Boston: No News Is Bad News

Just a reminder that I’m headed for Boston for what promises to be an interesting conference. Here’s the description:

No News Is Bad News

A freeand independent press is essential for democracy.  The press has aresponsibility to inform citizens about both the policies and theactions of the government and about credible challenges to thosepolicies and actions, to report on conditions that may require new ordifferent government initiatives, and to raise timely questions itselfabout debatable policies and the rationales presented for them.

Withthe recent controversies over the failure of the press to fully live upto its responsibilities in the runup to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, therole of the media in the outing of a covert CIA agent, the rise of theblogosphere and so-called citizen journalism, and the impact ofincreasing financial pressures on newspapers and magazines, publicconfidence in the mainstream media is at an all-time low.  What are theimplications of this for our democracy?  How might our faith in thepress be restored?

There is (free) registration,

As before, put a link below if you’re interested in get-together events associated with this.

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  1. phred says:

    Looking forward to your visit EW. I’ll be at the conference tomorrow and generally loitering in case anyone is up for a brewski or two. But then, you already knew that

    Anyone else gonna be around this weekend?

  2. BlueStateRedhead says:

    I can be there. Can you clarify?–As before, put a link below if you’re interested in get-together events associated with this.

    I can only attend the afternoon session. Would be happy to loiter if such is a-breweing or as phred says, abrewsking. I look forward to meeting EW et al. How shall we identify ourselves?

  3. Anonymous says:

    kathryn in ma and i are planning on driving in together…. and least for a meet up afterwords and hopefully (i think) for the afternoon conference.

  4. Anonymous says:

    kathryn in ma and i are planning on driving in together – at least for the meet up afterwards and hopefully for the conference too.

  5. phred says:

    Glad to hear it! We (hubby and I) will definitely be at the conference tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully we can meet up there.

    Otherwise, the plan is to meet up afterwards at An Tua Nua on Beacon St. If you don’t make it to the conference, I think it will be a safe bet that BlueState and I will be easy to spot as we are both redheads (unless her name is misleading Plus the hubby will be with us, a big handsome fellow with a beard.

  6. Anonymous says:

    phred – if you’ll email me (click on my name, there’s a contact page), i’ll send you my cell phone number.

  7. Anonymous says:

    That doesn’t mean that Wolf Blitzer is not an alien brain snatching seed pod out to get me and turn me into a brain dead zombie……

  8. JIm Hicks says:

    Attended the conference and was disapointed. There was little about the â€news†in gereral (all the different venues that exist – newspapers, mags, radio, podcasts, tv-cable etc) it seemed only about newspapers and oh yeah, thats right, we have emptywheel here. Of course she didn’t wait to be invited but jumped in…. bj’s indeed!
    And democracy wasn’t mentioned except in passing. I mean the word was mentioned not the concept.
    Three secions. 1 sucked – 2 was ok cuz of eptywheel – 3 – best cuz the moderator did her homework and organized well.
    Glad I came & said hi

  9. kim says:

    Also enjoyed the conference. I found part 1 interesting re:reporters being targeted in Iraq… has embedding made reporters targets? Part 2 was good re:Marcy but Purdum was annoying. Part 3 was interesting, my take away was that reporting remains vital but big changes are ahead for the news business. Guess it’s time to get a viral You Tube video on my resume.