This is an event where it’ll be more about getting bashed than attending a bash. We refer of course to the for the 2008 National Conference for Media Reform being held in Minneapolis -St. Paul next week. Numerous high-profile and veteran media bashers will be in attendance. The event runs from 6/6/08 through 6/8/08.
The event will allow attendees to pick and choose sessions from five general tracks: Media Policy; Media Reform Activism and Movement Building; Civil Rights, Social Justice, and Media; Media and Democracy: The Next Frontier; and a wide open track called Self-Organized Sessions.
FCC Commissioner Nicholas Johnson will be on hand; hailing from Capitol Hill will be Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA); representing the media world will be Dan Rather, Arianna Huffington, Bill Moyers and Phil Donahue; and there will be more members of the watchdog community than you can shake a stick at.
RBR/TVBR observation: Other than an appearance by CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston, networks, station groups and trade organizations are not represented among dozens upon dozens of panelists and speakers. Somehow we don’t expect a strong case for reasonable regulatory relief will be made at this event.
