-Caveat Lector- Over 1,000 March Against NAB Corporate Media Ignore Demonstrations Against Corporate Media Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting <www.fair.org> September 26, 2000 >From September 21 - 23, media activists from across the country converged in San Francisco for a historic protest at the annual radio convention of the National Association of Broadcasters' (NAB), culminating in a march and rally on September 23 attended by well over 1,000 people. FAIR endorsed and played an active role in the demonstrations, as did a broad slate of media, labor and human rights groups; the San Francisco-based Media Alliance was one of the key organizers. Activists gathered to spotlight the undemocratic activities of the NAB, which is the principal lobbying and membership organization of the broadcast industry and one of the most powerful interests in Washington. According to the Center for Public Integrity, the NAB has spent $16.9 million since 1996 on pressuring lawmakers to assure corporate control of the airwaves. It's thanks in large part to the NAB that telecommunications deregulation has proceeded with such dizzying speed in recent years. The NAB has also worked diligently to block pro-democracy measures like low power radio and campaign finance reform. Nine activists were arrested during the protests, including Steve Rendall, FAIR's senior analyst and co-host of CounterSpin. In addition, three National Lawyers Guild (NLG) representatives were arrested while negotiating with police for access to their clients, the imprisoned activists. On Friday, September 22, about a hundred people rallied peacefully at the main entrance to the Moscone Center, where the NAB convention was being held. Activists used creative theatre and chants-- such as "NAB, FCC, K-I-S-S-I-N-G"-- to dramatize their concerns, and offered fliers to convention delegates. Four activists locked themselves together in front of the building and were arrested. Meanwhile, two activists gained access to the convention and disrupted the NAB's Congressional Breakfast by grabbing the microphone from NAB President Edward O. Fritts. They were not arrested, but security dragged them from the room and placed their hands over the activists' mouths to prevent them from voicing their concerns about the NAB's disruption of free speech. After the rally, the group began a march to the headquarters of KYLD (94.9 FM), a station owned by Clear Channel, the largest radio company in the country. En route to the radio station, police ordered the marchers to leave the street and stand only on the sidewalk. As marchers attempted to comply, police became confrontational, attacking one man (later arrested) and arresting two others, including Rendall, who was arrested while following police instructions to return to the curb. Ironically, KYLD's response to the arrival of people protesting Clear Channel's abuse of the public airwaves was to send two members of the station's morning show crew out to abuse the public directly. The two men attempted to initiate a physical fight, verbally abusing and shoving protesters. Police did not attempt to discourage the KYLD crew's aggression, though they did arrest two more activists when the marchers began to voluntarily disperse. Arrestees spent between nine and 16 hours in jail before being released. All charges have been dropped against the nine activists, but at this writing the three NLG lawyers arrested while attempting to gain access to their clients still face misdemeanor battery charges for allegedly hitting or touching a police officer. One police spokesperson told the San Francisco Chronicle (9/23/00) that the three had been denied access to the jail because they had been "marching with the demonstration and voicing their opinion," and were therefore protesters, not lawyers. (NLG representatives routinely accompany demonstrations as legal observers.) Saturday's events-- at which there were no arrests-- drew well over a thousand participants and included an energetic rally at San Francisco's U.N. Plaza, a march to Union Square and an impromptu demonstration in front of a hotel where many NAB delegates were staying. Featured speakers included Jello Biafra, Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman, Kevin Danaher of Global Exchange and FAIR's Steve Rendall. The satirical "Billionaires for More Media Mergers" staged a mock counter-protest, urging citizens to "Stay on your couches and off the streets!" and stating that six controlling media corporations are four too many, advocating instead for a "more efficient" duopoly on the Coke/Pepsi model. Also on Saturday, a coalition of media activists and public radio listeners attended a National Public Radio (NPR) board meeting to rebuke NPR for its relentless lobbying against low power radio. Low power radio advocates held a press conference to initiate an "un-pledge drive," in which they called on public radio listeners to withhold their pledges until NPR reverses its opposition to low power FM service. "We're sorry that it had to come to this," says Peter Franck of the NLG Center for Democratic Communications, but NPR "must be stopped before they destroy America's best chance in twenty years for neighborhood radio." Perhaps unsurprisingly, the