This is a summary report of the conference held in Boston over the weekend called National Conference for Media Reform (NCMR) put on by Free Press.
It's clear to me that we are in the midst of a raging class war and WikiLeaks is on the front-lines. Because mainstream journalists act as gatekeepers of information for the Empire, information is used to manipulate working people to comply with capitalist authorities and always results in more oppression. That is precisely why we must counter this insidious method of control over our lives.
When it comes to journalism and public media, WikiLeaks shows how professional journalists in the corporate or Beltway media find themselves to be part of an elite class. They think citizens need them to understand and process current events and the political issues of the day. They find they should be deciding what to cover and what to leak and should cooperate with government when making decisions on coverage and leaks. Their worst fear is an organization like WikiLeaks that levels the playing field and challenges their "gatekeeper" role in society by publishing previously secret information for the public to read and cover on their own blog. They do not want citizen journalists to become as credible as they have historically been because then they might have to confront their allegiance and fealty to power. They do not want to be held accountable for failing to engage in the investigative journalism Americans should expect from the press.So far, we are losing the class war and time is running out for us to win it. Essentially, I think it is now time to man the barricades, metaphorically speaking, or we, our children, and grandchildren can look forward to a nightmarish dystopia characterized by endless wars, greater extreme wealth and poverty, climate change related conditions of famine and extreme weather, and environmental devastation.
