding Philly seems darker and deeper, though. The national coverage of Philly was like...nonexistant! It's either media control or the total apathy of the people. It's hard to tell where one begins and the other ends sometimes. Sick of the blackout? Something an enlightened party could do is email and call NPR and other supposedly "liberal" news organizations and ask them for information about the arrests and detainment in Philly. Ask them why they're not covering it more thouroughly. If enough people call them, It might just wake some yuppie journalist out of his haze!

After comparing local and national T.V. news footage from both the protests in Seattle and Philly, I 've noticed a pattern, almost a script in the mainstream coverage. An emphasis on the youth and "odd appearance" of the protesters. Much is made of tattoos, dreadlocks, and "dirty clothes." The commentators stress however, that these are NOT like "hippies the '60's",this will hopefully sway the Boomer into not indentifying with them and to continue snoozing on the couch. Then, after stating, "It was not clear what they were protesting," they cut to footage of protest related violence of some kind, struggling, glass breaking, often a highly ranking high profile law officer is shown personally arresting, restraining or otherwise "taking care of" a protester (i.e. Sheriff Whatshisname in Seattle and Timoney in Philly) The blackout surrounding Philly seems darker and deeper, though. The national coverage of Philly was like...nonexistant! It's either media control or the total apathy of the people. It's hard to tell where one begins and the other ends sometimes. Sick of the blackout? Something an enlightened party could do is email and call NPR and other supposedly "liberal" news organizations and ask them for information about the arrests and detainment in Philly. Ask them why they're not covering it more thouroughly. If enough people call them, It might just wake some yuppie journalist out of his haze!

THEY WON'T GIVE YOU A VOCIE BECUSE THE PEOLE OF LA DON'T CARE!

Only "fat" Jackie Goldberg cares and she will be voted out of office anyway

It's obviously a problem, the blase attitude of the corporate media. Only when "violence" is "perpetrated" does the sensationalist media bother to remove their collective snouts from the hors d'oeurves at convention mixers. I think that's what's called a Catch-22. Have a nice "non-violent" march and they'll ignore you; stir the pot and you're a "radical" or an "anarchist."

They'd pay attention if Clinton or Gore were deprived access to the Convention just prior to their speeches, I imagine. I can just see the media-maggot anchors, waiting to broadcast the scheduled speech, desperately trying to fill up the lucrative "prime time" slot with more palaver. For a variety of reasons, this won't happen. So what's the alternative?

I'd suggest crashing as many events which feature the confluence of sell out Democrats and their puppeteers, corporate donors. Not in any centralized fashion, of course, (DAN HQ has cops crawling all over it) but rather, roving "flying squads" of 10-20 people deciding to get together (with a videographer and a legal observer preferably) to wreak the havoc of their choice.

This is not to suggest this course of action as an alternative to the many fine events and marches planned, however, it might be a good way to spend a couple of evenings. Read the LA Times and other local media--they seem to mention tantalizing events almost every day...

Dot-Commie #1917

Lakota wrote some great stuff....

as a viseographer/reporter sith the IMC I will treat the media as hostile.

that is when I am out shooting with my camera and I see the corporate media I will now approach them with camewra on and ask them qusertions about the blackout such as:

What opinion as a journalist do you have on the media blackout of p[olice sponsored violence/police brutality and torture of arrestees in Philly?

What media out let do you work for?

Are you under orders to turn your cameras off during police violence thuggery?

Do you consider yorself to be a journalist or a tool of a corrupt and dying corporate system that mirrors fascism?

What is your name?

Have you completely sold out or do you still have some integrity?

etc

I would encourage all of us to treat the corporate media as agents of the cops/democratic hucksters/corporate oligarchs.

Excuse me if I'm covering old ground here but...Videotaping is important as evidence of abuse or harrassment but make sure that the footage survives!! So many reports of cameras broken, stolen and with them, the footage. Perhaps in a "flying group" a designated film runner could be appointed to periodically take film from the scene to a safe location away form the action? I know in Philly this would have been difficult considering the "corralling" of protesters, but the chance of damning footage surviving with smaller more mobile groups with a film runner.

H.G.

