MEDIA COVERAGE OF HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY DEMONSTRATION

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JOIN STREET NEWSPAPER EDITORS FROM THROUGHOUT NORTH AMERICA TO
PROTEST CORPORATE MEDIA COVERAGE OF HOMELESSNESS AND POVERTY
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DEMONSTRATION
Saturday, July 28, 6 PM
Powell & Market Streets, San Francisco (@ cable car turnaround)

Take direct action to demand that San Francisco\'s media outlets stop inciting hate against homeless and poor people and tell the truth about rising homelessness in the United States and Bay
Area.

From July 26 - 29, hundreds of representatives from street newspapers throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico will be in San Francisco to attend the 2001 North American Street
Newspaper Association Conference. On the final night of the conference, they invite you to take to the streets with them to demand an end to corporate media lies and stereotyping of poor and homeless people. Following are our demands:

The Street Newspaper Movement Demands of the Mainstream Media

1. Eliminate all prejudicial language, demeaning descriptions, bigoted stereotypes and other examples of hate language directed at homeless
people. Prejudicial descriptions of the poorest of the poor have no place in the major media and are as unacceptable as prejudice directed against any
other minority, race, gender or sexual orientation. When the mainstream media singles out homeless people as the one minority it is still \"socially acceptable\" to stereotype and demean in print, it is inciting public intolerance and giving tacit approval to the scapegoating of a persecuted
group.

2. Stop championing the criminalization of homeless people by slanting
news
and editorial coverage in a way that puts pressure on public officials to
\"sweep\" or \"cleanse\" homeless people from certain areas with police
repression. In this day and age, newspapers would not dare to champion the
removal from public areas or the enforced segregation of any other group
of
\"undesirables.\" It is unconscionable for the mainstream media to advocate,
directly or indirectly, that homeless people be criminalized for
performing
acts that are essential to their daily survival.

3. Tell the truth about rising homelessness in the United States and the
Bay
Area and how that relates to widespread poverty and systemic economic
injustice. Ben Bagdikian, former Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism
at UC Berkeley, recently wrote that \"our mainstream papers and
broadcasters
(are) a party to a cruel and unnecessary flaw in our society\"-- the flaw
of
growing homelessness. Bagdikian wrote: \"That 32 million of our population
have their housing, food, and clothing \'index\' drop steadily for more than
30 years is worth only an occasional feature story about an individual or
statistical fragments in back pages of our most influential news
organizations.\"

4. Stop promoting displacement of poor people by unthinkingly championing
gentrification and redevelopment projects that benefit only the rich,
while
all too often, decreasing affordable housing for the poor and fueling
rising
rental rates and evictions. A newspaper should not act in knee-jerk
fashion
like a cheerleader for the Chamber of Commerce.

5. In all news stories on homelessness and welfare issues, it is essential
to practice fair reporting by interviewing homeless people, welfare
recipients, and homeless advocacy groups who may have an essential part of
the truth to tell. Running a major story on homeless issues that relies
largely on the anti-homeless views of merchants, city officials and the
police is not only unfair and distorted reporting, it censors the voices
of
those most affected.

6. Actively seek op-editorials written by homeless people, welfare
recipients, and advocacy organizations with years or decades of experience
to bring to bear on the issues of homelessness, affordable housing,
welfare
cutbacks, mental health issues, et al. Currently, the San Francisco
Chronicle has several reporters and columnists who consistently give
negative press to homeless people. The truth deserve a full airing and a
more balanced approach. Giving editorial space for homeless people and
their
advocates to respond to the many, almost daily attacks on their character
and dignity seems to be the path of fairness, and one that newspapers can
very easily grant in the name of balanced coverage.

7. Be much more responsive in giving news coverage to important social
issues, legislative campaigns, protests and new policy solutions from the
homeless community. Almost every homeless organization in the Bay Area has
had the experience of seeing undeniably significant, newsworthy events
utterly blacked out by the mainstream media. A new baseball park is given
extensive front-page coverage for days on end, but the same newspapers
virtually ignore it when many of San Francisco\'s leading clergy and
members
of the Board of Supervisors gather at City Hall to protest the staggering
1,767 deaths of homeless people in the City.

8. Develop a policy and create a process to monitor news stories and
editorials for examples of prejudiced language directed against poor and
homeless persons, including demeaning descriptions, unfair or one-sided
attack articles, and inflammatory speech (\"hate speech\") that can incite
hatred towards an unpopular social group. Media outlets should create a
\"watchdog\" position to analyze the fairness of news coverage towards poor
and homeless persons, and to correct examples of intolerant and unfair
reporting.

For more information about the NASNA conference, call the Coalition on
Homelessness at (415) 346-3740.