BACME September/October 2005

President’s Address

ACME President's POV: Join Us In Celebrating Our Third Anniversary As A Continental Coalition! (PDF Download)

ACME Initiatives

Media Education Foundation Discount for ACME Members

The Media Education Foundation would like to make an exclusive offer to ACME members. During the month of October, ACME members can buy any 3 MEF videos for $150. This offer can not be used in coordination with other discounts.

ACME Vermont Takes Action

Vermont media activists, led by the indefatigable Lauren-Glenn Davitian ("spiritual godmother" of Vermont community cable and an ACME Advisory Board member) and Congressman Bernie Sanders played hard ball with a smooth-talking Comcast representative last night in front of more than 100 folks, as Vermonters raised hard questions about Comcast's proposed buying of now-bankrupt Adelphia's assets.

Middlebury Professor Jason Mittell spoke eloquently to the need for laying down cable connections in more rural areas.

ACME Vermont president Jess Wilson, also a die-hard media activist, caught one of the Comcast reps trying to sneak off with more than 30 of our ACME Vermont: QUESTION BIG MEDIA bumper stickers at the end of the evening when she thought no one was looking.

No doubt to plaster them all over her SUV on the long ride home.

Jess sent her home with only two.

GO TEAM!

Written By: ACME President, Rob Williams

Take Action NOW

Take Action with Free Press to Stop Tax Payer Funded Propaganda

On September 30, an official investigation found the White House violated the law when Bush administration officials used taxpayer funds to create "covert propaganda" and force the president's political agenda on an unsuspecting public.

It's time the White House told us what's being done in our name and with our money. Demand full disclosure of all propaganda crimes. Send a letter to Congress and the Justice Department and urge them to follow up the investigation with enforcement of the law. Take action now at www.freepress.net/action/stopprop

(Text extracted from Free Press Website)

Chapter News

Boston - Colin Rhinesmith of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School has agreed to spearhead and chair an ACME Boston chapter. Colin is reaching out to a wide network of media educators and activists to build a strong Boston Chapter. Additionally, he is working hard to insure that ACME Boston has a significant presence at the media literacy conference being held at MIT on October 22.

New Mexico - NewMACME is currently cohosting monthly film screenings. Additionally, NewMACME has been invited to speak at the screening of “Orwell Rolls in his Grave.” The screening is being organized by People Before Profit and it will be held at the Albuquerque Peace and Justice Center. Details for these events are provided in the “Upcoming Conferences and Events” (Word Document) section of BACME.

Written By: NewMACME President, Anne Viswanatha

Vermont - Written BY ACME Vermont President, Jess Wilson (Word Document)

Advisory Board Update

On September 22nd, Commercial Alert released a report on how schools and Channel One promote smoking to students. The report showed that 60% of movies advertised on Channel One portray smoking. Such cinema portrayals of tobacco are highly effective in luring young people into the ranks of tobacco users’ even more so than conventional advertising.

The report is available on Commercial Alert’s website (www.commercialalert.org), as well as a form to send emails to your governor and state legislators, asking them to remove Channel One from every school in your state.

Written By: ACME Advisory Board Member, Gary Ruskin

ACME Action Groups

Media and Education Action Group

Our ACME "Media Education" Action Group continues to work hard on behalf of our membership! We've secured 50% discounts from three of our generous ACME partners - the Media Education Foundation (http://www.mediaed.org), the New Mexico Media Literacy Project (http://www.nmmlp.org), and memeFILMs (http://www.memefilms.org). Imagine - 50% discounts on dozens and dozens of the best media education films, DVDs, and data CD-ROMS in the world! We're also committed to bringing you at least one "Media Monthly Resource" each month of the school year. In September, we partnered with "Project Censored" to bring you a 20% discount on their brand-new "Project Censored 2005" book, along with our free and downloadable tool kit, featuring a wide variety of ways to use PC 2005 in the classroom! Our "Food For Thought" study guide will be the feature for October - look for our press release soon! Other projects and partnerships are in the works - stay tuned.

Written By: ACME President, Rob Williams

Media and Health Action Group

Activist and ACME Board Member Elizabeth Gleckler speaks out about Hurricane Katrina (PDF Download)

Independent Media Action Group

As the end of the year draws nigh, ACME's department of Independent Media would like to invite all ACME members to consider his/her nominations for the second annual MINDY awards -- the ACME equivalent of the Oscars, the Emmies and the Golden Globes. In January we will be recognizing excellence in Independent media in the following categories:

1. Film
2. Radio
3. Print
4. Television
5. Blogs
6. Flash animation
7. Other

in the next few months, as you see, hear and read independently funded media that you feel deserves to be recognized and applauded, jot their names down --on paper or in the back of your mind. We'll call for nominations during the first week in January.

Written By: ACME Board Member, Sara Voorhees

Media Reform Action Group

Free Press Conference - Once again Free Press proved why it is the fastest growing media reform group by putting on another sold out (2500) and fabulously energizing conference in May. You can listen to the keynotes and many of the sessions at: http://www.freepress.net/, including "Turning Apathy into Activism" by none other than your own Rob and Bob which (modestly now) was rated second out of the 38 sessions. You can listen Rob and Bob's session at: http://www.freepress.net/conference/.

The ACME booth was staffed by Allison, Lynn, Rob, Betsy, Bill, and Bob who all had a ball visiting with conference goers, handing out ACME materials and selling memberships.

It was a major coup that at the opening ceremony all the major speakers were wearing the bright yellow ACME button.

National Media Education Conference - The National Media Education conference in San Francisco in June attracted about the same number of participants as the last four NMEC conferences and was typical of NMEC. With a schedule that, for the most part, avoided attacking its corporate sponsors, NMEC was, at times, worth attending, but hardly innovative.

A typical keynoter was David Buckingham who insists that all the research on media's effects on children is not to be believed, and a typical session was Henry Jenkins of MIT who, when challenged, said, "I do take money from Microsoft, but not from X-Box” (which Microsoft makes). Go figure.

To their credit, they did accept a session from Josh Silver of Free Press and Bob McCannon of ACME which criticized a NMEC/AMLA sponsor, Comcast.

Bob, Peter Clayton and David Barbour (leader of the new Northern CA chapter) had tons of fun with those who stopped by the ACME booth.

Written By: ACME Board Vice President Bob McCannon

Media Education Made Easy

"Active Parenting in the 'Sith' Age" (PDF Download)
Written by ACME Vice President, Bob McCannon

Media Education Must Haves

Book – “Censored 2006: The Top 25 Censored Stories”

“…features the 25 most important news stories not covered by the corporate media in 2004-05. Government Secrecy, Media Failures in Iraq, National Voter Fraud, Citizen Surveillance, and Environmental disasters are just some of this year's topics.”

DVD – “The Daily Show: Indecision 2004” is a great tool to use in the classroom. Segments like, the George W. Bush biopic, “Words Speak Louder than Actions” and “A Film about John Kerry,” use satire and humor to expose the power of public relations.

Media Education Movie Review

"Where There’s A Will, There’s A Weapon: Lord of War (PDF Download)
Written by ACME President, Rob Williams

Upcoming Conferences and Events

Conferences and Events (Word Document)