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MAKING CONTACT Transcript: #02-00 Hidden Truths: The Mass Media and Poverty Phillip Babich: This week on Making Contact... Jeremy Weir Alderson: I don't know for sure but I believe I have the record for putting the most voices of homeless people on the air in the history of American broadcasting. So the first question about that has got to be why on Earth should I have that record when ABC or CBS or anybody could have done this a hundred times over without really having to roll out of bed. It's not that difficult. Frances Moore Lappe: Somner Redstone, Viacom CEO announced a thirty eight billion dollar merger with CBS. He said this deal is about, "...creating the number one outlet on the planet for connecting advertisers with the audience they aim to reach." Phillip Babich: The mass media under-report or ignore many issues vital to the welfare of the public. Among them: root causes of poverty and hunger in the United States. On this program we take a look at two independent media projects that are working to change this situation. I'm Phillip Babich, your host this week on Making Contact, an international radio program seeking to create connections between people, vital ideas and important information. A handful of corporations own a vast majority of the news and information outlets that we read, hear, and see everyday. These corporations - among them: General Electric, Disney, News Corporation and Time-Warner - bring to bear enormous resources to frame and cover issues. The choices these corporations make have enormous implications for public policy decisions. Ten years ago Frances Moore Lappe, author of Diet For a Small Planet, co-founded the Center for Living Democracy. Among the Center's projects is the American News Service, a wire service that focuses on social, environmental and economic justice. The project, which has placed hundreds of articles in big circulation newspapers in the United States, represents a sharp divergence from corporate-run wire services that newsrooms have become so dependent on. In November 1999, Lappe spoke about independent media and its necessity in democracy. She addressed the Bioneers Conference in San Francisco. Frances Moore Lappe: In 1971 Diet for a Small Planet was published. And after that I gave innumerable talks on "Why hunger in a world of plenty?" And soon my message boiled down to a very simple one: Hunger is not caused by scarcity of food, it's caused by a scarcity of democracy. That sounds pretty good, but what does that mean? I ask myself what does that mean. If democracy is about voice, ultimately about who's making decisions, who's accountable to whom, then democracy world wide seems to be diminishing, not growing, despite the so-called growth of democracies around the world. From the village level to the level of international commerce, fewer and fewer people are actually making decisions about, ultimately, who gets to eat and who doesn't. All guided by what is now the higher law, the law of the market. I came to believe that we may be privileged to live in time of historical transition to something I came to call "living democracy." To suggest that democracy is not just a structure of government, it is a living, ever-evolving process of interdependencies not rigid hierarchies. So I've spent the last decade and plan to spend the rest of my life asking: How can I help bring such a living democracy about? How can I bring democracy alive, to life. What would it look like? What would it feel like? What would it taste like, to live in a living democracy? So, those questions took me immediately to the media. Because what is the media? Media is shorthand for medium of communication. How we talk to one another. How we learn about one another. How we learn about who we are as human beings. So if democracy is more than a structure of government, if it is a culture of expectations of mutuality, of inclusion, of valuing the voice of all of us, then, communication, who talks and who listens, who gets heard and who doesn't is at the center of a living democracy. Communications is as central to democracy as any aspect of government I came to see. And as I look back, I tend to be sort of a fan of Thomas Jefferson as you well know if you've read my book: Rediscovering America's Values. And he got it. Thomas Jefferson got it. Do you know that he said if he had to choose between elected government and a free press, he would choose a free press. He got it. And if certainly he saw that link, that link being that a free press can hold the decision makers feet to the fire. But there is another aspect that I think he got as well. And that is that the media, the press, then it was called, but the media is the way that we learn who we are, as I said. The job of the media in a democracy is to present a full picture to help us understand and see a reflection of ourselves coming back to us. To know who we are as a people and to see ourselves as public actors. To see a place for ourselves in public power. As Jefferson said, no one could be happy or free without participating and having a share in public power. So, the media is key. So what are the biggest challenges then that we face in creating a democracy, a living democracy