Alternative to Stay True

United States’ media and press are usually viewed as free from control. It is true to the extent that government cannot control it; however nothing is said about the private corporations that own networks, newspapers and radio stations. Some of these media conglomerates are Walt Disney, News Corp., TimeWarner, and General Electric. These companies control the mainstream news, and who is to say that heads of these companies are not trying to push their agenda or views of the world onto people. As an example we can look at the infamous Fox News channel that constantly produces material that promotes Republican agenda by shady means. There are reports that misinform, leave out parts of the story, and so on. LiberalViewer is a YouTube channel dedicated to analyzing such reports and presenting a different side to the story.

Another issue that is posed by such consolidated ownership is gender and ethnic representation among decision making staff and other important positions. According to National Organization for Women website women and non-white ethnic groups are underrepresented in every such position: “Women own just six percent of the commercial broadcast TV stations in the U.S., and people of color own a mere three percent…While slightly more than half of local television news anchors are now women, women still make up only 28 percent of local news directors and 16 percent of the general managers at TV stations that air local news. People of color fill just 16 percent and 10 percent, respectively, of these key decision-making positions…While the percentage of women in the very top positions at U.S. newspapers has grown in recent years, they still make up less than one-fifth of president/publisher/CEOs.”

Solutions to some of these issues can be found in alternative media. Independent Women's Forum is an organization that provides such alternative media source in a form of a website. IWF started as a support group for Judge Thomas in 1992, which grew into an organization with approximately 20000 members, over a million dollars in revenue, and a catchy slogan:” All Issues are Women's Issues”. It is run by women with a conservative agenda, who think that women should be part of all policy making decisions. The organization also promotes equity feminism, which has been criticized as anti-feminist by other feminist organizations. And this point makes them interesting. They are seen as a minority in the feminist movement, and they are rejected for some of their controversial views. Such phenomenon contradicts the idea of free expression and equal representation for all women. Therefore I find them important as a challenge to the majority of the feminist movement’s voice in the media. And it doesn’t matter if some of their ideas may be wrong or outrageous, what matters is the idea that there is a variety of opinions in every group and one has to be mindful of them.