Here's how I started: "As we meet in this winter of too much snow and too little inspiration, it is heartening that at least in this room and among NGO's big and small, the war on poverty soldiers on---however inadequately resourced, and neglected by the powers that be and those who should know better, except rhetorically of course."
I droned on:
"This has been the year that the term inequality is finally being heard--at least in this city---but as a journalist and media analyst, i know all too well that when an issue is not on TV, it doesn't exist for millions of Americans whose notion of what's real is shaped by a news system more engaged, at this moment, with ski competitions in Sochi or the upcoming Academy Awards ceremony, with the pricey gowns and dazzling jewelry we hungrily await on the red carpet of stardom".
This week, New York's cable company, TimeWarner. went on the block for $45 billion to the more conservative commissars of Comcast, assuring even more media concentration, and if the deal goes through, there will, for sure, be even more money flowing upward to the one percent of the one percent.
Our media will remain dominated by the weighty and deceptive thoughts of the rich and powerful, while the voices of the poor and anonymous remain treated only as consumers who are paying more than ever for less and less and kept on the sidelines.
As media moguls enrich themselves, the issues that this gathering plans to address moves more and more to the margins. Unfortunately, the UN is better at holding talkfests like this than in assuring that the public will hear about them."
Here's the journalist Dave Smith writing in Texas:
"It is not difficult to see global poverty issues are largely absent from news tickers and the national media outlets where many Americans get their news, leaving the poor around the world out of the proverbial conversation"
With the passing of the latest national election season, the media coverage focused mostly on the American economy and jobs, but paid little attention to real American poverty beyond sound bites and talking points. Global poverty issues were even more of an afterthought, which is confusing when considering the connection between global poverty solutions, national security policy and the national economy."
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