Excuse me if I'm covering old ground here but...Videotaping is important as evidence of abuse or harrassment but make sure that the footage survives!! So many reports of cameras broken, stolen and with them, the footage. Perhaps in a "flying group" a designated film runner could be appointed to periodically take film from the scene to a safe location away form the action? I know in Philly this would have been difficult considering the "corralling" of protesters, but the chance of damning footage surviving with smaller more mobile groups with a film runner.

H.G.

Excuse me if I'm covering old ground here but...Videotaping is important as evidence of abuse or harrassment but make sure that the footage survives!! So many reports of cameras broken, stolen and with them, the footage. Perhaps in a "flying group" a designated film runner could be appointed to periodically take film from the scene to a safe location away form the action? I know in Philly this would have been difficult considering the "corralling" of protesters, but the chance of damning footage surviving with smaller more mobile groups with a film runner.

H.G.

i am a news editor at an LA TV station. i am a sympathetic and openminded person.

my bosses would love nothing more than for protesters to make a big mess of the convention. the democrats will not bring eyeballs to sell soap. the protests will.

targetting my colleagues, the TV station crews, will accomplish 2 things: hurt innocent workers and make the bosses pull the newstrucks out. both will make the protesters look like fringe lunatics.

my e-mail is mcnaryjohn@hotmail.com

i am open to your opinions.

Direct Action For Media Democracy!

Sept. 20-23, 2000

Protest the National Association of Broadcasters

Convention in San Francisco

The National Association of Broadcasters is the WTO of the broadcasting industry. It spends millions of dollars every year lobbying to keep the airwaves out of the hands of the public.

We can thank the NAB and the media giants that it represents for:

¥ Putting out the trash called commercial radio and TV.

¥ Stereotyping youth, people of color, and working class people.

¥ Censoring and misrepresenting the issues that we care aboutÑfrom homelessness and immigrant rights to the environment and labor.

¥ Pushing for legislation like the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which legalized media monopolies, creating The Gap and Starbucks of the airwaves.

¥ Engineering the giveaway of billions of public dollars by handing over the digital TV spectrum to the corporate media.

¥ Fighting tooth-and-nail against grassroots media efforts like low-power radio that would bring hundreds of new voices and perspectives to the airwaves.

Bring your microradio transmitters, your dancing shoes, and your militant nonviolent attitude.

(415) 546-6334; Fax 546-6218

info@media-alliance.org

www.media-alliance.org

MediaAlliance 814 Mission Street, Suite 205, San Francisco, CA 94103

For more information visit www.mediademocracynow.org

Join Media Alliance, Project Censored, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Micropower Action Coalition, Global Exchange, Prometheus Radio Project, Direct Action Network, and other organizations in protest!



Act up, party down, raise hell, shout out. SLaM NAB

Direct Action For Media Democracy!

Sept. 20-23, 2000

Protest the National Association of Broadcasters Convention in San Francisco

The National Association of Broadcasters is the WTO

of the broadcasting industry. It spends millions of dollars every year lobbying to keep the airwaves out of the hands of the public.

We can thank the NAB and the media giants that it represents for:

¥ Putting out the trash called commercial radio and TV.

¥ Stereotyping youth, people of color, and working class people.

¥ Censoring and misrepresenting the issues that we care about - from homelessness and immigrant rights to the environment and labor.

¥ Pushing for legislation like the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which legalized media monopolies, creating The Gap and Starbucks of the airwaves.

¥ Engineering the giveaway of billions of public dollars by handing over the digital TV spectrum to the corporate media.

¥ Fighting tooth-and-nail against grassroots media efforts like low-power radio that would bring hundreds of new voices and perspectives to the airwaves.

Bring your microradio transmitters, your dancing shoes, and your militant nonviolent attitude.

(415) 546-6334; Fax 546-6218

info@media-alliance.org

www.media-alliance.org

MediaAlliance 814 Mission Street, Suite 205, San Francisco, CA 94103

For more information visit www.mediademocracynow.org

Join Media Alliance, Project Censored, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Micropower Action Coalition, Global Exchange, Prometheus Radio Project, Direct Action Network,

and other organizations in protest!



Act up, party down, raise hell, shout out. SLaM NAB