Media Committee Report

Media Committee Report September 14, 2003

Folks,
I only did one media release this month, in conjunction with Hope Marston and the
BORDC efforts to pass an anti-PATRIOT Act resolution in the Oregon Legislature
before adjournment. The release is posted on the PGP website and attached.
I have sent out email requests seeking people to serve on a Media Team and
asking what topics they would be willing to write releases on. So far only Blair
Bobier has responded, saying that his interest is in. elections, electoral strategy and
election reform. I'm not sure whether Dan Meek agreed or not. Dan Meek is already
a spokesperson for the PGP on legislative matters, but we would need to appoint
Blair as a spokesperson if he is to write press releases on our behalf.
In addition to the Media Team, I need to assemble a matrix committee for chapter
media releases. Irene has provided a list of media contacts in the chapters, which I
still need to follow up on. (It's been a busy month, with other tasks to perform.)
I attended three of the workshops at the PNW Campaign Training School last
weekend: “Developing a Green Message,” put on by Blair and David Cobb, and
the basic and advanced media workshops offered by Gary Ruskin. Both were quite
valuable, especially Gary's advice about dealing with reporters. (Crack jokes, but
don't say anything assinine. They'll quote you!) Gary's advice is also to toss the
press releases that keep coming from the national Green Party once or more a
week. He says they are not news but position papers. It was also clear to me that in
order to do the job of media that Gary proposes, we would need a research
committee as well as a team of writers. Some of the best reference materials are not
available in rural areas, even electronically. I talked with some Metro people who
were interested in being on the media team, and also asked Anne Olena for some
contacts, which she promised. I am advising everyone interested in the media to
subscribe to the Media listserve when it is up so that we can discuss how best to
promote PGP and the issues we care about.
Joanne