Support Alternative Media

One thing all of us on the Left and Right can agree on is that the mainstream media in this country really stinks. Fellow blogger Marigold pointed out that both of our stories on American medical students graduating from Cuba came from British sources. The mainstream media are not doing their job. There are a number of wonderful organizations that study the biases in the news. FAIR, Media Reform Center, and Media Watch. One of the best blogs on the topic by far is Left I on the News. Eli Stephens does an amazing job of unraveling the spin we constantly encounter. For a more in depth understanding of how the media are constantly screwing with our heads I'd suggest the following books: Inventing Reality by Michael Parenti, Manufacturing Consent by Herman Edward and Noam Chomsky, Trust Us We're the Experts by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, What Liberal Media by Eric Alterman, The Exception to the Rulers by Amy Goodman, and No Logo by Naomi Klein.

Getting the information contained the preceding websites, books and blogs is important. Perhaps even more important is the need to support alternative media. If you can listen to a Pacifica Station. Watch or listen to Democracy Now with Amy Goodman. And when it comes to print media there are a lot of great reads out there. The Nation could really use your help right now. There's Mother Jones. And there are a great many others. But I would like to suggest a, perhaps, lesser known magazine: The Indypendent. The Indypendent is:

The Indypendent is the only truly progressive and anti-war free newspaper in New York City. We provide original in-depth, hard-hitting reporting on local, national and international news and commentary to our print and online readership of about 50,000.

For a measely $25 a year you can get 20 copies of the Indypendent. More importantly you can help sustain an alternative to the bullshit we are bombarded with everyday by the corporate media.

Finally, I would be remiss without mentioning a form of media that you can actively get involved with: Indymedia.The Independent Media Center (IMC) grew out of the protests in Seattle against the WTO and the woefully inadequate and extremely biased media coverage. There are local IMC centers all over the world. Mine is NYC Indymedia. It's not only a great place to find alternative media and stories you won't find anywhere else, you can also join in and publish stories and pictures, making the media much more democratic.

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