Media Reform Conference: Keynote II

Part two of keynote event footage from the Media Reform Conference, first aired November 8, 2003 in Madison, WI. Keynote speaker Bill Moyers, introduced by Studs Terkel, speaks, followed by Al Franken. The "Tell Us the Truth" Tour performs three songs during the last 15 minutes. Other speakers include FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, John Nichols, and Bob McChesney from Free Press.

00:00Copy video clip URL CAN-TV logo followed by title “Media Reform Conference Keynote Event Part Two.” Clip of Bill Moyers speech.

00:46Copy video clip URL Introduction to the conference by Larry Hansen, Vice President of The Joyce Foundation.

01:41Copy video clip URL Prof. Bob McChesney from the Free Press welcomes FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, who speaks of the dangers of media deregulation. Current problems include large media consolidation, lack of election coverage, and “rampant” payola in radio and on TV. “Community public affairs programs accounts for one half of one percent of all local TV programming nationwide, but paid infomercials account for 14 percent. So we may be getting tight abs but we’re getting a flabby democracy.”

06:39Copy video clip URL Brief tracking disturbance in tape.

10:55Copy video clip URL John Nichols from Free Press feels he is “not worthy” to introduce Bill Moyers, and invites Studs Terkel out to do the honors.

14:07Copy video clip URL Studs Terkel comes out to a standing ovation from the crowd. “I feel an evangelistic fervor in the air tonight, a sense of passion.” He uses “fighting” Bob La Follette, the progressive Wisconsin governor and U.S. senator, as an example of evangelism and passion, traits he says are usually associated with right wing conservatives.

15:13Copy video clip URL Studs says, “I feel like a preacher at this moment, this is like a gigantic parish and I’m offering testimony.” He tells the crowd he is clinically deaf, so when he heard the phrase “embedded journalists” during the early Bush administration liberation of Iraq, he thought he heard “in bed with journalists,” saying “a hearing impairment sometimes eliminates euphemisms and offers higher truths.”

16:16Copy video clip URL Studs confesses he is fellow alum to now Attny. Gen. John Ashcroft, who he jokes is at least 350 years old. “You saw him in a previous incarnation in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible. You remember now, Salem, MA late 1600s, terrorism in the air… and here comes the preacher of the evangelist, Rev. Parrish, who says ‘you’re either with me or against me and if you’re not with my God, you’re in consort with the devil.’ … You see he’s the second oldest man of our species next to Methuselah.”

17:39Copy video clip URL Studs describes how Bill Moyers affected his life. “I hope and pray the next president of the United States most resembles Bill Moyers.”

20:17Copy video clip URL Bill Moyers begins his speech, “I would take the oath of office and resign the next day.” He humorously acknowledges his long friendship with Studs and the lasting influence of Bob La Follette. Moyers borrows comedian Ernie Kovacs’ view on media, “He knew television was a medium, because it was neither rare nor well done.”

28:37Copy video clip URL Moyers speaks of the three powerful forces undermining free speech and independent media today: Secrecy of government and its failure to fully disclose or be transparent; media giants’ push for commercial interests over public values; and the coercive relationship between the quasi-official partisan press and the current administration.

46:42Copy video clip URL Moyers talks about the passion needed to combat the three powerful forces: “Journalism isn’t the only bulwarking freedom, of course. It is in fact a deeply flawed craft practiced by deeply flawed humans, but at times it has risen to great occasions and made other freedoms possible.”

47:26Copy video clip URL Moyers delineates the history of freedom of the press in America using Thomas Paine’s publication of Common Sense and the Washington Post’s publication of the “Pentagon Papers” as some prime examples.

1:10:03Copy video clip URL Moyers closes his speech with “It’s your fight now. Look around, you’re not alone” and receives a standing ovation.

1:13:35Copy video clip URL John Nichols introduces Al Franken.

1:14:44Copy video clip URL Al Franken speaks about his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right and being sued by Fox News for parodying their tag line.

1:20:44Copy video clip URL Franken recounts receiving a letter from Fox News and reassuring his publisher. “I’ve been doing this for 30 years, don’t worry. Satire is protected speech even if the object of the satire doesn’t get it.”

1:22:00Copy video clip URL Tape audio more noticeably starts cutting in and out through the end.

1:43:29Copy video clip URL Nichols introduces “Tell Us the Truth” Tour, the band consisting of Billy Bragg, Tom Morello, Michael B. Holden, Lester Chambers, Boots Reilly, with special guest Jonathan Adelstein on harmonica.

1:45:01Copy video clip URL Band performs first song [There’s a Train of Change a Coming].

1:49:50Copy video clip URL Band performs song [Everyday I Have the Blues].

1:53:20Copy video clip URL Billy Bragg performs third song [No Power Without Accountability].

1:56:38Copy video clip URL Tape ends.