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Last revised: January 28, 1997
WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR NEWS?
by Mary Moore
10/1/96
WITH ALL THAT ACTIVISTS (progressives, leftists, insert your own preferred definition but please don't call me a liberal) have to keep track of, it is crucial that we have reliable news sources along with courageous and ethical news gatherers. Instead we are up against an increasingly corporate owned mainstream media and the alternatives that used to be available are either folding completely or giving into the "pragmatism" supposedly needed to keep afloat. It's a pretty pathetic situation and not getting any better.
Here in Sonoma County a good case in point isThe Independent. What used to be a truly independent and truthful voice has deteriorated over the years to yet another slick and shallow publication pandering to the wine and foodie set. It is now owned by unconscious cretins in the Bay Area and (with a couple of exeptions) run by young yes-men who left their political ethics at the door. For those of us who remember its birth in 1980 as an upstart, in-your-face replacement for the Stump (with better graphics and typesetting) the real change started when they moved from West County to Santa Rosa. Even then with Jim Carrol still at the helm they did try to keep their inclusiveness and integrity intact while paying for their new high rent space. Since the current editor took over, any activist news that does manage to get in is in the News Briefs section with the emphasis on "brief". It's been a real loss to our community.
The other major example of an alternative news source in Sonoma County that so many of us depend on is KPFA. That's why their slide toward an NPR format has been so hard for many of us to accept. The management of KPFA (Pacifica Network) is dominated by Pat Scott and her demolition team with the full cooperation of station manager Marci Lockwood and program director Ginny Berson. There are still some progressive and caring programmers on board but after last year's major programers purge they don't know how stable their slots are and not too many of them are willing to challenge management. Their union seems neutralized. Many of us still use "our" station as a main news source but have stopped paying for it. They are pandering so to the yuppies--let them foot the bill. For people unaware of the ongoing situation at KPFA and the other Pacifica stations, send for back copies of the Free Press. Send $ 3.00 and ask for KPFA series.
A lot of local activists diss the daily Press Democrat as being totally controlled by theNew York Times While it's true that you're not going to get alot of cutting edge stuff from them, they have greatly improved their local coverage of our community over the years, and their editorial page is featuring more diversity in its columnists. That has been as a result of alot of perserverance and hard work on our part, in developing relationships with some of the more intelligent reporters and columnists like Bleys Rose, Chris Smith, Clark Mason, Susan Swartz and Gaye LeBaron. At this point in our collective history, our news, if it is covered at all, is covered better in the mainstream Press Democrat than it is in the "alternative" The Independent. Go figure.
There are other little pockets in Sonoma County where our voices can still be heard if the news situation is localized. The Bodega Bay Navigator and Sonoma West (covering Sebastopol and the Russian River area) are a couple of examples. For women there is always a chance to dialogue in Women's Voices, and We the People gives a similar forum to gay and lesbian issues.
In radio-land KBBF (89.1 F.M.) is still used as the voice of the people although it is much underutilized by the white activist community. Tune in, you might be surprised to see what's going on!! KSRO is another station that will treat us fairly when we have an issue that needs discussion. During this election period they have scrupulously given time to all the candidates, including third party candidates who often aren't even treated that well by their fellow activists. (but that's another story)
The bottom line still comes down to the fact that more and more of our news sources are owned by major corporations who dictate and control what we know and how we know it. That's why the Internet, which can bypass these forces, is such an exciting concept. Unfortunately it is still unavailable to most of us, especially poor people. With all this in mind, the Free Press went to people in our community to learn just where we do get our news--the information that forms our views. Between printed materials, radio, T.V. and the Internet, it's impossible to absorb it all so we asked people to share their main sources of information. Here's some of what we got:
JOHNNY OTIS, Sebastopol: "If you want the truth about what's going on in the world--good luck!! The daily papers I read are the Press Democrat and The San Francisco Chronicle, but when I can get it I like to read the San Jose Mercury News. And of course I listen to the public radio stations like Pacifica."
MEI NAKANO, Sebastopol: "In reviewing my sources of information, I'm jolted by the reminder that what goes into one's head is as important as what goes into one's stomach. Me? I eat too many sweets and watch too much sappy T.V. Here is what comes by subscription to my house: Free Press, Women's Voices, Peace Press, Press Democrat, Sonoma West Times and News--all from Sonoma County; Hokubei Mainichi, Pacific Citizen (ethnic newspapers from which I can get information nowhere else available); the Sunday Chronicle/Examiner, Newsweek, The Progressive, and the health newsletter CSPI Nutrition Action. I listen regularly to KPFA radio, KJAZ FM and KCBS news and play roulette with the Six O'clock News on TV including PBS. I'm a binge TV viewer so can't list all the bilge that filters in and out of my brain from there. But I read alot of books and those I choose with more discretion."
