I just received this email from Tim Karr at mediachannel.org.
A letter from CNN managing editor and news anchor Aaron Brown has given us pause. Over the past five days, Media for Democracy members have sent more than 10,000 letters to television media executives asking them to devote more airtime to the problems of electronic voting machines.
On Monday our efforts seemed to have yielded fruit. CNN ran a story on these machines. Yesterday, I wrote Brown to thank him and ask that he engage Media for Democracy members in a
constructive dialogue on CNN standards for election coverage.
His reply follows:
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"No I will not. Further because this cut and paste campaign has annoyed the hell out of me for a week I won't even pay attention to what you guys want or say or think or do. There is no skill
and no passion in cutting and pasting. It's just what lemmings do. I can't begin to tell you how offended I am by it all. You may feel free to pass this along to the rest of the group."
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Tim then asked us what we thought and invited us to post on the discussion panel or send him a personal response. I chose the latter and I'll post it below.
Aaron Brown is not one of the worst "newsmen" on Cable. Many of the others at mediachannel.org advocated boycotting CNN and/or their sponsors. I thought of something more radical, however. It's something that I think THEY would notice immediately and is actually something that saves US time and money.
This afternoon, I called Comcast and CANCELLED MY CABLE SUBSCRIPTION. To paraphrase the Bible, If thine O'Reilly offends thee, then cut it off. Many other posters here have reported they unplugged form the Matrix and, after peering blinkingly at the strange object in the sky for a while, they realized it was the sun and there was a whole world out there. They, on the whole seem to be happy at the conversion.
I know I'm going to miss C-Span but, when I think about it, not much else. Hell, I may even start talking to my wife again, if she can pry me away from the keyboard. There really are good reasons for cutting the cord. It saves at least $30-50 a month, which in Georgie's world, can mean a lot. I'd rather send the money to MoveOn. Everyone reading this knows you get far more,, and much higher quality news from the Internet than you do from Corporate Owned Media. Less time spent boobing out means more time spent interacting with your family, your pets or even, GASP, meeting new people. Perhaps Kos wouldn't be able to do without his Cubs games, but I truly believe some of us will actually enhance our lifestyles without cable or satellite.
Nothing would make the media "giants" sit up and take notice than having thousands of people calling their cable distributors and saying, "Shut it Down". I was asked why I wanted to quit. I informed the poor hard working employee that I didn't find any value in the cable news programs, the 24-hour sports was banal and repetetive and, frankly, I would rather get my movies from Netflix or the corner Video rental center that Showtime or HBO. There was a long moment of shocked silence.
Without viewers, they don't get as much money from advertisers. Without ears, their propoganda is as the sound of a tree falling in the forest, with no one to hear. It calls for some real change in our lives. Who's to say that change wouldn't be for the better? Just a thought.
Below, my letter to Tim Karr:
Dear Tim,
I believe his response deserves to be made public because it is counterproductive on several different levels. First of all, he becomes incensed at the methodology, which no doubt is annoying and he probably gets the same treatment from "conservative" groups as well. I can understand his frustration. My letter, by the way, was not cut and pasted. It was original. I'm sure many others took the time to articulate their concerns, even though it seemed unlikely that they would be read by anyone in authority. However, to state:
"No I will not (engage in dialogue). Further because this cut and paste campaign has annoyed the hell out of me for a week I won't even pay attention to what you guys want or say or think or do."
The feeling is clear that, if Aaron Brown is annoyed, the concerns of 10,000 fellow citizens are not worthy of consideration. The importance of the issue at question is, apparently, contemptible and he then insults the humanity (lemmings) of those who would dare bother him with their lack of "skill and passion".
To me, this is not acceptable behavior for one who acts as a journalist. Ego should be subordinate to journalistic instinct for getting to the bottom of a good story. I understand that CNN did run a story about the critical issue of democracy in the voting booth and that his testy response is to the idea of communicating further with the "lemmings" who "annoyed the hell out of" him. What's not clear is whether Mr. Brown was a positive force in running the story initially and whether he will now ignore it because he has taken personal offense at those who used an increasingly common, and probably very annoying form of communication.
I personally feel this simply unprofessional and not acceptable in one who has so much responsibility and opportunity to encourage a healthy debate.
You may feel free to pass this along to Mr. Brown. Many of us are offended by the current, deplorable state of journalism in the major media. I would like to think that Mr. Brown is still capable of investigating the merits of the issue that is of such crucial importance to so many of his fellow citizens.