and enhancing media, communications in which we are gaining voice and seeing ourselves? Well as has already been suggested, most obvious, is that journalism, the profession of journalism which is a calling in a democracy. And many people who I know who have gone into it as a calling, to serve society. The media has now been subsumed within an industry, an entertainment industry. In September, you may have seen this, when Sumner Redstone, Viacom CEO, announced a 38 billion dollar merger with CBS. he said, this deal is about, "...creating the number one outlet on the planet for connecting advertisers with the audience they aim to reach." You know, we don't have to say it, they say it, right? But this new Viacom will be one of the only nine massive conglomerates, all of which have taken their shape in the last fifteen years - that now dominate U.S. media and much of the world. Now, all of this could seem pretty scary. Nine corporations, globe spanning, defining human meaning as consumption. We could feel blocked. We could feel stymied, until we realize that the structure that is held in place that Viacom represents, is not held in place by the dollars they have, that we don't have, that 38 billion. You may not think that. But at a much deeper level, it is held in place by a belief system that we breath like the air around us, an ether that is invisible to most people. And a key part of that belief system that sustains Viacom is a belief that we human beings, lacking any essence beyond self seeking, must turn over our fate to the market, the new global religion. Because any other process of determining our fate is suspect. I mean deliberation, forget it. It assumes that human beings could actually come together and decide for what is good for us as a community. That violates our nature of course. That's ridiculous. Taking on now this global dimension, how does one not become discouraged? And I have to, just one moment of the global dimension of the market religion. I was in China about ten years ago. And I still remember getting up on this state farm that was about to be dismantled and they still had the loud speakers blaring every morning as people got their breakfast. I walked out, the loud speakers were blaring, and I assumed that not too long ago Mao was telling us what was good. And I turned and asked my translator what we were hearing over the loud speakers that bright morning. And she said it was the market. The market is our salvation. The market will make us all rich. Phillip Babich: Frances Moore Lappe, editor of the American News Service. We'll have more of Lappe's speech later in this program. Stephanie Welch: You're listening to Making Contact, a production of the National Radio Project. If you'd like to get in touch with us, we'll be giving our out toll free number at the end of this broadcast. Phillip Babich: Amidst the media hoopla over the booming economy, it may be difficult for many people to see and understand the extent of homelessness and poverty in the United States. Last Fall, for example, the country's major newspapers reported that poverty was at a 20 year low after the Clinton administration released its poverty statistics. The big news was that the number of people living below the poverty line - an annual income of $16,500 for a family of four - dropped from 35.5 million people to 34.5 million, still more than 12 percent of the U.S. population. Other estimates put the figure closer to 40 million people. And homelessness is on the rise. As we heard earlier in the program, everyone having a voice in the media is essential for a modern democracy. Yet, that opportunity is rarely presented to those who have been most adversely affected by changes in welfare laws and shifts in the economy: the poor. One attempt to provide such opportunities is a live, fourteen-hour radio broadcast direct from the streets. Each January, Jeremy Weir Alderson hosts the Homelessness Marathon, now in its third year. Jeremy Weir Alderson: I think I am the record holder but you can't call up Guinness and ask them about this, so I don't know for sure. But I believe I have the record for putting the most voices of homeless people on the air in the history of American broadcasting. So the first question about that has got to be: why on Earth should I have that record when ABC or CBS or anybody could have done this a hundred times over without even having really to roll out of bed. It's not that difficult. And the reason is that nobody else wants to do it. And so this was really a kind of wide open field. Phillip Babich: The Homelessness Marathon" in 1999 was broadcast from the streets of Philadelphia and was sponsored by Kensington Welfare Rights Union. Through live interviews and call-ins from around the country, homeless people shared their stories. Erica called from Portland, Oregon. Erica: I've been homeless pretty much my whole life. I'm nineteen, turning twenty in two months. I just now, I'm just now startin' to pay rent in my own place. I went through foster care, my mom was a junky on cocaine since I was four. Both my parents are now passed away. And man, I've seen from the Devil to Heaven, to everything in between and, I don't know. I'm still loving and giving, sometimes too giving of a