fhttps://therecord.media/sinclair-tv-stations-disrupted-across-the-us-in-apparent-ransomware-attack/

Last Saturday, Friends of Community Media held a bingo fundraiser at the entertainment / restaurant – Hamburger Mary’s – and it went well. 60-70 people attended and hundreds of dollars was raised. Richard Thompson organized the event, following in the footsteps of what put KKFI community radio on the air (BINGO) in Kansas City.

The fundraiser was to help launch a local journalism project, tentatively titled The Kansas City Investigators.  This is a nonprofit journalism project, which will be staffed mainly by volunteers, along with a paid editor-in-chief and three paid interns.  The goal is to promote ethical and transparent government.

AUTHOR: Spencer Graves

MIGHT YOU HELP TRYING TO IMPROVE LOCAL NEWS?

      Friends of Community Media is working to develop a local consensus
for improving the quality of local news.  In this effort, we are
following the example that Freepress.net used to convince the New Jersey
legislature to create the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium
(NJCIC).  This is a 501(c)(3), which recently approved 14 projects
funded at $35,000 each to do different things in different parts of New
Jersey in conjunction with a professor at one of five leading public
universities in New Jersey.  We do NOT expect to do exactly that.
Instead, we want to ask leaders in government, business, nonprofits,
etc., if they are concerned about the quality of local news, and if yes,
what might they support to improve this.

      Below please find an email similar to what Spencer Graves sent to 22
different politicians at city, county, state and federal levels.  In
following up by phone on those mails, he spoke with 7 humans and left
voice messages for the rest.  And he had two follow-up meetings with a
legislative assistant for a city councilperson.  His next task is to do
something similar with local news outlets like the KansasReflector.com
and TheBeacon.media.

      Spencer would love to hear what you might like to do in this regard.
He would happily help you got contact information for anyone you might
like to ask about this and draft questions, if you would like that.  If
we get enough people discussing this with others, we can get substantive
action to improve the quality of local information available to people.
That, in turn, will encourage more people to vote and vote
intelligently, leading to better public policies, according to research
Spencer has seen and is cited in his email.

Spencer.Graves@EffectiveDefense.org

Spencer Graves, Secretary of Friends of Community Media, has written a well-researched and thoughtful article on ideas to improve local journalism and Kansas City Media.

UPDATE: MARY’S REQUIRES EVERYONE ATTENDING TO BRING PROOF OF COVID-19 VACCINATION.  YOUR CARD, A PHOTOCOPY, OR READABLE PICTURE WILL WORK.

If you don’t know about our “Hambingo” fundraiser yet, read on:

As many of you know, FCM is fundraising for a local journalism project, tentatively titled The Kansas City Investigators.  This is a nonprofit journalism project, which will be staffed mainly by volunteers, along with a paid editor-in-chief and three paid interns.  The goal is to promote ethical and transparent government.

To this end, FCM is holding a bingo fundraiser at Hamburger Marys’ Midtown KCMO location (3700 Broadway Blvd #110) on 8/21 from 4-6 PM.  Prizes will include handmade jewelry, KKFI and FCM t-shirts, and gift cards to local businesses.  Come for a hilarious afternoon of drag queens, bingo competition, drinks, burgers, exciting prizes, and extraordinary fun!  RSVP on Facebook at this link: https://www.facebook.com/events/493290592005801

NOTE: This event will be very risqué.  A drag-queen runs the bingo game, and they will use foul language and make suggestive jokes.  If that doesn’t sound fun to you, we suggest that you support FCM by donating on our website, here: https://ourfcm.org/donate.

Questions? Contact Richard Thompson at (913)209-4114 or richthompson209@gmail.com.

INTERVIEW WITH CRAIG AARON OF FREEPRESS

TO BE AIRED ON KKFI 90.1 FM KKFI.ORG ON THURSDAY 4/29/21

Kansas City, Mo., 4/23/21  – An important interview will air this Thursday 4/29 on KKFI community radio show “Thursday Night Special” at 7:00 to 8:00 PM. 

Spencer Graves, FCM board member and secretary will discuss issues facing journalism and the need for media reform in the United States with Freepress CEO, Craig Aaron.  https://www.freepress.net/

People may also watch via Zoom videoconferencing and YouTube Live.

People with the Zoom session will be able to ask questions during the

session.  They can also suggest questions in advance via a complementary

post on Wikiversity.  Links are below:

https://kkfi.org/program-episodes/media-reform-per-freepress-net/

https://zoom.us/j/92099403742

https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Media_reform_per_Freepress.net#Draft_agenda

-30-

This article from 538.com discusses that the characteristic of being a Republican is now being “anti-media” – that is not the same as being for media reform and allowing more people to participate in the media.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-being-anti-media-is-now-part-of-the-gop-identity/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

At the end of March, State of Washington universities conducted a media education program called MisinfoDay in high schools to help students learn the difference between real news and propaganda. This would be a good event to happen nationwide. The session used these questions to help learn how to differentiate between bogus news and real facts.