Media

Thank you for epic community service, Chad Johnston

Chad Johnston is the director of Chapel Hill's grassroots public access station The People's Channel. Not many people truly know the scope of the contributions he has made toward democratizing media both in Orange County and in Orange County. Sadly he's leaving us to run a station in a bigger community. The Independent Weekly has a wonderful cover story about him this week, and the public is invited to a potluck to say farewell to Chad tonight at the TPC studio on Elliot Road. If you can't attend in person, you can watch it live on TV!

I highly recommend reading the Indy article which gives a sense of how Chad has gone to bat to protect community media at the state level, as well as the thankless work of building and sustaining capacity for grassroots voices to be heard both in Orange and Durham Counties.

Public Address by Lawrence Lessig – Rooting out Corruption in Politics: Complicity and Complacency by the Media

I've been a huge fan of Lessig's work for some time, and I can tell you from experience that he's a really great public speaker. You'll come away smarter after listening to him.

On March 4, the Center for Media Law and Policy will host a public address by Professor Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School, and director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University.  Prior to rejoining the Harvard faculty, Prof. Lessig taught at Stanford Law School, where he founded the school’s Center for Internet and Society, and at the University of Chicago.

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will tackle one of the most challenging problems we face: corruption in politics. How have good people, with good intentions, allowed our democracy to be co-opted by outside interests, weakening our institutions and especially public trust in those institutions? What role has the media played in this weakening and what should be its role going forward?

Please join us on March 4 at 6:30 p.m. at the UNC Law School when Prof. Lessig will discuss how we can root out corruption in our politics and restore faith in the Fourth Estate’s role as a watchdog of government.

 

Date: 

Monday, March 4, 2013 - 6:30pm to 8:00pm

Location: 

UNC School of Law

A Change for the Editors of OrangePolitics

During the Thanksgiving weekend of 2010, Ruby and I met over coffee in downtown Carrboro to discuss a new direction for OrangePolitics. By the turn of the new year, Ruby had recruited meErinJason, and Molly to act as a group of editors who would help solicit new content, expand OP's presence on Twitter (@orangepolitics) and other social media, moderate comments when necessary, and prosecute the war on spambots and other robot visitors.

Local Media Ignores Claims Against UNC

Huffington Post broke the story University Of North Carolina Routinely Violates Sexual Assault Survivor Rights, Students Claim on Wednesday. Yesterday the Daily Tarheel has a story called Complaint: UNC pressured dean to underreport sexual assault cases. No where can this story be found on the websites of the Chapel Hill News, Chapelboro, News & Observer, or Indy Week. Why? Have links I haven't found? Share them in the comments.

Less Ink, More Water: What Do We Do When There Are No Reporters but Big Decisions?

I love newspapers and news blogs. I love reporters. I used to be a reporter. I come from 150 years of men – and one grandmother, Cyrene Bakke Dear – who published local community newspapers from Jersey City to Sedalia, Mo.

In the '60s my mom and dad got a lot of late-night, threatening calls from the Klan in my hometown of Elizabeth City, NC for what my dad did through the Daily Advance. David Dear informed the community with courage. He was also an equal opportunity employer before the phrase existed and he got threats for that, too.

I miss reporters. We need reporters here in Orange County. And everywhere. But you know that.

What you may not know is that something really big just happened here, something that may grow in significance for our community for the rest of the century.

And you probably have not heard a thing about it.

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