Democracy Now Petition Presented to WYCE and WGVU

On May 20, 12 people attended the Community Media Center's (CMC) monthly board meeting to present to them a proposal that they air Democracy Now! on their radio station, WYCE. The group delivered a petition circulated by Mediamouse.org with nearly 600 signatures of people who want to have Democracy Now broadcast five days a week between the hours of 7am and 10pm. All of those who came advocating for Democracy Now! addressed the CMC board and gave a variety of reasons why it would be beneficial to broadcast this program in West Michigan.

The only question that was asked by the CMC board was "It is safe to say the Democracy Now is left leaning in its political orientation. What do you think we should do if after agreeing to air that show, someone else comes in and asks us to air a show that is politically to the right?" The response was that "if you are a community radio station you should consider all programming ideas that come from the community. However, in this case, you could also say that in looking at the spectrum of talk radio shows that already exist in this market, there seems to be an abundance of politically right shows and virtually no programs that could be considered progressive."

Since the CMC board did not have enough members present to make any decisions, the issue was tabled until their next meeting on June 17. The group of 12 have requested to be put on the agenda for June 17 and are encouraging others to send e-mails to the Executive Director of the CMC, Laurie Cirivello laurie@grcmc.org.

This campaign is also asking for WGVU, channel 35 to air Democracy Now!, but since they have no local board structure and there are no local open meetings, 2 people involved in the campaign delivered copies of the petition signatures to the station manager that same week.

Mediamouse.org Amy Goodman Fundraiser a Success

175 people attended the Amy Goodman fundraiser at Plymouth Congregational Church in May. If you missed the lecture and want to see it, Mediamouse.org is selling copies on DVD in our new online store:

http://www.mediamouse.org/store/

You can also purchase a bunch of other lectures on DVD by folks such as Ray McGovern, Andrea Smith, Robert Jensen, and Vandana Shiva. Proceeds from the sales help support Mediamouse.org

Michigan RNC Consulta this Weekend

Unconventional Michigan is hosting a statewide consulta for folks planning to attend the upcoming protests against the Republican National Convention (RNC) in the Twin Cities. The consulta will take place on Saturday (June 14) at the NorthStar Center in Lansing (106 Lathrop St) at 9am. There will be workshops on independent media, blockades, direct action, legal, and health and safety. Mediamouse.org is doing the workshop on independent media, drawing on our experience covering the RNC protests in 2004 and our experience generally as media activists. We'll be talking a bit about plans for independent coverage of the RNC protests as well as discussing the question of when--and if--it is appropriate for radicals to communicate only within movement media.

For more information, visit:

http://uamichigan.wordpress.com

Canary Effect Screening - June 25

Mediamouse.org is co-sponsoring another film showing this month with The Bloom Collective. This month we're showing THE CANARY EFFECT, a really well put together documentary about the genocide of Native Americans and the ongoing effects of colonialism. The film will be shown at 8:00pm at The DAAC (115 S Division Ave) on June 25. Admission is $2, but no one will be turned away for a lack of funds.

Amy Goodman Fundraiser - May 10

This Saturday, Mediamouse.org is holding a fundraiser featuring a lecture by Amy Goodman, the host of the television/radio program Democracy Now!. Goodman is on tour celebrating the release of her new book "Standing Up to The Madness" as well as the 12th anniversary of Democracy Now. The talk will take place at Plymouth Congregational UCC, located at 4010 Kalamazoo SE. Doors open at 6:00pm and Goodman will speak at 7:00pm. Admission is a $5-$25 sliding scale donation to Mediamouse.org. Following the talk, there will be a book signing.

Film: We Interrupt This Empire - May 20

On May 20, Mediamouse.org is co-sponsoring a screening of the film "We Interrupt This Empire" about resistance to the Iraq War. The film explores how antiwar protestors shutdown the financial district in San Francisco following the US invasion of Iraq. The film weaves together footage of marches, civil disobedience, black blocs, and other tactics to show how protest moves to resistance. The screening will take place at 8:00pm at The DAAC (115 S. Division Ave). A $2 donation is encouraged.

Progressive Directory of Western Michigan Re-Launched

Mediamouse.org recently re-launched the Progressive Directory of Western Michigan. The Progressive Directory of Western Michigan connects people with groups that are working towards a more egalitarian world/community with the goal of encouraging folks to get involved. To that end, the Directory now has updated contact information for over 100 groups in Grand Rapids. Check it out and get involved with one or more of the groups listed:

http://www.mediamouse.org/progdir/

Email Lists

Mediamouse.org now has five email lists that we would like to invite people to subscribe to. The Weekly Events Mailing List is a weekly summary of protests, lectures, film showings, and other events happening in West Michigan; The Bi-Weekly Media Mouse Newsletter is what you are reading right now; The Daily News Summary is a daily email containing all of our news headlines; and the Media Action Alerts are occasional emails sent out about media policy and the corporate media's coverage.

You can subscribe to any of these lists at:

http://www.mediamouse.org/subscribe/

Redesign

Mediamouse.org was redesigned back in April. While it is not necessarily "news" at this point, we are proud of the redesign and feel that the added functionally--email subscriptions to news, better home page layout, better searching, etc--make it worth mentioning again if you have not seen it.

Help Promote Mediamouse.org

While we think that we work pretty hard here at Mediamouse.org, the reality is that our competition--the corporate media system--has vastly more resources to promote themselves (not to mention free use of the public airwaves than we do. Consequently, we need your help promoting Mediamouse.org. It always helps if you tell your friends about us, pass along emails such as this one, or become our "friend" on various social networks. For more ideas, visit:

http://www.mediamouse.org/contribute/promote.php

Feedback

Please let us know what you think of this newsletter and the work that we do. We really appreciate it!

http://www.mediamouse.org/about/contact.php