Above thy deep and dreamless sleep...

Above thy deep and dreamless sleep...

How still we see thee lie....

O Little Town of Bethlehem Advent Calendar

EACH DAY IN DECEMBER A NEW WINDOW WILL BE OPENED!
WATCH FOR THIS ON-GOING LOOK INTO THE LITTLE TOWN OF BETHELEM



To hear the music: http://hymntime.com/tch/htm/o/l/i/olittle.htm

Thanksgiving Special

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiphLMJKHCI

Protest in Kingston, NY

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Bernie Madoff and the Anarchist Fairy

Bread and Puppet 2009

This is the side show that Nadine Bloch, Margo Bloch, Iolanthe Boneham Brooks and Helen Finagar produced.The web site for the Young Activist Club is http://sites.google.com/site/youngactivistclub/links

Another struggle going on in school lunchrooms is the quest for healthy locally produced food. A wonderful new tape is What's on Your Plate?
**********************************************************
This is the opening of the Dirt Cheap Money Circus:
The Circus part two

What is the power that is stronger than the power of metal?

and Bread and Puppet's contahistoria called FOREVER:

Cabinet and Foreign Affairs

I wanted to go to a book reading by Dan Graham, but got there too late. It was a very young crowd. The women were very neat and mostly had on spiked heels. The guys, on the other hand, looked scruffy, sort of like Graham at a younger age. They were all white. I didn't even see an Asian person there.
It was the first time I was in the book store called McNally-Jackson. It's on Prince Street. Their books were a really odd assortment. For example there was an issue of Cabinet (very trendy art journal but intelligent enough) on the same stand as Foreign Affairs.
I always remember making the Paper Tiger show, Archie Singham Reads Foreign Affairs. Archie was a great Brooklyn College professor who was a major advisor to many 3rd World countries. I remember him saying that in Foreign Affairs academics "earn their living by being obscure" and making what is actually a simple issue (of exploitation, colonialism, etc) so complicated that people don't understand.There was also a big display for Conde Nast Traveler with a cover straight out of colonial India. What century are we in anyway? There were no issues of NACLA, or the Indypendent, or any of the other more pointed left publications. I went there because I was curious about Graham, as I am not all that familiar with his work and I haven't seen his Whitney show yet. I did however recall getting a fax from him, or someone named Dan Graham, in early 1991 during the Gulf War, saying that he had seen the Gulf Crisis TV Project which we had sent to a few places in Europe. I thought it was Scotland, but could have been Ireland or London. Anyway I went to the fax machine one day and there was this scribbled message that said, "THANKS. I'M IN THE UK. SAW YOUR SHOW. MADE ME PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN. DAN GRAHAM." I always assumed it was THE Dan Graham even though I never had met him, I thought he must have seen the series at some gallery or event on the street. Lots of places showed it during those weeks. It was the only dissident series against the war. So for all these years I thought I had this secret admirer-- well not secret. I thought that Dan Graham loved Deep Dish/Paper Tiger-- our work.

But the other night at McNally-jackson when I asked him about it as he was leaving the bookstore he seemed quite annoyed with my question and said gruffly "I don't know what you are talking about. It wasn't me."

So I guess there is another American Dan Graham who was proud of our work.

I still hope to see his show at the Whitney before it closes.