corporate media have responded to protests against their own power with a news blackout. The NAB protests received no mainstream press or broadcast coverage outside the Bay Area, and precious little press attention even locally. As one sign at the demonstrations proclaimed, "The television will not be revolutionized"-- at least, not if the corporate media represented by the NAB get their way. But activists seemed undiscouraged; one popular chant was "NAB, we won't rest, till you broadcast our protest." ---- Want to give the NAB a piece of your mind? Check out FAIR's open letter: <http://www.fair.org/activism/nab-letter.html> For more information, see FAIR's NAB resources: <http://www.fair.org/nab.html> For non-corporate coverage of the protests, visit the San Francisco Independent Media Center: <http://www.sf.indymedia.org> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The NAB Protests-What Did it all Mean? by Richard Edmondson, SF Liberation Radio Co-founder "We're pissed! No shit! We hate the corporate media!" --protest chant in front of the Hilton Hotel I capped off "Slam the NAB" week with a plate of onion rings at the Beach Chalet with Lyn Gerry and Shawn Ewald, of Radio4all, and Maria Gilardin of TUC Radio. I had just come from the Hilton Hotel where about 300 extremely militant protestors had gathered after the main protest rally in Union Square had broken up. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) was inside the hotel--protected by a phalanx of San Francisco riot cops--listening to Lynyrd Skynard, a 1970s rock group whose signature hit had been a song called "Free Bird." Earlier in the day more than a thousand people had rallied in U.N. Plaza and marched to Union Square for an evening of performances by independent artists, and talks by Pacifica Radio's Amy Goodman, punk rocker Jello Biafra and others. All the speakers-as well as hip hop performers Company of Prophets and Martin Luther-slammed the corporate media without mincing words in the slightest. When the Union Square concert broke up people gravitated over to the Hilton, where an intense standoff developed between the protestors and police. The standoff ended peacefully. Police refused to arrest the torrent of energy that is Media Alliance Director Andrea Buffa, who sat down at the entrance to the hotel with about eight others. "Do you want to come in with us?" Buffa had asked me a few minutes earlier. Knowing Lyn and Shawn were returning to the east coast and that if I got arrested there was no telling when I would see them again, I declined -though not without feeling a little guilty. As it turned out, the sit-in went off with no arrests. At last, Buffa arose from the pavement and made the following announcement: "Our concensus seems to be that we were willing to put our bodies on the line. We've done what we had to do here. We have a lot of different tactics. We have civil disobedience. We have education. We have culture. So we're gonna walk out of here, and we're gonna start a media democracy movement." Cheers erupted. Four days of protest running concurrent to the NAB convention were over. But what did it all mean? For one thing it meant that a growing movement against corporate control of the airwaves had given the NAB and their stooges in Congress plenty to think about. For another thing, it meant that San Francisco Liberation Radio had been able to broadcast 24 hours a day throughout the entire convention-openly, and with our address well known to the FCC-and there had been not a damn thing the NAB could do about it. This is a crucial point, for it means the NAB does not control the airwaves, at least not in San Francisco. Stopping off at the SFLR studio, I dropped off the tape I had recorded earlier at the Hilton, handed it off to the DJ on duty, and started out for the Beach Chalet on foot. When I walked into the parking lot, Lyn, Shawn, and Maria, were sitting in their car, listening to San Francisco Liberation Radio. "We know where YOU'VE been!" they shouted. Our DJ, Bert the Turtle, host of the Babylon Beach show, had gotten the tape on the air and it was now playing on Lyn and Shawn's car radio. "It sounds really good," they said. I leaned into the car and listened. There it was-300 people screaming, "We're pissed. No shit. We hate the corporate media!" No, the NAB-while it exerts great influence over the airwaves here-does not completely control them. And the four days of protest in San Francisco we've just come through gives us a striking indication its influence is waning. One moment during the Union Square rally is especially illustrative. I was standing in front of the stage area recording Pacifica Radio's Amy Goodman, who was making some good points about radio being the most accessible, the most democratic, means of communication for the most numbers of people. "At the beginning of the Zapatista uprising, I went to Subcommandante Marcos' first news conference. Where did they have it? The had it in San Cristobal de las Casas in a church and only allowed in radio reporters. Because they said radio was the most important vehicle for communication because it was what most people could afford. It wasn't television; it was radio. And I think we have to always remember that. And low