Why Civil Rights Movement Couldn't Happen Today: A Lesson on Importance of Media Reform

Three months after his famous “I have a Dream,” speech, Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was frustrated by the inaction on civil rights. And now worried about new President Lyndon Johnson’s willingness to move on the issue he is said to have told fellow Southern Christian Leadership Conference minister, Reverend Walter Fountroy, “we are still a ten-day nation, walter.” King was frustrated that the media and by default the nation had an attention span of only ten-days. With King’s official birthday we are once again reminded not just of the moral vision he set for this country but the power of the news media to relay important stories like this to us. In King’s time he believed we had the attention span of 10 days, with the few corporations who control our media system looking to squeeze even more money out of the news business can we say that stories last even 10 days? Darfur, Liberia, detainment of Aug Sung Sui Chi in Burma, civil war continuing in Colombia and the Congo, the Tsunami in southeast Asia, the recovery effort in the Gulf Coast following Katrina, the failure to care for our returned Armed service men and women; just too name very few. Can we remember when investigations of this short list or any of the other major stories showed up in the media system? That is to say when did they ask the follow up question beyond telling us of the events to ask WHY did this happen. When was the last time you saw someone follow up on these important stories or dig deep to find out why, how, and if they are still going on. What would the civil rights moment have been if we had not seen King’s speech on the mall in its full 17 minutes? Would it be as powerful in the 30 seconds we get today? Would the Birmingham boycotts, the desegregation of lunch counters and bus terminals, the fight for voting equality have succeed were it not for the harrowing images of dogs attacking, water hoses, and even murder innocent American citizens fighting for their freedom? The drive to increase profits and decrease any possibility of offending the all mighty advertising dollars would have silenced any of the stories that gave moral credence to the civil rights struggle; they wouldn't even making it onto the airwaves and pages of today’s news media. Because of the power of King’s message and the eloquence he declared it, we often forget how long and tireless many Americans had to work for it. King understood the power of the media in transmitting and translating the Black American struggle. And he was daunted indeed worried that the Press’ short attention span held back the movement. How many equally important movements and issues are being held back by an even more sensationalistic and less substantive corporate media? In today’s media consolidated America the next fight for progress must be the media, because through reforming the system where information is told and facts discussed, we can transform our Democracy. RSS