selector and i was trying to argue with him on the front end is a good editor of progress a video that there has been in my view has been throughout the course of the development of video in this country in the world is a leading developer of our programming and right guys yacking but i'm doing it you know because i respect the fight for public access and the reality of public access and it's more and more important because of what's happening to our major mainstream media which is sort of democracy and you believe that people need to be informed about what's going on the last place you look for real information these days for the most part is on television let some exception around the world and some exceptional programming but by and large  the public interest is not being served that's what we're trying to do with our media channel dot org so i am here absolutely and it is there that the idea if there is need for new ideas and new directions for the whole planet which i think there are it's not going to surface in the mainstream media it's not going to resurface in the mainstream political activity if in service will come to an alternative thing and you believe in the fight for a long time of our realistic alternative perceptions are going to be put into the the and i may disagree about that because the f c c recently passed a decision which threatens public access i know that nationally and with telecom companies selling no commitment to t public and with the media system becoming more digital and more broadband oriented and less oriented to you know basically serving a mass audience but serving a class audience or you know putting audience segments you know we you know five hundred channels and people watching one you know you know the the they're watching the you know the the channel that you know about their powerboats you know or whatever it might be or what happens is that the idea of a collective audience of an american people begins the dissolve and we just become you know organized by our demographic by our age group by our specialized interests and as a result the whole culture has no conversation within itself and with itself and this is one of the big problems in the media i mean if you know what we're talking about you know what we're talking about is some a trend that w know you know and it's also true that we're still worshipping you know tablets that moses brought down from the mountaintop but you know the truth is is that things are not changing and the direction they should be changing and aware of how our media system is misleading us as well so into the war in iraq you would have had it without a media system that was pumping through this cheerleading for eight hundred reported thousands some reported tens of thousands and almost none that i saw reported hundreds of thousands a lot say it wasn't five hundred if it was three hundred it with doesn't matter the point is that a massive outpouring of popular resistance to the war occurred not just in washington but all over the country all over the world aggregate those figures on to get a big number and it shows to mendis opposition but instead the media coverage this aggregate of the numbers they gave us you know they downplay the numbers and it's just part of the problem isn't the reality of what's going on is being of skewered is being twisted and we most of us so the suspect it and we tune out of that you know one of my many kids how many people watch the comedy you know daily show it's like you know look at those idiots what a bunch of idiots but they're not necessarily be informed really about about what's going on so we have a culture that's that's not really doing the job of comparing america for a new age and age where american power is not dominant anymore and a lot of issues in our society i'm not being that without our company just on a film about the debt crunch in america it's great it's called in that we try and write and what we're trying to show here is how everybody is hurting everybody you know going to the end of the month trying to pay those bills in this country the rich legacy history mortgages housing crash foreclosures difficulty in getting bankruptcy student loans that are you know basically wealth is going on i don't know debtors prison violence but there are those prisoners but our homes of become rather a prison and this is what this film is about in that we trust are about to roll it out we're trying to launch an effort that we're calling debt good jobs ok the average wage on and one wall street financial sector here in new york is eight thousand three hundred and twenty dollars a week ok one thousand two hundred and twenty dollars a week and it was the last time you made that kind of money hell but i don't make that much most people are not making that of him the actual actual wage increases have been very modest but people are learning come jobs are available the higher income jobs are hard to get people are hurting you  know we took our cameras on can brooklyn found a leave of foreclosures going on we found people unable to pay their bills struggling to meet their credit card obligations getting tax rebates in advance and then paying you know very high nobody's talking about it including the left including the progressive movement now you know we're talking about iraq and bush and bush and bush and bush how bad he is and everything else but we're not talking about economic justice and what's happening and america know activism and on the other it's it's often seduced and co opted by the democratic party will be think that democrats in congress are going to really make everything better we maybe they will we'll see i mean we know that the bankruptcy bill that passed the house last year was actually a bill that was supported on a nonpartisan basis by democrats and republicans democrats and republicans supported in authorize the war in iraq right ok so so we have a lot of bipartisan consensus i don't lot of policies that are frightening you know violations of civil liberties frightening economic torture any quality frightening we don't need no it is corporate right off the record no that's true and the point is that when people are not aware