Clips from the Woodstock Forum

THE WOODSTOCK FORUM:
Building a Peaceful, Just and Sustainable Economy


Introduction and Background
It is 40 years since the historic Woodstock Festival crowned an era now associated with peace, love and rock and roll. Although the 1969 festival itself did not take place in Woodstock, but in Bethel many miles across the Catskills, the town of Woodstock, New York, nevertheless, has become a pilgrimage point for people seeking to either rekindle those years of love and music, or at the very least to buy a tie-dye T-shirt. Despite the great deal of hoopla surrounding the 40th anniversary of the famous festival, very little attention has been paid to the philosophical culture which permeated the event and its aftermath.
In 1969 the Vietnam War was a central focus for the passion of the crowd and the many songs of protest. At the Woodstock Forum, which took place August 15 and 16, well over 300 people heard and discussed the many pressing issues of OUR time. We are overwhelmed with on-going wars, continuing exploitation of people and resources around the world, worsening ecological devastation and usurpation of our communities for weaponry and repression. In 2009, although the name Woodstock is synonymous with "peace and love", the biggest employer in our own town is a military contractor. Given the perilous state of New York, the nation and the world, we need more than ever to discuss how to convert the engines of war for a peaceful future.
In the sessions held at the Woodstock Town Hall on Saturday we heard from historians, poets, workers, social critics and journalists such as:
Peter Woodruff, worker in a Maine weapons factory; grass roots organizer, Mary Beth Sullivan; legendary activist Diane Wilson, author, An Unreasonable Woman and co-founder Code Pink; poet and teacher, Janine Vega; curator and gallery director, Ariel Shanberg; award winning journalists Jeremy Scahill and Jeff Cohen; economist Robert Pollin; historians Silvia Federici, Simon Harak, SJ, and Richard Grossman; social critics Joel Kovel and George Caffentzis; filmmakers DeeDee Halleck and Tobe Carey.
The speakers painted an ominous view of how militarism has gripped our communities, our culture and our lives.
On Sunday the Forum switched from presentations on what was wrong to reflections on how citizens could right those wrongs. A day of deliberation, contentious at times but essentially forward moving, led to the drafting of an initial statement and the framing of ways to build movements, local as well as regional and national, to carry the struggle forward.

Statement from the Woodstock Forum

We, participants of the Woodstock Forum, meeting August 15 and 16, 2009, the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival, reclaim the authority for our lives and our communities. We reject the usurpation of our rights by the military-industrial-media complex.

We reject the actions of our country to foment wars around the world and to manufacture, export and sell weapons. Weapons are the number one U.S. export. Our cities and towns have become home to industries for death and destruction.

We declare that:
1. we will map and research the military industries that control the economies of our communities, that control the minds and pockets of our government officials, that pollute and destroy our land and waters.
2. we will draw attention to these industries of death through educational outreach to local and national media and with imaginative and creative non-violent actions.
3. we will build coalitions to convert weapons-making to peaceful manufacturing and to create meaningful work in education, the arts, health care, and ecological development.
4. we vow to take personal responsibility for the products in our workplaces and in our lives.

We will not cease our resistance to the death machines in our midst and to the laws that support them.

The Woodstock Forum Committee:
Nicholas Abramson, Laurie Arbeiter, DeeDee Halleck, Tarak Kauff, Laurie Kirby, Joel Kovel, Helaine Meisler, Fred Nagel, Katya and Paul Rehm, Laurie Sheridan

Anniversary of Death of Kerwin Herdenking

'Kerwin-herdenking' -- Poster for the 2005 edition of the yearly memorial of Kerwin, one of the most well known victims of racism in Holland. He got murdered on the Dam square in Amsterdam. His memorial day became an important anti-racism event. This edition was organized in coöperation with Samen tegen racisme. Also visit: http://www.samentegenracisme.nl and http://www.kerwin.nl 20 August 1983: Kerwin was walking with a friend in Amsterdam when he was pestered by a group of skinheads. He went into a nearby snackbar but when he came out, one of the group told Kerwin he had no right to walk there and abused him racially. Kerwin said he could walk wherever he wanted to, whereupon he was stabbed in the stomach. The attacker had the words '100% white' tatooed on his arm.

Kerwin ran to the Dam Square, got into a taxi and asked to be taken to hospital. The taxi driver said he didn't want blood all over the seat, took him out of the car, lay him on the ground and told him to wait for the ambulance

Kerwin lay there while onlookers stood round him watching his blood seep into the cracks between the cobble stones. It was almost 20 minutes before the ambulance arrived to take him to hospital. He died shortly after.

Both Kerwin and his killer were 15 years old.Every year on 20 August you will find us at the Dam Square, remembering what happened here in 1983, affirming our commitment to the condemnation of attitudes which say that one colour is better than another, one belief is better than another, one culture or language or custom is better than any other culture, language or custom.
By doing this we hope to remind people of the other side of tolerance; the side which allows children to kill each other and fascist mindsets to sanction such murders. We do it also to repeat that no matter how individuals or the media may try to reframe it, there is no denying that this murder was racism - plain and simple.