power FM is the very core and the heart of that," Goodman said. I was standing there with my little portable recorder tucked under my arm, with my little external microphone pointed up in the air trying to catch the sound from the big speakers on stage. Suddenly, as Goodman spoke, I realized how totally un-alone I was. Throughout the crowd were literally dozens of people like myself-standing there with little portable recorders and little microphones up in the air. There were more of those little microphones pointing up in the air than there were cell phones at a Starbucks on a busy day. It was a sign: pirate radio was becoming ubiquitous. And there's not a damn thing the NAB-for all of its efforts to control the Congress-can do about that either. Of course the week was not without its disappointments either. And certainly one of the biggest was the failure of both SFLR's and the Independent Media Center's webcast signals to work consistently. This says a couple of things to me: 1. That what the NAB broadcasters have been arguing-that micro stations should just be satisfied to broadcast over the Internet, and leave the airwaves to the big guys, is a lot of bogus hooey. Our over-the-air broadcast was the only thing that worked reliably for us all week. Moreover, if the Internet affords such great opportunities for radio stations to be heard, perhaps, the NAB broadcasters would like to swallow a little of their own medicine: abandon the airwaves in favor of a webcast operation. 2. That what Goodman said about radio still being the most important means for communication is right on the money. Computers and the Internet are still largely the domains of intellectual and economic elites. Certainly, the technology for Internet radio will improve, but for right now it's still problematic for most people to listen to a web radio station--and it's still difficult for most small, community stations, who invariably attempt to do their Net casts on little or no money, to be heard that way. "We must be able to speak for ourselves," Goodman said, "because it's the majority, not the minority, who is excluded from the corporate media-it is the majority voice. And that voice will be echoed around this country when low-power FM is allowed to freely function." The week was not without its humorous aspects--not the least of which was SFLR DJ Steve Zeltzer getting into the NAB convention disgused as FCC Commissioner Michael Powel. (We have Powel's official NAB convention badge hanging on the wall in our studio now.) Or take the giant Ralph Nader puppet, put together by a group from Santa Cruz-the puppet had Nader holding two chickens, one in either hand. One of the chickens has a George W. Bush face, and the other a Gore face. Around his neck Nader sports a sign saying: "Tell these cluckers to let me into the debates." And then there was the totally awesome performance of the El Teatro Campesino players-featuring a bawdy and thoroughly disreputable cast of characters, including an actor wearing a rat mask representing the NAB. "Relax boys, we can all share," NAB-rat tells the other corporate media villains-until, that is, "Guerilla Radio" makes his appearance on-stage to the wild, enthusiastic cheers of the more than 1,000 people present. Guerilla Radio----turn that shit up, as Rage Against the Machine would say. And indeed that seems to be where the low-power FM movement is headed-at least for the near future. As Free Radio Berkeley founder Stephen Dunifer commented: "If you're in a community where you're eligible for an LPFM license, I say go for it. But they have essentially banned low-power FM licenses for any urban area in this country," Dunifer said of the Federal Communications Commission's low-power FM rules, which will make it impossible for LPFM stations to become licensed in many large cities where the FM dial is especially crowded. "The only option is to put up your stations and go for it, because we have the numbers. The FCC cannot fight thousands of stations going on the air." Other highlights of the week included a forum on the NAB's role in censoring labor voices, as well as a panel on the NAB and media consolidation organized by the Independent Press Association. The labor forum included a talk by Janine Jackson of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. "You can have-and I remember this quote because it's in my brain-you can have USA Today begin a story, 'Analysts say the Lordstown strike will determine whether GM can stick to its gut-wrenching plan to become a lean, industrial powerhouse, or give in once again to the United Auto Workers union,'" Jackson said. "Well, which side are you supposed to be on in that conversation-but I love how 'analysts say.' Again, it's not USA Today-it's unnamed 'analysts.'" Jackson also cited a Time Magazine story which had referred to "images of union leaders as spaghetti-sucking mob bosses," and which had implied that such images "may be true." The message of "Slam the NAB" week was underscored by this as well: No mention of Saturday's march of more than 1,000 could be found in either the Sunday or Monday editions of the San Francisco Examiner. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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