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Channel of Our Own Welcome to milepost 3 on the road to regime change. Last time, we sketched out a new map for taking power — via state-by-state effort to rally the D/democratic troops. This time, the challenge is derivative. Just how can we sound the call to arms — when we know it won't be on Fox News? Or NBC, or anywhere else? While tempting, we won't change much by moaning about Rush Limbaugh and the ever-annoying shortfalls of the "mainstream media." Nor will our dreams for a progressive media network be realized anytime soon. Sorry, but it's tough love time, folks. We have to understand there are no miracles on the horizon. The fact is, even if we had a spare $500 million to start a liberal cable channel tomorrow, it's highly doubtful we could fill it 24/7 with compelling programming. Frankly, we'd be lucky to deliver a few hours each day of liberal talk that was provocative — rather than preachy. That's the bad news. The good news is we can create our own liberal "echo chamber" using the media platforms, opinion soapboxes and marketing channels we already control. The model will be driven less however, by "broadcast" media (e.g. Rupert Murdoch's Direct TV), and rely more on "narrowcasting" mechanisms such as face-to-face outreach and peer-to-peer contact. Imagine, for instance, an army of progressive Avon ladies (and gentlemen!) fanning out to preach to our "choir" — and to win over potential new converts.
So what are the pieces we can cobble together to create a liberal, Avon "media platform" of our own? It's really not such a bad line up: Soup cans and string: very affordable and popular with the small fry. Or better yet, add a salad and hold house party for ProgressiveMajority.org, MoveOn.org or another effective group you support. Voila, you've created a marketing channel that's more fun than Fox. The color of money: Sorry, Ann Coulter, but liberal authors like Jim Hightower, Arianna Huffington, and Michael Moore are top-10 best sellers. Publishers are getting the clear message that our politics actually sells books. Watch what happens when organic consumers get seriously empowered to act through new media channels like Organic Valley's Farm Friends Network (www.organicvalley.com).These and other efforts will, I bet, change quickly our thinking about what an "action figure" really looks like. (Not) The alternative press: Hey, pardon me, but I hate this term — it marginalizes so-called "alternative" newspapers. Why do their editorial opinions count less than other papers? Because we help that happen by calling the others papers "mainstream." Let's stop. Pop & politics: It used to be we'd spend tens of thousands of dollars on a rock concert to get thousands of folks excited about an issue — and then we'd leave the scene with six e-mails. Not good. Fortunately there's a new generation of organizers who can stage cultural conversations, teach-ins and concerts that bottle the positive energy that artists create at events effectively — before it dissipates. There's even a manual for this new form of channeling. E-mail info@rollingthundertour.org to get yours.
Yes, in the long run we will want to re-capture mass media outlets on TV and radio from the media giants who own them now. (Al Gore, in fact, is actively developing a progressive news channel targeting a young, MTV-style audience and a liberal talk radio network is reportedly in the works). That said, we're not going to reverse the right's hold on traditional media overnight — or by traditional means. We shouldn't copy their business model either. In fact, in a new age of 500 cable channels and TIVO technology that allows viewers to fast-forward through commercials, the old advertising-based model that supports Fox, Clear Channel and other conservative conglomerates is in serious jeopardy. What's back in season? A fresh approach to an old idea — the membership-based revenue model of public television offers the most sustainable pathway for growing liberal media. That — plus content that engages and entertains. Having trouble tuning in to all this media jargon? I'll bet. Check out www.mediareform.net for the clearest thinking in this area. Their national conference — coming up this weekend — will be a great well-spring to tap. Dan Carol is a Democratic political strategist and a founding partner of CTSG (www.ctsg.com),a progressive consulting firm based in Eugene and Washington, D.C.
Draining
Frogs I remember the day I learned to distrust the word "development." I was in high school, walking near downtown Whittier, my town in Southern California. I paused at a fenced lot of bare dirt — and about 75 improbable rose bushes blooming in a dozen colors. Some neighbor had anonymously planted and tended the bushes for years. A construction company's sign on the fence said, "This site soon to be developed." I realized that meant, "This place of roses soon to disappear." Recently, I was crouched in an October Oregon wetland, which means it wasn't wet. The dark clay soil had contracted during summer into blocks of pea-gravel clay separated by deep cracks. A frog called from inside one of the cracks, hidden. A friend was showing me native plants that have been restored to this wetland, after lawn and fill had been removed. Spike primrose, coyote thistle, Oregon sunshine, blue-eyed grass, tufted hairgrass. They had all regained a once-lost neighborhood. I particularly wanted to see a panic grass that grows there. I love the wildness of its name, and how its small seeds park far out from the main stem on gravity-defying, horizontal threads. We couldn't find the panic grass, but I learned of another one there: American slough grass, with thick, flat seeds ducks admire. A dragonfly cruised past. A scrub jay flew. Another hidden frog called from inside its clay-crack sound chamber, inches from my foot. My friend walks here often. Last year, he says, a marsh wren stayed through the winter, though they usually migrate far south. Tree frogs will begin calling in January. Crows mass in the nearby ash grove, migratory birds nest (and are sometimes eaten by crows) in the restored willows, butterflies locate host and nectar plants — all this and more in one small patch of nature. But it's surrounded by developments. To the north of the patch lies a bus transfer station. To its west, a swimming pool. To its south, a maze of ball fields. To its east, a jogging/walking trail. Because this is Amazon Park.
Right now, there's a choice looming for the park: more open space of restored nature for children, old people, walking, and jogging; or the development of two more ball fields requiring extensive drainage at the edge of the wetland? The latter is being pushed by the Parks Department and ball players who run into an after-work baseball "traffic jam" three months a year. The former is being favored by a growing number of neighbors and other Eugeneans who use Amazon Park around the clock and year round, and have watched the park become stuffed with more and more developments, lights and parking lots, while open space has shrunk and shrunk and shrunk. Currently, Amazon Park has five baseball fields (two of them guarded by offensive chain link fences); four soccer fields; four tennis courts; two in-line hockey courts; and two volleyball courts. And lights. Seventy-two bright, unshielded stadium lights above these 17 fields and courts. The park also contains a swimming pool (25 more lights) fenced dog park, wading pool, skateboard facility, two community centers, a bus transfer station and five parking lots. However, if the chemically maintained lawns of two more fields are not built here, the creek could be allowed to meander, freeing it from its disheartening strait-jacket of concrete. The ash grove could be reconnected to the creek, expanding habitat for the bird and tree frog choruses, by simply moving the much-used jogging and walking path to the west side of the wetland (i.e., same length, more nature). A boardwalk could be built in the ash grove, elevated above winter ponds and spring camas, and under autumn colors and summer shade. Another boardwalk could snake through the wetland, giving a close-up view of the wetlands' remarkable seasonal changes. And all the lights could be shielded, so sunset and evening could come home to the park. With this park, our community has a chance to do what communities too rarely do: consider the implications of alternative futures. We're much better at building one development after another, and then waking up one day to find we have drained frogs, wild grasses, and the rest of nature from our lives. NOTE: One way to help insure that options are considered for Amazon Park is to contact Citizens for a Natural Amazon at 513-8151; and wander through www.cyber-dyne.com/~tom/03/natural_amazon.html.A public meeting is scheduled for 7 pm Nov. 20, at the Hilyard Center, call 682-4914 to confirm time. Mary O'Brien of Eugene has worked as a public interest scientist for the past 22 years. She can be reached at mob@efn.org |
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