London Bicyclist - image: Wikimedia

The Urban and Environmental Policy Institute  has just gotten started on the 2010 Bike Summit. One big change is that we’re planning to make it both a bicycle and pedestrian event! We’ve just started work, so we  haven’t confirmed a date or location yet – but it’s likely to be similar to last year – around March 2010 in a central transit-accessible location like LA Trade Tech College. Here’s the event web page – same as last year – and it’s a wiki, so if register, you can contribute materials to the site.

We’re trying to get a couple of great inspirational out-of-town speakers, and we’ll be hosting plenty of local workshops. If you have ideas for speakers you’d like to hear and/or topics you’d like to learn about or present, please add your suggestions to the idea page for the 2010 L.A. Bike / Ped Summit.

Quaker Oats/Goodbite.com “Awaken Your Senses” Challenge
With a click of the thumbs-up button under the Cherries video, you can help Jen win $10,000 to benefit the National Farm to School Network.

Twelve food bloggers shared their favorite food memory via a video diary posted at YouTube.com/QuakerTalk. Website visitors will vote for their favorite oatmeal topping, and the blogger associated with the winning topping will receive $10,000 to donate to the charity of their choice.

To help Farm to School, just watch Jen’s video here and click the thumbs-up button that appears at the bottom of the frame – then tell your friends and family so they can help, too!

Voting on the video runs until Thursday, October 22nd at 11:59pm.  The idea is to mobilize supporters to vote for Jen so that we make it into the semi-finalist round.  Voting for the grand Prize (10K!) will then take place among the 3 semi-finalist on 11/9/09.

So how can you help?

1) Visit Quaker Talk on YouTube (just click the link) by this Thursday, October 22nd.

2) Click on the Vote or Watch & Vote button.

3) Select Jen’s video (it isn’t always in the same position depending on how you get there, so you’ll have to actually READ for her topping: Cherries Jubilee) and click on the GREEN THUMB to vote for her topping!

4) Spread the word.

Help nourish kids and communities!

Friends and Colleagues:

Stephen J. Hemsley is one of the most powerful people you’ve never heard of. But Health Care for America Now (HCAN) hopes to change that.

Hemsley is the CEO of United Health Group, the nation’s largest health insurance company and a key player in the industry’s effort to thwart health care reform.  In my article today Huffington Post, “Meet Stephen Hemsley,” I profile the man, his company, its neglect of policy-holders, its abuse of doctors, and its political influence-peddling. 

Despite Hemsley’s best efforts, however, the grassroots movement for health care reform is gaining momentum.  Yesterday and today, activists in about 60 cities will circle industry offices with yellow tape, drawing attention to the crime of so many Americans who lack health insurance or are under-insured. One of yesterday’s protests took place at UnitedHealth’s headquarters. About 100 people participated and six of them engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience and were arrested. My article includes a link to a video of yesterday’s protest.

Also yesterday, 30 health reform activists showed up Thursday at conservative Rep. John Boehner’s place to challenge his claim that he’s never met “anyone” who supports the public health insurance option.

While that was happening, President Obama hosted 150 physicians (at least one from each state) on the Rose Garden law who support his plan for a public option to compete with the private insurance companies. Although there are still significant obstacles to overcome, the chances for real health insurance reform, incuding a public option, are growing stronger, according to this article in Salon and other analyses.

Most of the protests in different cities around the country will happen on Tuesday.
To find out more about local events, and to learn more about the health reform movement, click on the HCAN website: http://healthcareforamericanow.org/
In California, demonstrations will be held in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, and Santa Ana.

In Los Angeles, 11:00 AM at the offices of Anthem/Blue Cross (California’s WellPoint subsidiary) at  801 S. Figueroa
Contact: Angela,  or 213-413-3587

In San Francisco, 11:30 AM at 1 Market Street near Embarcadero Ctr.
Contact: Patrick,  or 707-853-3888

In Sacramento, 12 noon at 1121 L Street
Contact: Zak,  or 916-813-6658

In Santa Ana, 11:30 AM at 3100 Lake Center Drive
Contact: Marisol

In San Diego, 12 noon at 3655 Nobel Drive, # 250
Contact: Sandra

Friends and Colleagues,

I just posted this piece, “First They Came for ACORN,” about the need for progressives, and Democratic Party politicians, to stand up for ACORN, or else the Right will pick off each progressive and liberal group one-by-one.  This is based on the famous poem by Pastor Martin Niemoller, written about the passivity of people of conscience during the Nazi regime.

