[IMC-US] personal reprtback for indy folks about the NationalCOnference on Media Reform.

[Joshua Breitbart]

I hope no one minds me reigniting this thread. I've been doing a little forensic
research on the conference and I wanted to clear up a few things:

The most important thing is that the format of the independent media caucus was
entirely the fault of Eric Galatas. Eric invited Craig Aaron and Howard Feld to
present to the independent media caucus. So we should not blame Free Press for
that.

Regarding the "self organized media center" – I think some people at Free Press
would have been very into it happening. There's probably only one person who
was worried about there being a pirate radio broadcast. Apparently, they
offered Betsy some space for the St. Louis IMC to hold workshops and such after
it became clear CAMP would not be available; Betsy turned them down without
consulting with anyone.

We could have done more if we had been in communication with each other before
the conference. I could have done more to put us all in communication with each
other before the conference (though it probably would have required an extra
hour in the day).

Free Press could have done more, and probably wishes that it did. It seems like
some of them expected Indymedia to organize the way it did at the 2003 Media
Reform Conference in Madison (not recognizing how different the local
conditions were; and even though the Be The Media shadow conference was
actually organized by the Madison Infoshop, WORT radio, and some Madison
Indymedia). If people want to organize a media center at the next conference,
Free Press would probably be into it.

One thing to keep in mind that applies both to the media reform movement and to
Free Press specifically: these are not monoliths. Different people have
different attitudes and approaches.

My sense is that many individuals in Free Press would have handled the CAPCR
thing differently, as well. In the hectic days before the conference, the
people at the top of their hierarchical structure made a different decision.

And lastly – Sascha's jacket. Almost too silly to mention, but someone said to a
group of people I was in that Free Press told him he had to wear a suit at the
conference. Not quite. Turns out he had the jacket on over his short-sleeve
shirt because of the freezingness of the hotel.

None of this discounts the critiques of Free Press's ideological orientation.
More on that in a minute.


Josh