CONTACT: Barbara Popovic
312.738.1400
popovicb@cantv.org

CAN TV brings the media debate to Chicago this Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving Thursday, November 27 and Friday, November 28, CAN TV, with support from The Joyce Foundation, will present two full days of coverage of The National Conference on Media Reform. This historic conference drew close to two thousand people to Madison, Wisconsin this November in response to the call to transform the media into a force that supports democracy and the public interest. Says Larry Hansen, Vice President of The Joyce Foundation, “Few challenges facing our democracy are more urgent and deserving of citizen attention than those involving the ownership, management, governance and use of major media in this country.”

In the conference keynote, Bill Moyers invoked the memory of those in history who fought for freedom of the press and cautioned that “democracy can’t exist without an informed public.” Moyers outlined steps to transform the media system into one “that serves as effectively as it sells” including fighting to keep the gates to the Internet open to all, limiting conglomerate swallowing of media outlets, expanding a noncommercial media system, fighting for a regulatory environment that keeps local and community-based content from being drowned out by commercial programming, and strengthening mainstream journalism as a watchdog over those in public and private power.

Moyers was joined at the conference by FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, conference organizers Bob McChesney and John Nichols, PBS President Pat Mitchell, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., Studs Terkel, comedian Al Franken, Senator Russ Feingold, Representatives Maurice Hinchey, Louise Slaughter, and Tammy Baldwin, and the “Tell Us the Truth Tour” with Billy Bragg, Tom Morello, Lester Chambers of the Chambers brothers, and, in an impromptu moment, Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein on the harmonica.

CAN TV coverage starts at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, 11/27 and 1 p.m. on Friday, 11/28. For a complete schedule, logon to www.cantv.org/media

CAN TV gives every Chicagoan a voice on cable television by providing video training, facilities, equipment and channel time for Chicago residents and nonprofit groups. Cable channels CAN TV19, 21, 27, 36 and 42 reach more than one million viewers in the city of Chicago. For more information call (312) 738-1400 or log on to www.cantv.org.