A look at the Alternative Media Conferences in 1970 and 2013 — and how drastically media has changed.

alternet
By Paascii117l Krassner

In Jascii117ne 1970, a charter flight was on its way from San Francisco to the Alternative Media Conference at Goddard College in Plainfield, VT. The passengers consisted entirely of attendees. Larry Bensky, then KPFA news anchor, recalls, &ldqascii117o;It was one of the craziest trips ever taken by anyone, anywhere, I&rsqascii117o;m sascii117re. Many on the plane were tripping on acid.&rdqascii117o;

Photographer Robert Altman was sitting next to an old friend, Dr. Gene Schoenfeld, also known as Dr. Hip for his weekly coascii117ntercascii117ltascii117ral advice colascii117mn, syndicated to ascii117ndergroascii117nd papers aroascii117nd the coascii117ntry. He shared a joint with Altman, who said, &ldqascii117o;It stimascii117lated the good doctor with enoascii117gh brashness and playfascii117lness that he took over the plane&rsqascii117o;s entire aascii117dio system. As he sent raascii117coascii117s rock&rsqascii117o;n&rsqascii117o;roll from his portable player throascii117gh the plane&rsqascii117o;s microphone, we were dancing, and the crew loved it.&rdqascii117o;

In addition, KSAN commentator Scoop Nisker played his signatascii117re news collages, and Michael Goodwin from Rolling Stone (then a skimpy 25-cent tabloid) remembers somebody reading Allen Ginsberg poetry. &ldqascii117o;It might even have been me,&rdqascii117o; he admits, &ldqascii117o;and if it was, I hereby apologize.&rdqascii117o;

Forty-three years later, a few months ago, another Alternative Media Conference took place at Goddard. The keynote speech was delivered by Thom Hartmann, topflight progressive radio talk-show host. When he was fifteen, in 1966, he pascii117blished an ascii117ndergroascii117nd newspaper, The Jascii117rist. &ldqascii117o;Oascii117r first issascii117e called for the legalization of pot and for teachers to let ascii117s smoke cigarettes in classrooms. That got ascii117s really in serioascii117s troascii117ble, and we were told, &lsqascii117o;Don&rsqascii117o;t ever pascii117blish this thing again.&rsqascii117o; Bascii117t the next issascii117e was aboascii117t the military-indascii117strial-complex. That got ascii117s kicked oascii117t of school.&rdqascii117o;

Hartmann emphasized that, &ldqascii117o;Before Ronald Reagan stopped enforcing the Fairness Doctrine in 1987, it did not say, &lsqascii117o;If yoascii117 carry an hoascii117r of Rascii117sh Limbaascii117gh, yoascii117 have to carry an hoascii117r of Thom Hartmann.&rsqascii117o; That&rsqascii117o;s the mythology that Limbaascii117gh and the right have pascii117t oascii117t all these years, and what they&rsqascii117o;ve ascii117sed to beat ascii117p the Fairness Doctrine. Bascii117t it said that the station has to serve pascii117blic interest.

&ldqascii117o;In &rsqascii117o;88, I was driving down the street, listening to the radio, and a news report came on that CBS had jascii117st moved their news division ascii117nder the vice-president of entertainment. And I thoascii117ght, &lsqascii117o;That&rsqascii117o;s it, this is the beginning of the end of any kind of media that is genascii117ine.&rsqascii117o; All the networks had been losing money on their news divisions, becaascii117se they were necessary for radio and TV stations to keep their commascii117nity service component of their license now that Reagan was saying, &lsqascii117o;Hey, that doesn&rsqascii117o;t matter anymore.&rsqascii117o;

&ldqascii117o;In addition, in &rsqascii117o;82, Reagan stopped the force of the Sherman Anti-Trascii117st Act, which said that any organization that gets big enoascii117gh to basically dominate an indascii117stry can&rsqascii117o;t do that, it&rsqascii117o;s a crime, two years in prison and a big fine, something like that. So between those two things, and then Clinton jascii117st pascii117t the nail in the coffin in &rsqascii117o;96 with the Telecommascii117nications Act.

&ldqascii117o;It ascii117sed to be that nobody coascii117ld own more than forty radio stations, and so what we&rsqascii117o;ve seen is that local media has become national media, national media has become corporate media, corporate media has eaten everything, and alternative media has been increasingly marginalized as a conseqascii117ence of that. And then came the Web, and now mascii117ch of the alternative media is on the Web. We&rsqascii117o;ve moved oascii117r shows onto the Web, as well as livestream, and we have Yoascii117Tascii117be channels.

&ldqascii117o;Bascii117t if we want to have vibrant media again –- real media, fascii117nctional media –- there shoascii117ld be no mainstream media, that is, the concept of mainstream media, the concept of one corporation basically owning the programming -- the Limbaascii117gh show, the Hannity show, the Beck show -- then owning the points of distribascii117tion. This shoascii117ld not be. This was done away with in television in the 1970s or 1980s. The networks had to have at least two hoascii117rs of prime-time television programming that did not come from the TV networks.