Kerwin
While some of them will hunt you down
to kill the rest of you
the others will hold festivals
to have something to do

And even while they make of you
the very first to die
because of age-old Dutch racism
we both know it's a lie

And even if it were the truth
what would it really change?
the jingle of the guilder
is the rattle of the chains

The chains they used to bind the blacks
and certain whites as slaves
strange the ways they have devised
to get folks to behave

Lord knows the list is long
no space is left to fill
the names of those they've wronged
the unknown ones they've killed

A-h-h Europe - your rope - your rope
around my people's neck
after all you have taken and done
what more do you expect?

Yes!!! they come and why not
to see theirdiamondstolen sparkle in your sky
for us poor / folk / of a darker race
it's always been a place to go and die

Kerwin:
The 1st black to set a foot
in America as a slave
was left in trade
from a Dutch man-o-war

Kerwin: what makes you differ
from the others racism had die
is that your case of death by race
is one they can't deny

A blood-stain on a taxi-seat
meant more than your life
that's why you layed down on the street
when you were wounded by that knife

When they decide
that one must die
it's while the blood is wet
that we're obliged
to ask ourselves
which one of us is next?

Remember the friends close to you
who did not look like you?
who did not treat you as
so many of the others do?
Friend is a friend is a friend
is not a color of a skin
but a way of being
this! hate cannot relate
and this is where racism steps in

Racism is one thing we learn from history
has done more to damage man than any one disease
people live and people die: that is a natural fact
but not so if the reason why is
just because you're black

Kerwin you were not the first
but we want you to be the last
we want fascism to stop
and we must do it fast

Kerwin
No one believes it - Kerwin did not - had he - alive
he would be - but he didn't believe -
racism - fascism - Adolf Hitlerism
or just plain Amsterdam snobism

No one really believes there is a thing called
racism
it's always something else -
it's not because of your color
they say: it's the way you carry yourself -
School children in Kenya reenact the death of Kerwin.

Who knows what reasons they'll retrieve
racism is something no one believes
even when the black lays dying in the street
no one believes it

Closed eyes don't see it
racial abuse / an excuse
no one believes it though it is true -
Kerwin didn't believe / why should you?
Plus how could he?
no one believes racism to be -
like they didn't believe the Vietnamese
pleas to live in peace
they didn't believe blacks should be free
after 400 years of misery

KERWIN
They didn't believe / they didn't
believe that we too should
have a right to breathe -
no one believes racism to be /
that people are people
with a right to be happy and free - happy and free

No one believes that to be the way it should be
no one believes it possible because no one believes
people don't even believe
what their eyes can see
the injustice / the waste / the inhumanity
they just don't believe - they just don't believe

The horror is so normal
so, so, so informal
that the normal horror is believed good
even at the cost of blood �

Maurice Di, 25 August 1984One of the annual memorials for Kerwin and against racism organized in Holland by Amina Marix Evans.

Garlic Harvest

Pulling them out of the new raised beds was easier than when I just planted in the clay soil directly.
Mnnn! Time for some really frest pesto: walnuts, basil and as many cloves of this garlic I want to peel!

Beached

I was suspicious about the rave reviews of Varda's new auto-bio-pic. I've never been a big fan of Varda. I found the film Daguerréotypes (also known I think as Rue Daguerre) excruciating. The Gleaners, which so many swooned over, just made me angry. An insult to Millet.

Years ago I did see and rather liked Lions' Love, but only because Shirley Clarke and Viva were in it-- in all their glory.

Her new film, The Beaches of Agnes, is just as cloying as Daguerreotypes and even more (if that is possible) narcissistic. Lots of familiar folk here and lovely images of Guillaume (Chris Marker's signature cat)-- as a larger than life cut out walking down the street. Perhaps the best image in the entire film. But there is no real appreciation of Marker or of any of the people she mentions. Beaches is replete with name dropping, like a society column.