person, you know? Maybe that's just because of what I've been through. But I don't see why all these people in this world gotta be treatin' other people like me like just the dirt itself. Phillip Babich: Billy, a young person who used to live in a parking lot with his grandmother, joined Alderson in Philadelphia Jeremy Weir Alderson: I am joined here now by Billy. Billy, welcome to the homelessness marathon. Billy, how old are you? Billy: Eleven Jeremy Weir Alderson: And Billy, are you homeless? Billy: No, not right now, but I was. Jeremy Weir Alderson: You were homeless. How old were you when you were homeless? Billy: About four. Jeremy Weir Alderson: Do you have any memory of being homeless? Billy: I used to sleep in the streets. One time it was raining. Jeremy Weir Alderson: You slept in the streets when it was raining at four? Billy: And we used to have, like plastic covers. The covers were trash bags. Jeremy Weir Alderson: And how did that feel? Billy: Not good. Jeremy Weir Alderson: Not good. Were you scared? Billy: Yes Jeremy Weir Alderson: And did you always sleep in the same place or did you not know where you would be from one day to the next? Or what? Billy: We didn't know how we would eat, and sometimes we would have to stay in a lot for a couple of days, in tents. Jeremy Weir Alderson: And now you have a place where you're living? Billy: Yes. Jeremy Weir Alderson: And I'm sure that feels a lot better. Billy: Yes. Jeremy Weir Alderson: But when you look back on that I mean do you think about that time when you were sleeping in the parking lot and wherever? Billy: Sometimes. Jeremy Weir Alderson: And what do you think? Billy: I think that other people are going to be sleeping on the streets where I was. Jeremy Weir Alderson: And what do you think about that? Billy: It's a shame. Phillip Babich: The homelessness Marathon also attempts to provide a forum for low-income people to discuss day-to-day issues amongst each other. Take, for example, this exchange between a formerly homeless man named Indio, who now works with low-income people in New York, and a Philadelphia homeless man named Ray. Ray, who has a disability, told Indio that he was denied Supplemental Security Income, or SSI, and was no longer willing to try and collect these benefits. Indio: What you have to do, is, you have to get on SSI disability. Why you don't want to I don't know. You have that right. Jeremy Weir Alderson: well, Ray is shaking his head. Let's see what Ray has to say. Why not get on SSI, Ray? Ray: Well, just let me say that just by the fact that I am HIV positive I am capable of working and I just can not see myself living on SSI and getting monthly five hundred and whatever dollars a month, which is equivalent to like a hundred and twenty dollars a week by the time you get that monthly paycheck, you either already owe it on any count of food that you're eating, your rent and your utilities. Now, someone like me who, just by the fact, who's HIV positive and capable of working, I am willing to not burn up the people's tax money. And I am willing to work, but yet I see that I get neglected for wanting to work. Now I see there's benefits and I understand what you're saying, Indio, on SSI, but I do not want to live off of SSI. Indio: OK, but hear this, my brother. I'm trying to run down...A half a loaf is better than nothing. I would try to find out the organizations that deal with AIDS, number one. Number two you can also work. The most important thing is to get on something and then when you apply for these different jobs with your resume, or without, they have to give a reason. And they do have a department of human rights. And they also have places where you can file discrimination. Phillip Babich: Homeless Marathon director Jeremy Weir Alderson says the overall goal of the 14-hour program is simple: Jeremy Weir Alderson: There is entirely one goal and it's very simple: to change the way people think about homelessness. And the number one change I want to make is, I'd like to create the idea, help people to the idea that, hey, we don't have to have this in this country. It's as simple as that. Phillip Babich: The homelessness Marathon for the year 2000 broadcasts from Champaign, Illinois, and is hosted by radio station WEFT. For more information call 217-359-9338. That's 217-359-9338. Joining us now on Making Contact is Gaylen Tyler. He's an organizer with the Kensington Welfare Rights Union which co-sponsored the 1999 Homelessness Marathon. Thanks for joining us, Gaylen. Gaylen Tyler: Yea, how you doin'? Phillip Babich: All right. Well, first off, from your perspective, how have corporate media covered the issues of poverty and homelessness, say, over the past year? Gaylen Tyler: Well in the last year I have seen it, it's not, pretty much been shown from the viewpoint, around poverty, from the poor people's point. It's been shown on high scales of different degrees around the money and stuff coming around from the State government and the federal government. But it hasn't been too much shown around how much is being used, in effect, as far as helping poor people you know, I mean, come up out of their state right now. Phillip Babich: And then what about any organizing and movement building that's taking place