that their lives are tied to people who are being you know persecuted and they see themselves was not happening to me so it's not happening then we get into a kind of climate in the country where there's a lack of solidarity between groups and so you're out to your group and nobody else is taking cha others and this is something we have to really examine more deeply but you know what i was saying before is this a capitalist economy we know that on the other hand the regulations that used to ensure some kind of safety net some kind of protection against abuses some sort of corporate regulator mean the president bush was in new york this week just yesterday ok we're taping on may st you look at today's new york times here's bush community so the business community doesn't want to be regulated they don't want to be transparent they don't want to necessarily be accountable right now mayor bloomberg here in new york is saying hey the financial sector of the world is shifting to london out of new york therefore in order to keep it here we've got to deregulate goalie's the learning here is that a deregulate all of our businesses and let him get away with anything because that's making us and competitive because we're making idea of social equality some idea of economic justice some idea of a court system that serves all the people fairly and that people have you know an opportunity to vote which many people no longer having their national issue let's all work on this together it wasn't said it was like one of many issues it was like a smorgasbord you go to a restaurant you nibble a little on this a little and that at the end you're not really fed so those ones so this is one of the problems with you want to ask me another one the point is that a lot of people in other countries have a perception of official america they don't know about unofficial america we've got to tell them about it and we've got to find ways to connect with them so let's it's  that people in other countries are critical but in sometimes there's a kind of self righteousness there that misses that's really happening in america and they reduce everything to the bush administration which is wrong ok we need to work with people in other countries we need an international view of how to change things not just you know a view about changing the government we've got to talk about the the corporate system that we're in and the media and the media is the front face of the  seven years selling online and internet terms it's like dog years you know she was like seven years you know so we've been around we've been around for a long long time we're an early network on the on line we have thirteen   i've heard of media channel that work rather than you know no no how many of you have actually ever contributed to keeping independent media alive we all buy the new york times or other papers or whatever we buy magazines we we pay our cable bills etc but do we support independent media and this is one of the reek this is of the progressive movement ok is that a doesn't support independent media adequately enough and we're struggling some people are doing things that i'm trying to do herald yeah among other things we're the busiest man i've ever known my life around and you are running like gangbusters all the time going like a roman candle and all the directors doing so much and i take my hat you appreciate that but i want to segue into something ok ok i recently was in europe and i was talking to an african journalist about my own experience in the media yeah and she encouraged me to make a film about my own story because it might be a model for younger people of you know a person who is trying to marry money and meaning trying to do programming about issues that matter and as a consequence i've actually done what i call a self dissection that's really a good idea with marie sullivan i made a little she's really good yeah i made a little film about my own about granite is for globalization and it's sort of called  and it's something that everyone ought to be aware of i'm sorry it's really beautifully cut very beautifully done it's really good the story of danny schechter one of our leading lights in terms of bringing somebody really relevant video programming to the world is that what this is not a find out what are the sources what are the biases of the different sources what can you expect from a given a news outlet as opposed to another one what's their spin what's their approach to the news news doesn't make any sense if you don't have  facts every day when i come into the office i keep thinking about all the work we've done here over the past twenty years as independent producers films t v shows and videos and i'm thinking he should be made more widely available i want to know why i did what i did and what i tried to get at it's not always obvious that like kids and students starting out  of work you know that the mainstream approach is not the only approach that there's another sensibility another way of reporting news and making sure illness i've spent a lifetime doing stories but i've also lived one can i tell that without being self promotion a little hyped up is it a story anyone would want to watch i sure hope so from activism to journalism from rock n roll radio to network television from crises in america to an immersion in south africa it's got celebrity glitch and investigative substance and a worldwide whirlwind of media adventures and submerged hopes is the author of the more  allen ginsberg but he was a friend and an influence i was honored to salute the late poet got a massive tribute at a new york cathedral he was also my media hero for the reasons i cited before logos and ran ting he brands it in so always there with the news we never knew the anchor of c n n the fumes were those that work the poet i heard of the news with the times never quite able to catch when i went back to the bronx my high school books hadn't changed much for kosher was a it's been forty six years this summer that i left this building deal with clinton high school in the bronx a mighty deal with states known for its four thousand two hundred and twenty boys and great sports teams it is here that i st