The problem is there is really no sense of history. In any of her films. History for Varda is like an antique shop-- there only for consumption. In Beaches, she breezes past WWII, Vietnam, the Black Panthers, as if they were tableaux in shop windows--and all she is interested in is her own reflected image.

She uses art the same way. She culls contemporary art and takes the visuals for her "background" and leaves the concept behind. The film opens with a scene on the beach with a group of interns each holding or placing mirrors. Joan Jonas did stark and scary work in the 1970s carrying mirrors around--showing the audience to themselves or looking at various parts of her own body. Her performances made the mirror an instrument of terror. In Varda the mirror is just part of the decor.

Varda takes her office to the street which has been covered with sand (beach). Beuys did performances in the streets of many European cities--performances that challenged the prevailing mores. Varda's office street beach is reassuring. There is a smugness about putting your office outside. It doesn't challenge anything. It borders on cute, sort of like a child's lemonade stand.
For an interview with Varda check out Liza Bear's piece in Interview:
http://www.filmforum.org/films/beachesofagnes/Agnesvarda2.pdf

The Weaving Porch

Xena, Molly and Io made this rug.
For our annual 4th of July party Molly and I set up a loom for the guests to weave. It took Molly two days to warp it, but it was a great experience for all!
This is Iolanthe's rug:
This is Molly's rug:
Tolan started weaving after everyone left Willow.
Tolan kept weaving deep into the night. This is his rug:

The State Dept Visits the Waves of Change Site

For 11 Minutes...
the search terms were "community radio Senegal"

NYU/Yale Open Media Conference

lots of boys.
lots of code talk
drupal, plumi, etc

and then there's a whole other bunch talking
about things like elevator pitches.
which i thought must be a new form of muzak-- something
that goes directly into your blackberry while you're in an elevator ..
but no
it's just how to get your "concept" to the CEO in the time it takes you to get from the first to the 12th floor.
In other words,
lots of guys looking to sell their 'concepts".

lots of the presentations are on line at www.openvideoconference.org

this is no next five minutes.
unfortunately.

but there are some good ole indymedia friends.

On Friday night they had a great lineup of the workshops and speakers archived on their web site.
But today (Tuesday) I am trying to catch up with some of the stuff I missed on Saturday and all that is
up are a few "remixes". Where are the talks? Where are the workshops?

So much for "open video"...........
Did all the geeks jump on the pirate ship and sail away?

Arise you prisoners of starvation !!

In honor of Harvey Goldberg and Paul Buhle

Harvey Goldberg Day at the Brecht Forum in NYC

Daniel's Tango

Happy Birthday, Pete Seeger

This rousing version of the Woody Guthrie song was sung by Pete Seeger on October 28, 2002 at a rally against the invasion of Iraq held in Kingston, New York. Today Pete Seegar is 90 years old.

The Wrens Came Back Today

This is from last year--one of the many off-springs of our yearly visiters:

Bailout for the Media Moguls?

Comments on the Nichols/McChesney March Nation Article
Thinking Outside the (Newspaper) Box
DeeDee Halleck, April 4, 2009

John Nichols and Robert McChesney have written a widely posted Nation article searching for answers to the current emergencies in the newspaper business. ("The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers") They recognize the crisis as an opportunity to rethink public media in general and their suggestions for remedy are at least a provocative starter for the needed reassessment and creative activism. They suggest the government pump in $60 billion over the next three years, a pricetag that is similar to, though less, than the handouts to AIG and the US banks.

However, it's hard to believe that anyone could seriously want to salvage the "print-fitted" U.S. corporate news. In their article, the media reformers are trying to prop up the bankrupt "fourth estate" with proposals for salvation, requesting that Congress help the media corporations-- well, at least the ones that own newspapers--by subsidizing delivery by the U.S. Post Office and even free delivery for some periodicals. They would also bequeath to readers limited tax exemptions for newspaper purchase. How this would work is a bit fuzzy and their definition of journalism is more Washington Post and New York Times than the Indypendent, the NYC based Indymedia weekly, let alone community radio and public access TV. Missing in the article is any discussion of the popular tabloids. I doubt if Nichols and McChesney consider the NY Post or even the New York Daily News as capital "J" Journalism. It may have been a long time since either Nichols nor McChesney rode a subway, so perhaps they don't have a clue as to what the masses read. The authors must read the NY Times with their croissants.

