Across the nation, voters are already casting their ballots in what may be the most significant election in decades. Race and gender have been front and center in the historic presidential campaigns. As the American political world is set for a major transformation, has our media been tuned in, or tuned out?

Join Reclaim the Media and partner organizations on Thursday evening, Nov 6 at Antioch University (download flyer) for a post-election celebration of democracy - and a critical look at how US media dealt with the challenges of campaign coverage 2008.

Panelists include Jennifer Pozner (Women in Media and News), Naomi Ishisaka (One America), Lorena González (Latino PAC), B.J. Bullert (Antioch Center for Creative Change) and Cory Fisher-Hoffman (Prometheus Radio Project), moderated by Jan Strout (Reclaim the Media).

Tony Riddle, until recently Executive Director of the national Alliance for Community Media, has left that position and will be joining the staff of Pacifica station WBAI-FM in New York as Executive Director. RTM considers Tony an especially valued colleague (along with others who have recently changed jobs within the media democracy movement, including former Media Alliance ED Jeff Perlstein and former Future of Music Coalition ED Jenny Toomey).

During his work at the ACM, Tony did a great job of highlighting the media policy issues affecting public access, educational and government cable channels, and making sure that the media democracy movement understood how sustaining grassroots community media is a crucial issue alongside media ownership, net neutrality, etc. RTM hopes that new ACM leadership will pursue these connections as Tony did.

The Washington State Legislature will consider a handful of bills dealing with media and telecommunications issues during this year's short legislative session. Live issues include protecting freedom of speech for student journalists, a proposed initiative to expand high-speed broadband deployment statewide, and a resolution asking Congress to overrule the FCC's recent deregulation of media cross-ownership rules. Read on for details on specific bills!

Wading through the flood of news on Iran? Wondering what it all means? On Thurs, Jan. 31, Reclaim the Media joins the Seattle Iranian American Community Alliance to present an evening of short lectures and conversation. Featured speakers UW professors Arzoo Osanloo and David Domke will point the way to critical tools and knowledge we can use to make sense of news coverage on Iran and US-Iran relations. Click here for complete info or download a flyer.