Today’s independent journalists have much to learn from their ancestors – including I.F. Stone’s Weekly and Ramparts magazine (circulation 250,000) that criticized the Vietnam War as Democratic presidents expanded it. And from the underground press of the 1960s – and gay and women’s media that emerged in the 1970s. A few lessons:
Don’t shy away from “lost causes”: In the face of public rebuke, financial loss and government repression far worse than what’s suffered by indy U.S. journalists today, the founding fathers and mothers of dissident journalism were fearless as they fought for longshot causes. Even when jailed or silenced or driven to despair, these journalistic trailblazers paved the way. “The only fights worth fighting are those you are going to lose,” explained I.F. Stone. “Because somebody has to fight them and lose and lose and lose until someday, somebody who believes as you do wins.… Go right ahead and fight, knowing you’re going to lose. You mustn’t feel like a martyr. You’ve got to enjoy it.”
Take advantage of mainstream silence: With their tenacious focus on slavery and lynching, William Lloyd Garrison and Ida B. Wells took aim at moral outrages that most mainstream journalism treated with quietude or platitudes. It’s no accident that a socialist weekly and not the New York Times assigned Upton Sinclair to expose working conditions in meat-packing, leading to The Jungle bestseller. Nor is it an accident today that Jeremy Scahill’s independent reporting on U.S. mercenaries in Iraq became the Blackwater bestseller – while corporate media slept. As Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! urges: “Go to where the silence is and say something.”
Take advantage of crisis: From the labor weeklies of the 1830s to the anti-establishment media of the late 1960s, independent outlets have boomed in eras of social upheaval and system failure of the type we’re experiencing now. Crisis brings audience; larger and emergent communities become reachable. When Team Bush promoted the Iraq invasion through obvious lies and distortions, the corporate media system faced a journalistic crisis . . . and failed – turning large numbers of independent-minded citizens into mainstream media exiles hungering for alternatives.
Take advantage of new technologies: Independent media have historically blossomed with new technologies and formats. The advent of offset printing and FM radio, for example, were key to 1960s counter-culture media. But nothing compares to today’s communications revolution, with new technologies slashing the costs of production and the Internet transforming media distribution – giving independents and startups a real chance to compete and thrive.
Defend press freedom and media reform: Major steps forward for dissident media have often brought reactions from status quo forces – sometimes violent suppression, sometimes more subtle responses like threats to their mailing rights. Last year, small magazines faced a big postal rate hike, a plan devised by the Time Warner conglomerate. Bonafide bloggers have often been denied press access. To flourish, independent media need enhanced public, community and minority broadcasting; non-profit and public access to cable and satellite TV; and Net Neutrality, preventing Internet providers like Comcast and Time Warner from privileging certain websites while discriminating against others.
Activate your base: Without distribution help from train porters, the Chicago Defender could not have reached its Southern Black Belt readership. Without an army of volunteer correspondents, the Appeal to Reason could not have had its nationwide clout. Today, blogger Josh Marshall relies on the involvement and research of his Talking Points Memo readership in exposing scandals like U.S. Attorneygate that brought down an Attorney General. The video distribution success of Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Films/Brave New Foundation relies on partnering with Netroots groups and activists. More than ever in our Internet era, the success of independent media depends on active communities – “the people formerly known as the audience.”
Stay stubbornly independent: This is the ultimate lesson. The waves of social progress that have reformed our country would not have happened had independent journalists gone silent or soft because of an election result or a change of parties in power.
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