Subsidies

The papers they would subsidize are replete with advertising. Why should U.S. taxpayers subsidize the delivery of ANY ads? Their proposal does put a tepid limit on subsidies to "ad-supported" news --only ones which have 50% or less ads. We are already paying for ads in the cost of promoted goods. The postal service is burdened with the weight of the ads sent as catalogues and all the other junk mail that has flourished with "bulk" rate subsidies. Junk mail is just that-- the "bulk" of postal business today.

I'm surprised that these media reformers have undertaken such a rush to resuscitate their own often blasted past targets. They agonize that without newspapers, "Politicians and administrators will work increasingly without independent scrutiny and without public accountability." They admit that the U.S. press has sadly missed that sort of independent scrutiny for decades, but there is a lingering belief that journalism (with a capital J!) is usually "on the case." How does New York Times' war-monger Judith Miller fits into that ideal? Certainly it wasn't just "bad apple" Miller who lead the war chorus. The Times wasn't "reporting" about Iraq prior to the invasion, but actively orchestrating the battle cries--as they were soon to follow with their treatment of the Iran "threat".

Where are the Nichols and McChesney of their New Press 2005 book, Tragedy and Farce: how the American media sell wars, spin elections, and destroy democracy? One longs for a systemic critique, not a band-aid and a pat. They have good impulses, but they are compromised and essentially brought down by their allegiance to established professional hierarchies and by their inability to acknowledge (even their own!) critique of corporate media. There is no recognition of the on-going process of "manufacturing consent", so brilliantly laid out by Herman and Chomsky. Instead there is almost an apology-- similar to the Times' own mea culpa vis a vis Judith Miller. Nichols and McChesney say: "The news media blew the coverage of the Iraq invasion". "They missed the past decade of corporate scandals." (My emphases) It's as though these are just some mistakes--aberrations that could be rectified by some additional resources and a few more good reporters. They call for the system to create "far superior" journalism. There is an abiding faith in the system itself.

Journalism Education

The Nation article proposes that there be subsidies for journalism education. Why feather the nests of the mainstream journalism schools? An interesting survey would be to find out how many of the winners of, for example, the Polk Journalism Awards, have actually attended those stodgy bureaucrat factories. The heroic journalists who come to mind didn't hatch in those halls. Amy Goodman studied anthropology. Seymour Hersh and Studs Turkel went to law school. Naomi Klein attended the London School of Economics. Robert Fisk was a literature major. Even deceased mainstream ABC anchor Peter Jennings didn't attend journalism school. He never even finished a BA, saying he "lasted about 10 minutes" in college. Polk award winner Jeremy Scahill cut his teeth at the Catholic Worker. Scahill once said that journalism schools produce only lemmings. His solution is to declare journalism a trade and insure that young people learn out in the field, apprenticing as he did with Amy Goodman. He claims to have learned more from his work cataloging Amy's piles of news clippings than he would in any college classroom.

The U.S. junior high schools and high schools don't need journalism classes, but courses that encourage young people to take an interest in history, economics, political science and yes, literature. In terms of the media, U.S. schools need CRITICAL media education, so that students learn to critique not only the New York Post, but The Nation and Hulu and the twittering prose of Face Book. Scandinavia has a long tradition of requiring media analysis even in primary schools. "Tell me kids, why is Teletubbies sponsored by Kelloggs?" Our high school students, many of whom are members of My Space, need to be taught to understand how data mining works. Those cute Face Book questionnaires and attitude surveys are conceived by marketers who are building profiles, for their next round of "push" ads.