WILLIE GARRETT, Santa Rosa, "I subscribe to the New York Times and I listen to KQED while I'm driving"
LAURA del FUEGO, Santa Rosa, "Popular media is like processed pablum ....... Powdered potatos, just add water and mix...Spam and nitrate antibiotic injected chicken eggs...Fast food, it's bland and deceptively dangerous like infected rat hair infested beef dressed up at Jack-in-the-Box to look cute, but like E-Coli eventually can kill you. Use sparingly or just cold turkey and quit. Join the underground small presses, renegade presses. Gossip has more real information. Or like Harriet Tubman start your own underground railroad of information"
IRV SUTLEY, Glen Ellen: "RADIO HAVANA!! I watch C.N.N., and also read the Press Democrat and the Free Press. The P.D.'s political coverage has gone from bad to worse and should be the # 1 feature for Project Censored. Mostly I go to the public library to read the more expensive magazines like The Nation, Progressive, and Mother Jones. A couple of smaller publications I like from the Bay Area are Ballot Access News and Citizens for Proportional Representation."
CHARLA GREENE, Oakland: "My preferred media source is the newspaper, mainly because it is able to do more in depth coverage of more news items. The best newspaper I have found is the San Jose Mercury News. The recent series about the CIA involvement in drug sales in the black L.A. neighborhoods is a case in point.That story took several weeks to filter to other papers and I don't know if or when the S.F. Chronicle will give it any attention. The Mercury also has a hookup with the internet for more in depth information on smaller, more specialized articles that may not demand the print space but are still worth knowing about. Their Saturday paper is like a regular weekday edition of the other papers. The reporting is pretty straight forward without any obviously manipulative language, unlike the extremely right wing S.F. Chronicle."
KWAZI NKRUMAH, Los Angeles: "I have very little time for in depth, day to day newspaper reading and there are fewer and fewer sources remaining on the left. My main source of information is from books as well as word of mouth from other activists. After that I get a superficial overview from the mainstream media and I also get information from Pacifica for as long as that may last."
NANCY OVALLE, Sonoma: "My most reliable sources of information are first hand accounts, word of mouth, insider tips and the alternative local press. Less reliable is the mainstream press and so called "Liberal" tabloids"
WAYNE GIBB, Forestville: "The Nation, KPFA, and San Francisco Chronicle,which I feel is better on the national news. I also like the Wall Street Journal when I can get it"
ANITA POREE, Kenwood: "I heard it on the Grapevine--justa justa justa 'bout to loose my mind, honey, honey uh, uh, yeah!!!"
JEFF ELLIOTT, Sebastopol, Editor of the Albion Monitor: "Aside from
tips on local stories from citizens and freelance reporters, almost all my
news comes from the Internet. I scan news wires directly and read newspapers
published hundreds (or thousands) of miles distant. Important? You bet. Earlier
this year, the Press Democrat printed an L.A.Times story that seemed
to discredit stricter laws enforcing oil spill cleanup. Only by going to
the source did I learn that the original article was entirely different--that
the PD had selectively edited a much longer piece, apparently to discredit
environmentalists.
Through the Internet, I can also scan government reports. Directly from the GAO I learned of medical fraud by HMO's and nursing homes, the neglect of our national parks by the forest and park service, how whites and the wealthy exploit affirmative action programs, and about many other scandals. The Albion Monitor has been the only media in the country to report on these topics, sadly. Perhaps most valuable are the viewpoints available directly from advocacy groups. When I wrote an overview of last summers' dramatic protests by Native people in Canada, much of the complex background information came directly from Internet postings by protesters and from regional alternative media coverage in Canada."
PETRA BOARDMAN, Sebastopol: "It's not simple to sort through the barrage of pseudo-news, non-news and anti-news that surrounds us. The following have helped me. First, for local news I subscribe to the Press Democrat. I acknowledge its limitations in the national and world news departments, but the PD has some folks on staff who are dedicated to giving voice to our diverse community. Important stories are, by policy or oversight, sometimes omitted, and the usually irrelevant Independent has picked up a few of these--recent examples include the portrait of Peace and Freedom Party candidate Al Liner (the PD rarely acknowledges third parties) and an espose of the dismissal of SRJC biology professor Micki Graham.
Despite changes in KPFA's management and staff, it remains my best source for world and national political news. When U.S. missiles rained again on Iraq I turned to KPFA for background. Campaign non-issues are put in perspective by commentators like Amy Goodman and Larry Bensky. Dennis Bernstein and friends keep me informed about U.S. government action and inaction at home and abroad. And First Light wakes me at 5:00 a.m. with music to give me sanity through the day--bless them! I rely on The Nation for more background and perspective to filter 'the news' that is otherwise foisted upon us. In the past I've also tried Z and In these Times, but I always go back to The Nation as my favorite more or less weekly publication."
AL LINER, Santa Rosa: "For local run of the mill news I read the Press Democrat. For more in depth local coverage I read the Free Press and the Independent. For more national stuff I read periodicals like Progressive and The Nationand will even go further to the right to the New Republic for a broader perspective."
ENID PICKETT, Santa Rosa: "Access to the news. Hmmm. What is defined as news is sadly determined by the Corporate Mens' Club. Yet, to J.Q. Public, the news is relative to each individual's interest. Local, state, national global information is underreported and sadly underestimated. What the media defines as news is carefully crafted for the average non reader to stimulate rather than educate. I avoid the mainstream misinformation. I subscribe to alternative public radio, KPFA, NPR, KBBF as well as The Nation. I watch CSPAN for direct access to political events. Mainstream news is always watered down facts with little substance. Investigative reporting is a lost art for the mainstream media."
