LMDJ, part 2

First panel: Have the media undermined our democracy?

Moderator: Tracy Westen, University of Southern California.

Rep. Hilda Solis
Kevin Uhrich, Pasadena Weekly
Brad Friedman, bradblog.com
Alex Nogales, National Hispanic Media Coalition
Jonathan Taplin, University of Southern California

Rep. Solis: "We have a long way to go to making access available..." especially for communities of color. "I am very concerned about the DTV transition... I still ahve not seen a coupon that is in different languages that explains when and how to use it." Solis' constituents approach her for clarification, and they are badly misinformed about the transition.

I never would have guessed that Congresswoman Solis would be someone who says "By golly," but she is.


Kevin: "I want to talk about... the bloody revolution that is occurring right now in the world of daily newspapers.... There is a flipside to this." Alternative weekly papers are making money. Check out aan.org and www.altweeklies.com. "This is where I think that women and people of color have really found a voice.... Is the media destroying democracy? Maybe a little bit, but the media is doing a good job destroying itself."


Brad: "The polite conversation we have here, in Congress... I'm here to say it has not worked... I have been called one of the Paul Reveres of the election integrity movement... If I had [a horse] I would ride it down these stairs crying out 'corporate media has failed... corporate media has failed!' And if the corporate media were here, they would probably take a picture of that... The bad guys have figured out how to game [all of our tactics]... They have figured out that they can go to certain academics who will say whatever needs to be said." Brad is naming names: Jeffrey Milyo University of Missouri is, apparently, a hack who says that when the MSM covers Iraq that Democrats are getting their issues covered and that photo IDs for voting. What a broad range of expertise! "There is a truth, and we need to start reporting it."


Alex: "The media tells us who we are, what we are, and what we are worth." This is not working out very well for Latinos. "the FBI has reported that hate crimes against Latinos is up 25%... and it starts with hate speech.... unless we curb these excesses, this country is not going to live up to its potential... Right now our biggest push this year is to mitigate the excesses of these hate groups."


Jon Taplin: "You are in a world of a broadband duopoly." Taplin thinks it's a waste to have municipalities creating a third wire into the home. We should just be subsidizing access.

Universal Service Fund goes to fund the private jets of providers in Montana.

He also thinks we should restore the Fairness Doctrine, restore "true" public access and fight AT&T, and make Net Neutrality a critical issue, as well as privacy. "The rich will have access to an on demand, private walled garden and the poor will be bombarded" with personally targeted advertising.

This is a great and energetic crowd.