Public, Educational and Government Access

McChesney and Nichols suggest that there be government support for school newspapers and low power radio. Great. There are high schools where radio and internet reporting is happening right now. Students and community organizations have had access to technical and training support for coverage of local (and national) issues in the often dismissed world of PEG channels. PEG (Public, Government and Educational) access in many communities are required by local governments as a payment for use of the local "right of way." This has resulted in media centers in several thousand municipalities where communities can have access to cameras, computers and channels, all maintained by the cable operator. PEG has done admirable work in a providing opportunities for gaining technical proficiency, moreover, in providing an authentic "public sphere" for creating and exchanging information and opinion. The impressive PEG infrastructure is currently threatened by the heavily funded lobbying of ATT and Verizon. These corporations are seeking to get state legislatures to enact laws which gut the local regulations that require cable corporations to provide access. McChesney and Nichols' Free Press has not foregrounded this battle, preferring to highlight the sexier struggle for "net neutrality". However, recently after a bit of prodding, Free Press helped by urging their list serve members to make FCC comments in support of PEG. This is part of an inquiry by the FCC into how cable corporations have been "slamming" access channels by moving them into hard to find digital "closets" not easily accessible to channel switching remotes. .

The struggle for an open internet can’t be limited to "neutrality". Sure, the preferential use of speed and access by internet providers should not be allowed, but as technology enables telecommunication companies to pursue video distribution, we are moving closer to the convergence of these technologies, as any owner of an I-phone can attest. That means that the battles for PEG and the net all have the same protagonists, and all of these companies should be required to provide space and resources for the public. Enacting regulations which require support for public communication across all platforms should be part and parcel of the internet governance fight. Our airwaves and our "rights of way" enable these technologies and there has to be a public "pay back." Timber cutting and resource mining in national forests must compensate the public. Why not "rent" for our sky?

Nichols and McChesney speak of the need to protect public media from government interference, but PEG activists and administrators have developed concrete examples of how public media can be shielded from government and corporate interference. Many of the cable franchises now in place are far more effective than the "safeguards" at PBS, CPB and NPR. In terms of media regulation, PEG is a pretty good model, although in many cities and towns PEG is underfunded and neglected. However, in those cities where PEG has flourished with comprehensive contracts with the cable corporations, such as Tucson, Cambridge, Burlington, Portland and many, many more, public communication via access channels provides many of the things right now that Nichols and McChesney want "public broadcasting" to do in the future.

"Quality"

The Nation article has confusing proscriptions for a future "public media". McChesney and Nichols state: "Only government can implement policies and subsidies to provide an institutional framework for quality journalism. We understand that this is a controversial position." But then they go on to say they don't endorse "government support". They then argue for expanding funding for public broadcasting, and argue that in their proposed future, "no state or region would be without quality local, state, and national or international journalism." They do not outline how the programming would be protected from government (and corporate) interference, nor do they define what "quality" is, any more than they delineate the "vibrant democracy" that they say was the goal of Jefferson and Madison. That the views of women and non-landholders weren't part of that "vibrant" consensus in our early Republic is not mentioned in McChesney and Nichols' enthusiastic statements about the press.

That quest for "quality" is one of the ruses which mainstream journalism, from the NYTimes to public broadcasting, has used to maintain their status quo. The position is succinctly put in the quote by James Carey in the McChesney/Nichols article. Carey asks for "journalists to be restored to their proper [sic!] role as orchestrators of the conversation of a democratic culture." Is "orchestration" what we need for a "vibrant democracy"? A different critic, Communication Professor Herbert Schiller, in the first Paper Tiger TV program (critiquing The New York Times in 1981) saw that role as being "the steering mechanism of the ruling class."

Public Broadcasting

Nichols and McChesney are right that this is an opportune time to re-think the structures of U.S. media, and public broadcasting is a good place to start, but there are other more general problems than the need for multi-year consistent funding. Pouring money into the "public broadcasting" that now exists will only strengthen the elitism that has evolved from these convoluted, bureaucratic structures. The whole structure of PBS and CPB is designed to squelch any "vibrant democracy." While Nichols and McChesney warn about government involvement, they don't mention the gorilla in the room-- transnational agribusiness and the oil and insurance corporations. The subservient accommodation by PBS to corporate interests was recently clarified in the treatment given a Front Line program on health care which was initiated by Washinton Post reporter T.R. Reid, entitled "Health Care Around America". Although originally designed to critique profit-oriented health care insurance, PBS officials demanded major changes and any reference to profit oriented insurance being a "problem" was deleted. The script was changed to actually promote the insurance companies, much to the dismay of Mr. Reid, who tried, unsuccessfully, to have his name and his interviews taken off the show. The whole thrust of the program became diametrically contrary to the original intention of the correspondent. This is just par for the PBS course. Corporate funding (though only a fraction of the whole budget) is the power component not only for specific program selection, but for the operation of the whole system, and when the views expressed are in opposition to the corporate mind-set, those views are censored, not the corporation.