I would also recommend reading John Atlas’ article, “What Is ACORN?” Harold Meyerson’s Washington Post column, “For ACORN, Truth Lost Amid the Din,” and David Morris’ article on Alternet. I also recommend watching Jeremy Scahill’s appearance on the Rachel Maddow Show on Friday about the many corporations with government contracts who are chronic lawbreakers, but who the Republicans are NOT trying to defund.

Our own Peter Dreier was a featured expert on the Rachel Maddow show talking about his recent report on ACORN and refuting the rightwing campaign against ACORN and our healthy school food Organizer, Elizabeth Medrano, discussed and analyzed the school food crisis on a PBS Special Report on Health Care with Tavis Smiley.

In other good news, the City of Vernon dropped their plans for the mega-watt power plant.  Kudos to CBE, East Yard Communities, EJ orgs, churches, community, and labor who have been organizing for three years to stop this project.  Learn more about the great work of our community partner Angelo Logan and East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice.

Now if the California Air Board would only vote the right way today on controlling rail emissions in California….

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:

Peter Dreier, E.P Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics and Urban & Environmental Policy Program director, Occidental College, (323) 259-2913, dreier@oxy.edu

Christopher Martin, professor of journalism, UNI Department of Communication Studies,
(319) 273-7155, martinc@uni.edu

Note: Read “Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong” online at www.uepi.oxy.edu/acornstudy

Accurate reporting sidelined as mainstream media repeats allegations of Republican Party operatives and politicians

Recently released study finds widespread inaccuracy in the reporting of an alleged “voter fraud” scandal involving ACORN

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — An independent study by two prominent academics, released this week, found repetition of unverified allegations and distortions was the rule in national reporting of a purported “voter fraud” scandal involving the community organizing group ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) during the 2008 presidential campaign.

This self-funded study, “Manipulating the Public Agenda: Why ACORN Was in the News, and What the News Got Wrong” by Christopher Martin of the University of Northern Iowa and Peter Dreier of Occidental College, reveals a classic case of the agenda-setting effect in which both conservative and mainstream media outlets propelled the Republican agenda with a barrage of unfounded allegations of alleged “voter fraud.”

The study found that both conservative and mainstream media reported allegations by Republican Party operatives and politicians without seeking to verify these claims or to provide ACORN with equal opportunities to challenge the accusations of voter fraud.

The analysis of the narrative framing the ACORN stories demonstrates that — despite long-standing charges from conservatives that the news media are determinedly liberal and ignore conservative ideas — the news media agenda is easily permeated by persistent conservative media campaigns, even when there is little or no truth to the story.

The authors conducted a content analysis of all 647 stories about ACORN that appeared in 15 major news media organizations from 2007-2008. The news media analyzed included USA Today, The New York Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox News Channel, CNN, MSNBC, National Public Radio (NPR), and NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (PBS). They also examined all stories about ACORN from three local newspapers representing cities in which ACORN has a long-time presence: the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Using the controversy over ACORN as a case study, the report illustrates the way the media help set the agenda for public debate, and frame the way that debate is shaped. It describes how what the authors call opinion entrepreneurs (primarily business and conservative groups and individuals) set the story in motion as early as 2006, how the “conservative echo chamber” orchestrated its anti-ACORN campaign in 2008, how the McCain-Palin campaign picked it up, and how the mainstream media reported these allegations without investigating their truth or falsity. As a result, the relatively little-known community organization became the subject of a major news story in the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, to the point where 82 percent of the respondents in an October 2008 national survey reported they had heard about ACORN.

In October 2008, at the peak of the campaign season, negative attacks dominated the news about ACORN with these key findings:

• 76 percent of the stories focused on allegations of voter fraud.
• 8.7 percent involved accusations that public funds were being funneled to ACORN.
• 7.9 percent of the stories involved charges that ACORN is a front for registering Democrats.
• 3.1 percent involved blaming ACORN for the mortgage scandal.

