Thursday, September 21, 2006

MEDIA ADVISORY: Forum On Media Accountability Airs Live Tonight

MEDIA ADVISORY

September 21, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Forum On Media Accountability Airs Live Tonight
KHUM To Host and Air Panel Discussion Featuring Humboldt Media Makers

Author and election integrity advocate Dave Berman has assembled a panel of Humboldt County media makers for a panel discussion on media accountability airing live from 6-7pm PST tonight on KHUM, 104.3 and 104.7 in Humboldt, and streaming world wide at www.khum.com.

"The impetus for this event," explains Berman, "goes back to the June 6 California Primary Election when the Voter Confidence Committee challenged local media not to report what can't be proven (unverifiable election results) and what hasn't been independently verified."

A series of private meetings with local media and elections officials then led to a pair of Op Eds proposing the forum discussion. Participants include radio programmers, Mike Dronkers (KHUM), Tom Sebourn (KGOE) and Paul Encimer (KMUD); newspaper editors Charles Winkler (Eureka Times-Standard) and Glenn Franco Simmons (Eureka Reporter); KIEM-TV3 General Manager Bob Browning; and Berman, who has written a book and writes a blog by the same name: We Do Not Consent.

"Another topic I feel it is important to address," says Berman, "is the he-said, she-said style of journalism that allows opinion and fact to be conflated and presented in a false sense of balance."

Berman's work with the Voter Confidence Committee (VCC) has frequently generated media coverage questioning the security and legality of election conditions. Studies by computer scientists and government agencies, including the Government Accountability Office, substantiate concerns raised by the election watchdog group. Rather than exploring the contents of these reports, local media typically presents the basic charges contrasted by quotes from elections department officials, without regard to the relative weight of fact and opinion.

Tonight's broadcast, dubbed "Media Talkback" is an opportunity for listeners to redefine what is required of media to be considered credible. Fostering such dialog is a part of Berman's approach to blogging, which he calls advocacy journalism. Media from around the country are encouraged to listen online and cover the event. The panel will take calls from listeners at 707-786-KHUM.

The VCC has announced that this will be the first in a series of media accountability forums. The group expects to publicly confirm the date and location of the next event by next week.
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Contact:
Dave Berman
wedonotconsent@guvwurld.org
707-845-3749

KHUM call-in line: 707-786-KHUM
Listen online: www.khum.com
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As shown on
Dave's new blog,
Manifest Positivity

We Do Not Consent, Volume 1 (left) and Volume 2 (right), feature essays from Dave Berman's previous blogs, GuvWurld and We Do Not Consent, respectively. Click the covers for FREE e-book versions (.pdf). As of April 2010, paperbacks are temporarily out of print. Click here for the author's bio.

Back Page Quotes

"Give a damn about the world you live in? Give a damn about what you and I both know is one of the most shameful and destructive periods in American history? If so, do something about it. You can start by reading We Do Not Consent."

— Brad Friedman, Creator/Editor, BradBlog.com; Co-Founder, VelvetRevolution.us

"If in the future we have vital elections, the "no basis for confidence" formulation that GuvWurld is popularizing will have been a historically important development. This is true because by implicitly insisting on verification and checks and balances instead of faith or trust in elections officials or machines as a basis for legitimacy, it encourages healthy transparent elections. It’s also rare that a political formulation approaches scientific certainty, but this formulation is backed up by scientific principles that teach that if you can’t repeat something (such as an election) and verify it by independent means, it doesn’t exist within the realm of what science will accept as established or proven truth."

— Paul Lehto, Attorney at Law, Everett, WA

"Dave Berman has been candid and confrontational in challenging all of us to be "ruthlessly honest" in answering his question, "What would be better?" He encourages us to build consensus definitions of "better," and to match our words with actions every day, even if we do only "the least we can do." Cumulatively and collectively, our actions will bring truth to light."

— Nezzie Wade, Sociology Professor, Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods

"Dave Berman's work is quietly brilliant and powerfully utilitarian. His Voter Confidence Resolution provides a fine, flexible tool whereby any community can reclaim and affirm a right relation to its franchise as a community of voters."

— Elizabeth Ferrari, San Francisco, Green Party of California

"This is an important collection of essays with a strong unitary theme: if you can't prove that you were elected, we can't take you seriously as elected officials. Simple, logical, comprehensive. 'Management' (aka, the 'powers that be') needs to get the message. 'The machines' are not legitimizers, they're an artful dodge and a path to deception. We've had enough...and we most certainly DO NOT consent."

— Michael Collins covers the election fraud beat for "Scoop" Independent Media

"What's special about this book (and it fits because there's nothing more fundamental to Democracy than our vote) is the raising of consciousness. Someone recognizing they have no basis for trusting elections may well ask what else is being taken for granted."

— Eddie Ajamian, Los Angeles, CA

"I urge everyone to read "We Do Not Consent", and distribute it as widely as possible."

— B Robert Franza MD, author of We the People ... Have No Clothes: A Pamphlet for every American