The boards of directors of the public television channels across the country are self-perpetuating elite representatives of corporate and mainstream interests. For a brief time in the 1970s there was a movement to have elected boards. Rather than change the make-up of the powerful who run these channels, the response to local and national activism was to set up "advisory boards" of "community" members. Most of those advisory boards have long since disbanded, realizing early on that they functioned only as public relations props and that they had no real clout to effect programming direction or station management. A new reassessment would have to take on the democratic restructuring of public television. Serious democratizing of the public broadcasting system must be a prerequisite for receiving any funding from Congress, or from any sort of fee based mechanism such as that which is the basis of the BBC.

Reconfiguring the funding in ways that are independent of party politics and corporate PR could help to make our public media true expressions of the lively issues and arts that exist in our country. Funding for public media can have strong prerequisites-- ones that foster independence, creativity and promote collaborations. The example of ITVS-- the Independent Television Service, founded by the lobbying efforts of independent producers in the 70s and 80s, has pioneered various ways (with a small budget) to support serious creative programming on public television. Democracy Now! is an example of new journalism that uses a hybrid mix of everything including camcorder/internet activists and cell phones to provide a daily program of hard hitting investigation and commentary by historians, lawyers, politicians, artists and those directly effected by wars and injustice. On no other outlet do we hear so often from the victims of global warring (and global warming). Because of the burgeoning "do it yourself" media sphere, there is great potential for cooperation between the many sectors of public expression: public television, public access, community radio, ipods, community projections and the internet. Each of these entities has infrastructure that can expand and develop with creative interchange that is open to sharing.

'The division between "professionals" and "amateurs" is exploited by such programs as the popular American Idol, in which a few talented "amateurs" vie for a "starring role." But the whole notion of "professional" media is constantly challenged by the millions of YouTube posters, eye-witness news gatherers, hip-hop DJs and the whole world of bloggers. The explosion of popular video and audio creation, combined with supportive infrastructure for distribution and exchange of this material can herald an era of public art and dialogue not seen since the WPA.

Communities of Location and Interest

Just as local food has become a rallying cry, local information, as Nichols and McChesney note, is what we want. Local media was consistently the overwhelming demand at the many community hearings that the FCC conducted over the past few years. In part, this was a tremendous reaction to the deregulation of radio and the swift consolidation of hundreds of broadcasting outlets. Let's hope that era of Clear Channel gobbling up local radio stations is over. The need for "local" is great in both the commercial and public arena in both television and radio. One has to look far and wide to find a public TV station (or even an NPR station) that does any local news. In the Northeast, WAMC FM out of Albany, NY has gobbled up local frequencies and is heard from Vermont to Connecticut, from Plattsburgh to Utica, from Pennsylvania to New Hampshire. Instead of local information this "mega channel" provides a hodge podge of "regional" programs squeezed in between the franchised NPR programs and their endless pitching for money.

I can recall when local radio would broadcast the menu for school lunches. Reviving that practice might improve the diet for a generation of youngsters. Parents might be scandalized in they could listen to the listing of catsup and potato chip meals that dominate school cafeterias. Local farmers can provide schools and colleges with fruits and veggies that are healthy and don't require carbon-spewing cross-country/world shipping. In a similar mode, local independent producers, youth, professors, musicians, elders, activists and immigrants can provide information, history, entertainment and art that is relevant and "home grown." At the same time we can exchange with international colleagues and friends. When information can travel freely (and neutrally!), community can be defined by interest and passion, and not limited by geography.