Silence of the media

If ignorance is bliss then local news consumers are in nirvanna!

It isn't every day that a group of highly respected politicians agrees to name a specific day of the year* after an important institution like UCAN, yet that's exactly what happened last Tuesday, when the San Diego County Board of Supervisors unanimously proclaimed that January 26, shall forever be considered "UCAN DAY" in San Diego County. 

I've written elsewhere why "UCAN DAY" should immediately be proclaimed a Federal holiday, yet for some reason, the mainstream media has been strangely silent on this vital topic. Not a single word has been written in the Union Tribune, or the North County Times.  Nor can one fail to note the conspicuous absence of coverage by Martin Bashir or Cynthia McFadden on ABC's Nightline, which opted to focus on the John Edwards sex scandal instead.

Perhaps more troubling, our researchers have scoured the local TV news stations and the entire Internet for at least one mention of UCAN Day in the popular media, and none - not even one - has mentioned this seminal event.  Instead they have regaled the viewers of San Diego with predigested video pablum - a starvation diet of the trivial, the mundane, the bloody, and the absurdly sexual.  

If you have experienced the same thing - what journalist Daniel Schorr* called "the narrow funnel of the mainstream media" you are not alone. But unlike Daniel Schorr, who lacked viable alternative media outlets during his long career, you have choices: You can use new media to get your news and creative works exposed to a vast international audience.

And that is precisely why UCAN's New Media Rights project is so vitally important. New Media Rights was formed in 2007 to help users of alternative media become more proficient with new technologies, the law, and the concept of citizen journalism.

As the "old media" landscape of TV, radio, and newspapers begins to wither away, new media is creating dazzling opportunities for ordinary people to create and publish their own messages and artistic works without interference or censorship from government, the authorities, TV producers, or newspaper editors.

New Media Rights offers equipment, expertise and even a studio for local San Diego residents who want to get the word out. 

So if you have a worthy project, creative effort, or message that you think other people should know about, then consider visiting New Media Rights - it can give you access to the tools you need to produce, edit, and publish your own work.  And if you ask for it, they'll even help with practical advice on how to avoid getting sued.

Don't let the mainstream media muzzle your message.

Check out UCAN's New Media Rights today. And if you like what they are doing to protect your right to express yourself, you might even want to send them a few bucks to show your support. 

* Okay, we admit that politicians perform this or similar rituals on a near-daily basis, but the operative word is respected politicians.
** Daniel Schorr was fired from CBS news for publishing the Pike Report, a secret government document in what was then considered alternative media - the Village Voice. Schorr selected the Voice because he feared that CBS news would censor his report which detailed illegal domestic spying programs by the CIA and FBI during the Nixon Administration.