Strategizing for Democratic Survival
A Collaborative Strategy Summit for Media Pros, Scholars,
Activists and Whistleblowers Working for Truth, Transparency
and an Informed Resurgent Democracy
Cynthia McKinney on corporate media complicity in the distortion of modern history
PROLOGUE
“Democracy cannot survive, much less thrive with the level of big corporate and big government interference and intimidation in news.”
— Dan Rather
“Practically every progressive struggle — campaign finance reform, rain forest destruction and global warming, sweatshops, family farms, fair trade, health care for all, unionization, military spending and arms sales, tax reform, alternative energy, healthy food, media access, hazardous waste dumps, redlining, alternative medicine, you name it — is being fought against one cluster of corporations or another. But it is not that corporation over there or this one over here that is the enemy. It is not one industry’s contamination of our drinking water or another’s perversion of the lawmaking process that is the problem–rather it is the corporation itself that must be addressed if we are to be a free people… The piecemeal approach to fighting corporate abuses keeps us spread thin, separated, on the defensive, riveted on the minutiae, and fighting on their terms. Piecemeal battles must certainly continue, for there are real and immediate corporate harms to be addressed. But it’s time for our strategic emphasis to shift to the offensive, raising what I believe to be the central political issue for the new century: Who the hell is in charge here?”
— Jim Hightower
“Journalism’s job is not impartial ‘balanced’ reporting. Journalism’s job is to tell the people what is really going on.”— George Seldes
PURPOSE
A collaborative gathering of media veterans, scholars,activists & whistleblowers to assess and marshal our most powerful messages to rectify history, awaken a critical mass, and effectively expose the accelerating corporate coup d’état.
VISION
Truth movements that arise after pivotal events like electoral fraud, 9/11, key assassinations, false flag ops and casus belli fabrications can/should become more than forensic inquiries into a single heinous crime. They can also strive to expose wider patterns of illicit control, deception and propaganda, and use their revelations to rouse entire societies to reject a malignant status quo.
Consequently, this is not a media conference to dissect or condemn the conglomerates, demand reforms, or even celebrate the increasing vigor of independent journalism. It is intended as a strategy session for already active and influential players to coordinate their most revealing messages, forge tactical alliances, innovate new distribution technologies, and mutually enhance each others’ strongest work.
TARGET PARTICIPANTS
– Leading media activists, A/V producers, and funding angels.
GOALS
• Gather key media constituencies needed to inject transformative truths* into 2008 political news and electoral debate;
*convergent evidence of an ongoing corporate/authoritarian coup d’etat, election theft,9/11 complicity/cover-up, “War on Terror” fraud, etc.
• Honor brave audacious “truth war veterans” (casualties & survivors) and learn from their experiences;
• Devise coherent decentralized models for distribution of suppressed news, synergistic truth-telling, and collaborative strategies to disclose, legitimize and popularize deeper historical narratives..
• In sum, discover in this moment of Constitutional crisis, ecological peril and widening war, whether 300 top investigative journalists, whistleblowers and indy media all-stars can transform the way Americans perceive and defend their world.
CLOSING NEWS NOTES:
BRIEF HISTORY OF MODERN CORPORATE-TOTALITARIAN AFFINITY
(Two essential eye-opening excerpts from The Corporation)
Classic Corporate-Fascist Consanguinity
But If All Else Fails, Blackwater’s on Tap
THE LIGHTER, BRIGHTER SIDES OF THE CORPORATIST AGENDA