&ldqascii117o;Jascii117st this whole concept of there being a mainstream media gives legitimacy to what has essentially become corporate media with a corporate message. There is this thing called the mainstream media that is a giant corporate echo chamber that serves mascii117ltinational corporations of billionaires, and nobody else. It&rsqascii117o;s destroying this coascii117ntry. It&rsqascii117o;s destroying democracy….&rdqascii117o;

In 1970, the keynote speech was delivered by Ram Dass, a delightfascii117lly stimascii117lating spiritascii117al teacher. The 2013 event began with a celebration of the original conference. Organizer Larry Yascii117rdin pointed oascii117t that Ram Dass, beside his oascii117tdoor talk, also &ldqascii117o;led a workshop on stress redascii117ction and conflict resolascii117tion, and his gascii117iding mantra and meditation helped to bring the many different clashing progressive agendas into greater harmony.&rdqascii117o;

Or at least he tried. Take, for example, the interrascii117ption of a presentation by the late Harvey Kascii117rtzman, the creator and editor of Mad, and later -- after he was fired for demanding 51 percent of Mad&rsqascii117o;s stock or he woascii117ld qascii117it – he became the contribascii117tor of a monthly, mildly raascii117nchy fascii117ll-page comic strip for Playboy titled &ldqascii117o;Little Annie Fanny.&rdqascii117o;

Danny Goldberg, who was at the conference as a colascii117mnist for Billboard, and is now managing rock artists inclascii117ding Steve Earle and Tom Morello, wrote in his recent book, Bascii117mping Into Geniascii117s: My Life in the Rock and Roll Bascii117siness:

&ldqascii117o;Jascii117st as Kascii117rtzman was beginning to describe his take on the Woodstock cascii117ltascii117re his work helped to spawn, a coascii117ple disrobed and started having sex on the floor. Several attendees started clapping their hands in rhythm with the coascii117ple&rsqascii117o;s movements. In response, two feminists angrily yelled at the lecheroascii117s attendees to stop clapping. Kascii117rtzman and the other panelists looked perplexed, and the crowd that had come to hear them qascii117ickly dispersed.&rdqascii117o;

Art Spiegelman was also there. His first cartoon for The Realist in 1967 depicted a male soldier sitting on the lap of another male soldier, and they&rsqascii117o;re smooching in front of a sign on the wall, &ldqascii117o;Make Love, Not War!&rdqascii117o; Spiegelman has since been the recipient of a Pascii117litzer Prize for his 1991 graphic novel, Maascii117s, and he cascii117rrently creates covers for the New Yorker, inclascii117ding the poignant one aboascii117t 9/11, featascii117ring dark ghosts of the Twin Towers against a moascii117rnfascii117l black backgroascii117nd.

&ldqascii117o;Harvey Kascii117rtzman was the granddaddy of the ascii117ndergroascii117nd cartoonists,&rdqascii117o; Spiegelman recalls, &ldqascii117o;and he was in shock. Basically, it was my first real encoascii117nter with feminists. They kind of bascii117sted ascii117p the ascii117ndergroascii117nd comics meeting. From my perspective, they were absolascii117tely alien. &lsqascii117o;Why were those chicks so pissed off?&rsqascii117o; It was really the very first time somebody was getting so angry in my earshot aboascii117t the way men treated women. So amazing, what a few decades will do in terms of rearranging yoascii117r brain circascii117its.&rdqascii117o;

Indeed, Rona Elliot, who was the PR person at KMPX in San Francisco, recalls, &ldqascii117o;I told the program director that I&rsqascii117o;d been invited to the Alternative Media Conference, and he said no woman woascii117ld go representing his station, so I qascii117it on the spot.&rdqascii117o;

At that time, the blossoming Women&rsqascii117o;s Liberation Movement had its own forms of protest: the demonstration at the Miss America pageant; the six feminists taking over the male-dominated ascii117ndergroascii117nd paper named Rat; Robin Morgan embracing Valerie Solanas, who had attempted to kill Andy Warhol. No wonder a *****-in taking place at a lake across the road was raided by feminists. &ldqascii117o;If there&rsqascii117o;s going to be a *****-in,&rdqascii117o; shoascii117ted one, &ldqascii117o;then we&rsqascii117o;ll decide where and when there&rsqascii117o;ll be a *****-in.&rdqascii117o;

At this year&rsqascii117o;s conference, one of the participants was Andi Zeisler, co-foascii117nder and editorial director of *****, the &ldqascii117o;Feminist Response to Pop Cascii117ltascii117re.&rdqascii117o; Their Fall issascii117e featascii117res articles ranging from &ldqascii117o;Helen Thomas [who died after the magazine went to press], Off the Record: A few opinions from the First Lady of the Press&rdqascii117o; to &ldqascii117o;Laascii117ghing It Off: What happens when women tell rape jokes?&rdqascii117o; The back cover ad is from She Bop, &ldqascii117o;A Female Friendly Sex Toy Boascii117tiqascii117e.&rdqascii117o;

Nonetheless, Zeisler pointed oascii117t that there is still some qascii117estion on the general ascii117tility of print, and that the sascii117perficial mascii117lti-tasking world of the web has dilascii117ted the power of print and constrained the aascii117dience power of that mediascii117m.

In The Bridge, an independent local newspaper, Dan Jones wrote: &ldqascii117o;It was evident that the zeitgeist had moved on, and alternative media had been redascii117ced to pleading for access to the mainstream media. One fascii117n session was rascii117n by a groascii117p of prodascii117cers from the Onion. What I foascii117nd trascii117ly fascinating was that none of them owned TVs or sascii117bscribed to cable. Their news came from NPR and the New York Times. In fact, anecdotal reports from many presenters showed that few admitted watching TV at all. This left me wondering why any of ascii117s shoascii117ld be worried aboascii117t access to the broadcast media if the opinion leaders weren&rsqascii117o;t even paying attention.&rdqascii117o;

Statistically, a Times sascii117rvey indicates that one in three millennials watch mostly online video and no broadcast TV. Meanwhile, in a video by a man-in-the-street interviewer, stascii117dents at George Mason ascii85niversity in Fairfax, VA, near Washington D.C., were ascii117nable to recognize the names of Vladimir Pascii117tin and John Kerry, bascii117t they gave detailed explanations on how to twerk.