among low income people in the United States. Do you see any of that is the corporate media? Gaylen Tyler: Um, not much. We did a march here in October of 1999, the past year, marching from Washington D.C. to New York to the United Nations, to fight unemployment, hunger and homelessness. You know, I mean, it's called the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, and the Kensington Welfare Rights Union spearheaded this. And we got a lot of little local media throughout the different communities because of the way we walked. We walked over four hundred miles, pitching tents on the sides of highways and stuff like that, and staying at different churches and different communities. We had local community media but not too much on a National level so people can hear about the, you know, the cry of the poor right now. Because the poor wants to be heard. So they're only trying to hear people's viewpoints from the media stand as far as the large corporations and stuff and the different politicians and stuff that are out here passing certain regulations and rules. So these are the things that, you know, throughout this march, and we marched for a whole entire month, you know I mean through the United States, indicting the United States on human rights violations. And we didn't get that much national media coverage. Phillip Babich: And how does this lack of coverage effect your organizing work? Gaylen Tyler: Well, what it does... it keeps us isolated. Because the reason we know right now the only way to bring about a social change is through the mass, the masses of the people. Because, you know we're looking - it's, like, two hundred and sixty some million people, maybe two hundred and seventy million people in the United States. Then there's like four hundred billionaires throughout the world. There's like a hundred and thirty some in the United States. And most of the people are being downsized, most people are seeing the ending of welfare. They're seeing all these different types of cuts with the emergence of all these different places, and these businesses and these large corporations. So people are going to be able to see the effects of poverty itself. And we're trying to see the masses of the people get together to try to see how we can make a change. Instead of just trying to manage it with different shelters and different soup kitchens and stuff like that. We try to make a serious change. Phillip Babich: And then, how has alternative media and independent media helped organizing efforts? Independent media projects such as the Homelessness Marathon, or the American News Service. How has that helped your efforts. Gaylen Tyler: Because that's - as many people as you're able to reach is like we're trying to open doors for people as far as thinking about alternative. Instead of these different agencies and stuff out here that are trying to manage, you know, I mean, the homelessness and stuff like that, instead of trying to make a change about it. And the media gives us our opportunity just to reach as many people as possible. And there are certain people in certain areas, like when the National Homeless Marathon, or like the things that was going on in Philadelphia, the things that was going on in Chicago with the housing projects being all shut down, the Robert Taylor homes and also the Cabrini Green projects being all closed down, about to be tear down and stuff. And they hear that on the Homeless Marathon, you know I mean, in Philadelphia, that's something that you can start, you know, breaking the isolation between the poor people and also homeless people throughout the whole entire, you know I mean, country. Phillip Babich: Well I've been speaking with Gaylen Tyler. Gaylen, thanks so much for joining us on Making Contact. Gaylen Tyler: Alright. Thanks. Phillip Babich: We now return to more of a speech by Frances Moore Lappe, editor of the American News Service. In her November 1999 talk, Lappe spoke about the belief - supported by business interests and corporate media - that consumption is the best way for humans to satisfy their needs for power and connection. Frances Moore Lappe: It's not enough just to get a different story out and break through the entertainment corporate stranglehold. That's not enough. We must in all that we do, think how are we eroding the very assumption of this ersatz approach to meeting basic human needs. And in my own life I've answered that question this way. I sort of think of the monolith as a stone and how does a stone get eroded? Drip, drip, drip. And so what I'm trying to do is to help create a drip, drip, drip of new images, of real power and real connection. To show people a place for themselves, as Jefferson said, in public power. To show images of agency and connection. Because human beings are social creatures. We take our cues from one another. We absorb one another in a sense. So preaching is not enough. Frightening people is not enough. We must show people the possibility of their own connection and power. And so, when we founded the American News Service four years ago, our goal was to create stories that would somehow slip into this increasingly narrow news definition. News is now in the entertainment world defined as what's breaking, what's