The report also found that the media, including the mainstream news media, failed to fact-check persistent allegations of voter fraud involving ACORN despite the existence of easily available countervailing evidence. The media failed to distinguish allegations of voter registration problems from allegations of actual voting irregularities. They also failed to distinguish between allegations of wrongdoing and actual wrongdoing. For example:

• 82.8 percent of the stories alleging voter fraud failed to mention that actual voter fraud is very rare.
• 80.3 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to mention that ACORN was reporting registration irregularities to authorities, as required by law.
• 85.1 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to note that ACORN was acting to stop incidents of registration problems by its (mostly temporary) employees when it became aware of these problems.
• 95.8 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to provide deeper context, especially efforts by Republican Party officials to use allegations of voter fraud to dampen voting by low-income and minority Americans.
• 61.4 percent of the stories alleging involvement in voter fraud failed to acknowledge that Republicans were trying to discredit Obama with an ACORN scandal.

The authors reveal that the attacks on ACORN by Republicans and conservatives — and the same pattern of reportage that repeats allegations without any attempt to independently verify the facts — have persisted throughout 2009. For example, despite recently discovered e-mails revealing Karl Rove’s role in the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias for failing to prosecute ACORN on charges of voter fraud despite the lack of evidence, not a single major daily newspaper mentioned ACORN as the Republicans’ target.

Download the full report at www.uepi.oxy.edu/acornstudy

– END -

Peter Dreier, Ph.D., is the E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics and director of the Urban & Environmental Policy Center at Occidental College in Los Angeles. He is coauthor of several books on urban policy and politics, including Place Matters: Metropolitics for the 21^st Century (University Press of Kansas), Regions That Work: How Cities and Suburbs Can Grow Together (University of Minnesota Press), and The Next Los Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City (University of California Press). His research has been published in the Journal of Urban Affairs, Harvard Business Review, Urban Affairs Review, Journal of the American Planning Association, North Carolina Law Review, National Civic Review, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Media and Society, and other scholarly journals, as well as the Columbia Journalism Review. His research has been funded by the Brookings Institution, Ford Foundation, the Eisenhower Foundation, and other funders.

Dreier can be reached at (323) 259-2913 or dreier@oxy.edu.

Christopher Martin, Ph.D., is a professor of journalism at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa. He is co-author of Media and Culture: An Introduction to Mass Communication, now in its 7th edition, and author of Framed! Labor and the Corporate Media. He also writes Mediacrit, a blog of news and journalism criticism (http://mediacrit.com). His research has been published in Journalism Studies, Journal of Communication Inquiry, Communication Research, and the Journal of Communication. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Communication Inquiry.

Martin can be reached at (319) 273-7155 or martinc@uni.edu.

XXX

Friends and Colleagues:

The movement for health care reform is picking up steam. Today,  Health Care for America Now (HCAN) is sponsoring protests in about 150 cities, targeting 3 major insurance companies, including the nation’s largest – WellPoint  — an arm of Blue Cross-Blue Shield.   The protest messages: “Big Insurance: Sick of It” and “If the Insurance Companies Win, You Lose.”

I’ve written an article for Huffington Post  about today’s day of protest and about WellPoint, one of the poster children for health care reform.

If you want to find out where and when a protest will occur in your city, or get emails about future protest events, go to the HCAN website.

In the next few days  and weeks , I will post pieces on the other major health insurance companies,  as the protests escalate around the country, focusing public attention on the efforts by the insurance industry to thwart real reform and wield influence to get conservative Democrats in Congress to oppose Obama’s plan.

A victory for real health care reform is possible. Join up with HCAN – a broad coalition of community, religious, labor, MoveOn, and other groups – to shift the political momentum for a progressive solution to the health care crisis.

In honor and anticipation of Parking Day L.A. tomorrow, here are some facts about parks & parking and cars in our city and region.