ALAN SILVERMAN, SANTA ROSA: "The Internet is the information frontier of the 21st century. No censorship, low cost and open peer review ensure that every voice can be heard and responded to. The spoken word was empowered by the invention of the press. Radio and television brought sight and sound to every home. The Internet compounds this new power of communications by making freedom of expression available to all. The downward spiral of computer equipment costs and services brings the cost into the same range as that for a quality television and VCR with cable access. The big difference is that the Internet allows for responses, public and private. This tends to add credibility to information posted on the net. Visionaries are recognized and liers are trashed. The Internet has integrity. I get my best international news stories from the net. I forward interesting stories to reporters and friends online. I learn about current events and often email comments to my elected and appointed officials."
PATRICIA ROBLES MITTEN, Santa Rosa: "In printed material I read the Press Democrat daily along with the Independent and the Free Press. On T.V. I watch CNN, Spanish speaking stations and European News Cable. We don't get all the news we need so I subscribe to Project Censored's publication."
TOM YEATES, Jenner: "While doing my drawing I go back and forth between KPFA and KQED. I read the Bodega Bay Navigator and theFree Press on a regular basis and the Press Democrat and San Francisco Chronicle sporadically. Also don't forget word of mouth as a news source."
BETH & OZ GRIMES, Petaluma: "Do any readers of this paper, besides us, watch 'The X-Files'? At some point in the program, six words appear on the screen:THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE, and it is. You just have to go looking for it. TV news is to information what junk food is to nutrition. Except for the weather report and an occasional story of local interest, might as well skip it and we do. We watch C.Span some. We read the Press Democrat and the Petaluma Argus Courier thorougly. You can get good facts from the mainstream press once you've trained yourself to decode it. Most readers of this paper already know that. We read all of the letters to the editor of each paper. It's possible to get some valuable information that way, as well as a new insight or two. Of course we read the Sonoma CountyFree Pressfrom cover to cover.
In addition, we read some of The Nation, Mother Jones, Utne Reader and Ms at the library. We also like The Progressive and a quarterly magazine On the Issues contains information not seen anywhe re else. It's really a leading edge publication. We listen to KPFA. Although it isn't what it used to be, it's still light years ahead of some other stations. We also sometimes catch Michael Krasny's Forum and Ray Suarez's Talk of the Nation on KQED. Okay, it's NPR and Krasny and Suarez are liberals but they do a fairly good job of presenting objective coverage on some issues some of the time. Last but not least, there is the Internet and an ocean of information in which one could easily drown. The trick is to learn how to splash around in it without being overwhelmed."
TIMOTHY OSMER, Cazadero: "Let's name what the media presents--olds!! Nothing really new in the reporting of repeated patterns of ruling class use of government, industry and social structures to manipulate everyone else. It has all been done before, only the trappings change. Yet we who care lap up the old offerings to get the facts and details about the latest injustices and inequalities. Then we react, scrutinize, analyse, plan and resist. Trouble is this pattern keeps us firmly in the grip of those perpetrators of the uglyness because there is never enough time left to step back from the symptoms= media information and disinformation, to examine and act against the root causes and begin to build alternatives to existing systems and institutions."
LOIS PEARLMAN, Guerneville: "Funny, I didn't realize what a newsprint chauvinist
I am until I attended a conference of the NATIONAL LESBIAN and GAY JOURNALISTS
CONVENTION last month where I discovered all the interesting and informative
things that creative TV and radio folks are doing. I also took a gander at
the world wide net with its world of information--some of it presumably reliable.
I even write for the net sometimes. But, for me, there's nothing like a
newspaper--so affordable, so easy to fold so it fits comfortably by a cup
of coffee or a dish of food. Besides the various and sundry local papers,
both free and otherwise, I guess my other primary news source is my network
of friends and acquaintences."
by Mary Moore
This is a story that was a source of outrage and common knowledge for over a decade in black communities but was never taken seriously by any mainstream news source. In brief, the CIA did an end run around Congress by using the profits from the sale of crack cocaine to targeted communities to illegally fund the Contras in Nicaragua. This was a cynical creation of a cheap but powerful addiction in communities ripe for revolt and they used existing divisions (Crips and Bloods) to keep people divided. For almost three weeks some of us called the Press Democrat on a daily basis to ask why they were not carrying this story. I am sorry to report that while most of the reporters I talked to had "sort of heard about it" at least one of the main editors there was totally clueless before our calls. To his credit he ended up writing a decent editorial about it after the series had finally run. The point is, never assume that the professional news gatherers have any more knowledge about world or local events than do you and I. In this case we were at least a decade ahead of them and as I'm sure you know, this is only one example.
For back copies of this series, contact the San Jose Mercury News,
the Press Democrat or consult the Internet. If you haven't already
absorbed this information, do it, and be sure and share it with your friends
and family that have always felt you were a little paranoid. In this case
paranoia was a heightened sense of awareness. |
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