Walk Out

Are you hip to Amy Goodman? Democracy Now? Please tell me you are. Please tell me you're in the loop, on the bandwagon, supporting the show, and a member of the fastest growing media collaboration in our history.

If you've noticed, there's one thing I try and focus on a lot and that's the media. Nothing drives me nuttier than the myth of the liberal media. It's so completely ridiculous that even many right-wing pundits have admitted as much. The differences between the grass roots, independent media of Pacifica and Democracy Now compared to mainstream media like CNN, CNBC, and Fox News cannot be simply boiled down to conservative vs. liberal. Such a framing completely misses the point.

Have you heard about the walkouts going on all over the country? Thousands of students--mostly of Latino decent--have walked out of school and marched in opposition to the pending immigration legislation that would seek to make felons of immigrants. It is estimated that 50,000 marched in L.A. alone.

The epitome of the "Liberal Media" CNN was completely dismissive of the walk outs. Instead of pointing out that these demonstrations have been some of the biggest ever in cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, and Phoenix, the news anchor calls the protestors stupid and says they need more time in class! That's the crux of it if you listen to the corporate media: lazy kids ditching school, news at eleven.

If you tuned in to Democracy Now with Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, you got a real treat. They actually ran real life interviews of the students involved in the walk outs. Amy had a real life student on her show along with other organizers and activists within the movement. You saw faces and heard voices from people that are usually silenced by corporate media.

Christopher Aldrear, Wilson High School. 16-years-old

I think the walk outs are very important because as young Latinos in our community we all face this problem and it will affect us all in a major way. Latinos are not doing this just to ditch school. We're doing this to make a difference. We're trying to be heard. Today I attended a walk out that was very peaceful and I had people coming up to me asking, What if they take my parents away from me and I'm left here because I was born here?" What is that? The government realizes this but for some reason they don't care. My family immigrated from Mexico. It's going to affect us all in a major major way. If we don't stand up for immigrants rights who will? Honestly?"

Did you hear Christopher Aldrear on CNN or FOX? Did you hear other young articulate youths fighting for basic human rights and dignity? Or did you hear about the dumb kids who just wanted to ditch school?

Media matters. The kinds of voices we hear, the "experts" that are paraded in front of us...and it all impacts the way we view the world. Today was the fourth day of walk outs for these students. Call your local news and demand that they give this more coverage.

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