discovered a love of journalism and became the editor of the student newspaper i had a great teacher simon who taught me to care about journalism and motivated me about it may didn't know at the time but it would be what i did for the rest of my life one way or another and i was part of the civil rights movement so this film is that attempt to tell my story but also through my experiences with malcolm x and nelson mandela and others if you are interested in knowing more about it i'm going to give you my email my email if you want to know more about what we do it's dissect or the i s s e c t o or at media channel dot org ok good channels one word so it's a sector at media channel dot org now i don't know if anybody ever watches this program how but if anyone is watching yeah knock knock well if you are watching let me know that you saw the show and what you thought about what i've been saying i love to give them feedback i love to hear about it yeah and if you're interested the film i'll tell you more about it so this is something that just was released that was shown in memphis for the st time all good at the national media reform comes of just showed at the university of utah and mormon kids you know coming to the university  times and so that's why i made it and they could i ask you a couple questions about that is really well put together a really good and it really is i was there last night and i couldn't take my order was really good well done everything and you're now did you how did you make that i mean was it cut  china i think they might remember yonder go around but the point is i've just put them up on you tube now we've got a thing in you tube i'm coming out of the out of the media labs and so forth it's growing exponentially now the bandwidth we're going to be swarming and bandwidth and so you and i are human big and we have things to do we get up in the morning we have breakfast we do this coffee we have coffee we read newspapers some of us we go to work you know not everybody has the unlimited personal bad and with and time to watch everything that's out there obviously we're being in a day the money's going to come up with a guide as one of our guys we talked to yesterday were there today is going to the big thing is that you're going to have  gave us a t v guide to let know was there somebody is going to come up with a guide to the good stuff that mall time goes to really really it's already there it's called search engines google yahoo and others and you can actually type in what your interests were you know where do you go are you not going to ask you're really hip what is going what is there are available what is there available you follow revenue you've got newspapers all over the world everything's on your side is the best one what is the best place for somebody to go to know in a certain kind of way we're critics look at it people know what is good and what's back with a lot of shylock on the internet and that as well and everything where there's a guide this is there's some really good there were a road where we go in order to find out what's available on the internet broadband television communication you could put on your i think there are a are a lot of so called super sites or aggregated sites that's a pattern recognizing you know that offer you know access to a lot of things to tell you about a lot of things the point is a you have to make a personal discovery have to spend a little time yes i do i link to all kinds of interesting content articles resources videos and other things you get these are things that people write to me about or i find and i link to look at them and also somebody has to go to the blog the case of my blog it's free so you can actually subscribe to it good and will come to your inbox every day so much more is free all the time now so much for your story is a good price in any currency in terms of we're trying to do that you can now make telephone calls all over the world for free risk ip that's good you tube is going to be free it is free free is a good price in terms of not having the all caught up in the business model wasn't so whether you think for the folks you're going to people out and i the point is that if you knew old days of television you would watch television and people would say it's free there's no time warner that you have to pay you could just turn on the t v set and get programming however it wasn't really free because the advertising going to new york times you click on a video st thing you do is you see an ad that you didn't want to see you want to see the video but you're seeing an ad because the new york times is desperate for a revenue model how can they move away model they need a trying to get donations with trying to get advertising we're trying to do a lot of different ways to generate enough income to keep this going we don't want to make a profit necessarily but we want to survive and sustain  economics if you know very much a lot about well ok all right i've got a different take on economics but go ahead what i'm saying is things cost money where's the money going to come from ok no for there's no free lunch will there ever be a free lunch  day i don't have the money to actually live to eat properly to support themselves throw in wars throw in disease throw in all these other issues the gap between the rich and the poor is growing the gap between the north and the south is growing you know evolution that apparently can't tested but the modeling is that if they were to be unleashed it would mean the end of the whole species are you aware of that i am aware of that that's an excess denture new situation in unit harle we live i grew right ok but my point is you know that if we don't deal with these things and inform ourselves about them or you know we're really in trouble that's where media can come in and yeah absolutely i'm trying to do what i'm doing and we have a couple of web sites are listed on global vision dot org so you can order them if your teacher you can let some of these resources to use in your classroom through a student you can get some of these films to learn more about what's happening in the changing world etc and so forth so global vision dot