shocking and what Bill Clinton or somebody in Washington is up to. How do you penetrate that? And so our tac was to reach out to, in the beginning, mainstream media and to say wait a minute, wait a minute, the world is changing. The world is changing. And the real story is this lateral view of what real people are doing in their communities. For after all homo-sapians are also problem solvers. And that's the big story that you're missing. You're missing the aspect of problem solving. And so we called ourselves the "American News Service" to drape ourselves in apple pie and motherhood, the "American News Service." And all we're doing is showing you stories of problem solvers. That's how we positioned, have positioned ourselves. And as a result we've now appeared in half of the largest newspapers, by circulation in the Country. We've appeared in over three hundred papers overall. We produced eleven hundred stories which are now on our website at American News.com. And I believe that we are the only news service and I hope that others do this, begin to catch on to what we do. We include the telephone number of the source of our stories, sources of our stories with the stories. So they then become networking tools. As a result, when newspapers publish our telephone number we can then put people in touch. We just got about thirty calls from a story recently that ran here in California. So what we then are trying to do with the American News Service is tell stories in which people can see themselves. For example: One of the early stories we did was about a community in Houston where there had been a toxic release from a chemical plant. And over two years led by a young Hispanic woman, that low income Hispanic community pulled itself together and ultimately was able to negotiate a binding, legally binding community and environmental audit of that plant, so that every year that plant has to answer to the community about how it is protecting the community from environmental pollution and protecting the workers. I was imagining what as a young person growing up in Texas as I did, if I had read a newspaper story about that twenty something young woman led that successful effort in Manchester, Texas. It could have changed my life. We're telling stories other people can see themselves in. After the Columbine shooting we released about nineteen stories on school violence prevention and one of them appeared on the front page of a major newspaper in New Hampshire, showing what young people are doing themselves to prevent violence by building connections with one another. We've published a story about living machines that got some good pick up and one of our stories that most pleased me - we did a story on land trust movement. It was a survey piece. And you know where it appeared? It appeared on the front page of the real estate section of the Chicago Tribune. I thought that was pretty cool. And as a result of that story, interestingly, the editor of the real estate section of the Chicago Tribune said, "hey, I didn't even know land trust exists. And so he went from our national story and then did an Illinois story that picked up on it." Equally surprising we did a story on how, in certain companies, executive pay is being tied to the impact of these executive's decisions on the environment. And that story appeared on the front page of the business section of the Philadelphia Inquirer. So, it's challenging, but I just told you, maybe you can get a bit of the feel of how we're trying to position ourselves, not as peripheral to America but as the American News Service at the center of life. It's what we all are doing: problem solving in our communities. So, I'm saying it's not enough then to rail against the ersatz meeting of human needs by global corporations creating insecurities about connection and agency. It's up to us to show the real thing. We often think that telling our stories must take second place to doing our work and that is wrong. Telling our stories - telling our stories in a way that is not just about issues and arguments but it's about people acting on their beliefs and having fun doing it. That's the story of our empowerment. So we can't crack a belief system that leaves people feeling powerless unless we are able to show people possibilities for their own power. Phillip Babich: Frances Moore Lappe, editor of the American News Service. That's it for this edition of Making Contact, a look at media and democracy. Thanks for listening. Laura Livoti is our managing director. Stephanie Welch is associate producer. Peggy Law is executive director. Norman Solomon is senior advisor. Our national producer is David Barsamian. Shereen Meraji is production assistant. Din Abdullah is archivist. And I'm your host and managing producer, Phillip Babich. If you want more information about the subject of this week's program, call the National Radio Project at 800-529-5736. Call that same phone number for tapes and transcripts. That's 800-529-5736. Making Contact is an independent production. We're committed to providing a forum for voices and opinions not often heard in the mass media. If you have suggestions for future programs we'd like to hear from you. Our theme music is by the Charlie Hunter Trio. Bye for now. |