• Only 34 percent of children in the City of Los Angeles live within walking distance of a public park.  See the Trust for Public Land’s Parks for People campaign for reports and maps of park distributions in L.A. County.
• There are 6500 miles of streets and 800 miles of alleys in the City of Los Angeles, but just 134 miles of bike paths and 321 miles of bike lanes.
• The City of Los Angeles has mandated minimum parking requirements for commercial buildings since 1946, leading to a proliferation of parking lots and increasing the costs of new construction. New housing also has minimum parking requirements.
• In Los Angeles County, there are 7 parking spaces for every registered car.
• 27 freeways and highways criss-cross the County.

Join us in Eagle Rock near the intersection of Eagle Rock and Colorado blvds between 8-3 if you get a chance.

Friends and Colleagues:

I’ve posted this column, “Go Out and Make Me Do It,” on Huffington Post  last night. It is an analysis of Obama’s speech on health insurance reform. I said it was a “call to action,” emphasizing that he opened the door for activists to mount a ground war to take on the insurance industry and push Congress — especially the handful of recalcitrant Democrats – to support a public option. The title is one of my favorite political quotes: FDR’s request, said to activists who lobbied him to be bold, to “go out and make me do it”

Also, here’s an op-ed column that Marshall Ganz and I wrote for the Washington Post two Sundays ago: “We Have the Hope. Now Where’s the Audacity?”

You will probably get lots of emails in the next few days from various organizations urging you to contact your Senators and Congressmembers, support organizations mobilizing people to push for reform, and spread the word among your friends and other contacts.

I encourage you to ramp up your activity in the next few weeks and months.

A great source of information about the grassroots campaign for health care is the website of Health Care for America Now (HCAN), the key coalition spearheading the organizing work. . They will be looking for people to join the effort in many ways, from donating money, to contact Congress, to participating in rallies and vigils.

Please do what you can.   We have an historic opportunity to bring about progressive change and make decent, affordable health insurance a right, not a privilege.

Join us for 30 Years and Growing, a celebration of the 30th anniversary of Los Angeles’ first farmers’ market.
The Gardena farmers’ market, which opened June 23, 1979, was the first of many great markets in Southern California. This milestone will be celebrated by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and LA area community members on September 3, 2009.

When: September 3, 2009, 10am – 2pm

Where: Lawn of City Hall, 1st and Spring St. Downtown Los Angeles (map)

Confirmed guests and activities include:

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, delivering remarks at a 10:30am press conference
Councilmember Jan Perry
Robert Tse,  Deputy Secretary of Trade Development, California Dept. of Food and Agriculture
Kurt Floren, Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner

Vance Corum, and other organizers of LA’s first farmers’ markets, including 20 original farmers and organizers from the first Gardena market

Evan Kleiman, chef/owner of Angeli Caffe and host of the weekly radio show Good Food on KCRW, will serve as emcee for the event
Jonathan Gold, Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic for the LA Weekly will announce the winner of the Redesign Your Farmers’ Market contest (there’s still time to enter, deadline is September 1!), and serve as a Salsa Contest judge
Nancy Silverton, chef/owner of Osteria Mozza, Pizzeria Mozza, and co-founder of La Brea Bakery
Jeffrey Saad, chef, Spice Smuggler, and runner up on The Next Food Network Star

Urban farmers from many local programs like the Stanford Avalon Farmers in Watts, Crenshaw High School’s Eco Club, The Garden School Foundation, 24th Street Foundation, North Hollywood Farmers and more.

A Taste the Harvest booth sponsored by SEE-LA offering free samples of seasonal produce from heirloom tomatoes to stone fruit, including chef demos, to be announced.

A Salsa Contest sponsored by SEE-LA and the Arts District/Little Tokyo Farmers’ Market. View the contest rules, anyone can enter! Contest begins at 11:30am.

A booth sponsored by GOOD, The Architect’s Newspaper and edible LA focused on design solutions for local food, including an exhibition of finalists from the Redesign Your Farmers Market contest.

A timeline chronicling the history of farmers’ markets in Los Angeles designed by the 30 Years & Growing team: Joseph Prichard, Michelle Park and Manuel Garcia

Free produce bags from ECOBAGS printed by Fresh Pressed

Over 40 local farmers, prepared foods and fresh food vendors as well as local artisans

And it wouldn’t be a birthday without cake! We’ll celebrate 30 years with the cutting of a carrot cake, which means free carrot cake for all attendees.