Announcements, summaries, pointers to photos, anything following up on BloggerCon II.

# Posted by Dave Winer on 4/19/04; 2:48:28 PM - --

A follow-up on a small part of the discussion at the International session led by Rebecca MacKinnon. Geekcorps founder and Berkman fellow Ethan Zuckerman says (something I've heard him say before) that news of the Third World has to make it to CNN before things can get better in the Third World. I'm paraphrasing, and will send a pointer to Ethan and if I got it wrong he can explain.

As I heard him say this I thought -- it'll never happen. First you'd have to get them to cover meaningful stories closer to home. I tried to think of an example, and came up with this.

Why doesn't CNN cover the dying American soldiers in Iraq, their families, the former promise of their lives, the waste, the grief, the horror of young lives terminated. Do they ask Why? the way they ask about the death of Laci Peterson. The cable news conversation reports Iraq news in the aggregate. They provide the voice of politicians and military strategists, but rarely if ever the anguish of a mother or father who had to bury their young son or daughter.

I said to Ethan that I believe we have to invent our own media, that to define success in terms of changing the old media is an exercise in futility. There's a reason the President hasn't been to any Iraq funerals, and there's a reason CNN isn't calling him on it, every day, in every broadcast. It hardly matters what the reason is anymore. What does matter is that we can do something about it.

Talking with Scoble last night I said I bet there's a family within five minutes of each of us with a member who has been killed or injured in Iraq. How about a project where we find them, interview them, and tell their story. Immediately on describing this, I'm scared. I don't want to be in their place, in their home, to think about being in their shoes. But don't we have a responsibility, as a nation, to get close to these people and offer any kind of support we can? If they want their story told shouldn't we offer to help them tell it? That we don't insist on hearing about them must tell us something about this war, and about ourselves? How can we go on as normal when so many Americans are dying about something we have in our power to do something about?

# Posted by Dave Winer on 4/19/04; 6:20:57 AM - --