WASHINGTON - January 30 - MediaChannel.org is taking the electronic grassroots revolution to the next level by launching today a new online initiative that holds big media to account for their election coverage.

Media For Democracy 2004 (http://www.mediafordemocracy.us/) is a non-partisan campaign that monitors mainstream news coverage of the 2004 elections and advocates fair, democratic and issue-oriented standards of reporting. The initiative mobilizes citizens in a targeted campaign to prevent the types of media mistakes -- such as early, erroneous and politically biased projections -- that plagued the 2000 election.

"Media for Democracy leverages the latest Internet advocacy technology to give voters a stronger voice against mainstream media that fails to serve the public interest," said Timothy Karr, executive director of MediaChannel.org, the media issues network that produces Media For Democracy 2004.

Media for Democracy taps the expertise of MediaChannel's network of more than 100 U.S. media reform groups and more than 125,000 users. The initiative also serves the massive popular resistance that mobilized in 2003 against the loosening of FCC regulations on media ownership. “More than two million Americans joined together in 2003 by writing their lawmakers to complain about the FCC rollback.” Karr says. “In 2004, we are responding to this widespread concern with a project that encourages citizens to further take action against mainstream media's shortcomings.”

Media For Democracy not only flags election reporting mistakes as they occur, it also provide Americans with the electronic means to put news executives and journalists on notice as soon as their coverage strays from an acceptable standard.

HOW CITIZENS PARTICIPATE:

Throughout this election year, MediaChannel will work with international monitoring agency Media Tenor, to compile data on media coverage of the elections. This original analysis will be provided as “Action Alerts” exclusively to Media For Democracy 2004 members and to press who register at http://www.mediafordemocracy.us/mfd/join.html.

A January 26 alert highlighted mainstream media’s failures to address the political issues that matter most to Americans. Ongoing Media For Democracy monitoring of CBS Evening News, ABC World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News, revealed that less than 4 percent of their nightly half-hour news broadcasts prior to the New Hampshire vote dealt with candidates’ positions on issues, such as health care, education, the war in Iraq, the economy and employment. In a recent Harris Interactive poll, American voters ranked these five topics as the "most important issues for the government to address.”

This and all future Alerts utilize GetActive technology to provide citizen members with the electronic means to express their concerns directly to media executives and journalists. As part of the Jan 26 Alert, Media For Democracy members are now sending letters of concern to network anchors Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings and Dan Rather.

BACKGROUND

Media For Democracy (www.mediafordemocracy.us) is funded by a grant from the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy and through individual donations to MediaChannel.org.

MediaChannel.org (www.mediachannel.org) is a media issues network founded in February 2000 by an international team of journalists, educators, policy reform advocates, new-media specialists and accomplished media makers to respond to the ongoing consolidation of media under a small handful of corporations. The founding of MediaChannel.org set into motion a global, Web-based initiative to mobilize media makers, consumers, educators, analysts and activists who formerly had little interaction. MediaChannel started with 20 affiliates; today the network boasts more than 1,100 independent media affiliates who have joined in a global campaign for more diverse, democratic and accountable media.

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