org the channel that organise the network for democratic media and they're getting we have all these affiliates and we try to offer an end for mation about what's happening in the media to the media and through the media talk to me a bit about that because i remember i'm going there you responding to it and we're pleased by that so it's been successful in the sense that it survives but it's survival as is really at risk right now why because we don't have the money to keep going oh my how i what do you have to do to do that if you could be sure that w to get so many newsletters now on your needs i now we're starting a fund raising drive in this month our anniversary month and we're asking people to donate to the global center in the global center is a five a one c three not for profit work in progress and that's this film that you've just seen a clip of there's a website about that so you can check that as well if you're interested you missed this so you know i'm writing this down by sector and media channel dot org you can write to me and i'll tell you what we're doing because i'm interested in engaging with the manhattan neighborhood network audience of people are listening they are interested good audience yeah and you know i think you know one of the things you would be surprised about is how our cheaper to make things yeah well i think that's a good tribute shinn the means of distribution getting them out getting them seen it's more and more difficult well wait a minute if i may you to you can do it and it's so going to do it we have a capability of being able to make this earth thing we have a technologically augmented capability of feeding everybody taking care of everything the ecology itself and we have an outdated system that we've inherited from is really very and we need a new vision is fighting to get the franchise to provide cable t v show or to manhattan care enough so the people in manhattan and produces organized and said ok if if time warner gets the franchise rights teleprompter gets the franchise they have to give something back to the people in terms of free public access and least access channels like hyde park corner number one i'm saying it didn't happen because they wanted it to happen when the early i would have been because danny had been one of our i've been an access before there was access i used to do programs and richard wiley and did turn the people down the new in new york and the people in the cable industry there are a lot of people work but brian lamb like that ted turner likes public access people like the idea that the people are going to have a say  blabs are coming to our i don't it's there because the exponential increase in capability the progress of the computing is coming through where we're going to have and we're coming post scarcity in terms of our ability right now right now i don't believe we're in a post is that if we want a media system that's worth having we have to fight for it in some way whether it's a lengthy posts or at st by supporting public access so i support it but we also and whole incidentally danny does the people market handled it all can be done and like that one moment it can be wiped out by f c c rules and people who are hostile could be a little high remember michael powell tried to get that thing that merger media thing right he could not stand he could not do it in the are outdated or oppressive what have you that because i say that they go out of existence they don't know they're not going to go to prison we have to we have to find and create alternative spaces like this one and we have to try to defend you know three thousand across the count can you know little movement nobody can make makes a living as a public access you should not make a living the idea that you have to make that's one of the big things i would like the progressive community to address is that ninety percent of the production in the you do this film you did this project you're doing these projects and we basically go into outer space and we talk about the cosmos and the world etc i'm too doing all that so it's a doing that but good give me a representative that's all you're doing in public access but you don't take the leadership from them they are going to be a lagging indicator the politicians and also we listen to we listen to their narrative we listen to the networks don't pay attention the networks give us  demand more access to our media system to get arse our work seen and that's not after we have a public television system service in america is it really serving the public we should ask that question i mean s if you know the same part of the system i understand that it has a mandate that it's outdated it has a mandate that's different it can't be changed possibly if people got involved in trying to change it that's my only point  i'm not optimistic about that happening this is sara lee because meeting her seems like an issue that's like you know everybody agrees but that nobody does anything about religion like them to do something about it to get back to my point here we've made some films that you should see absolutely have a website that you should read media channel dot or no doubt i read some books i'd like you to know about if you're interested in it please do you can come and visit our website you can write to me at dissect media channel dot org you can get involved in this conversation on harold and i are having right now you must have ideas about it and if you're watching this if you could stand to watch it for an hour  colleagues people who are doing trying to get this kind of other voices heard right and that's why i'm here i appreciate the opportunity my good here i hope people will watch your program and and and take you to task like i've tried to do you know when they disagree with you  there isn't much room for that but you can try to do that the point is that we have to have these kinds of conversations right while i'm here believe it or not freezing yeah i know in studio freezing to you know what i'm trying to do hopefully some of you one of you maybe one person who's watching will say hey that sounds interesting yeah i'd like to get it but that's exactly the point of the