Part of the Series
Moyers and Company
TRANSCRIPT:
BILL MOYERS: Many of you have asked what you can do to fight back. Here are some thoughts. First, take yourself seriously as an agent of change. The Office of Citizen remains the most important in the country.
Second, remember, there’s strength in numbers. Find others like you in your neighborhood, apartment building, community – and act together. The old African proverb is still true, “If you want to walk fast, walk alone; if you want to walk far, walk together.”
They’re proving this, for example, in Missoula, Montana. Last November, by a majority of 75 percent people voted to call on the state legislature and congress to approve an amendment to the United States Constitution. It says it loud and clear, “Corporations are not human beings and do not have the same rights as citizens.” That same month, voters in Boulder, Colorado, approved a similar measure by a similar big margin. And two counties in Wisconsin have voted by whopping majorities to call for, quote, “An end to corporate personhood…” and “The legal status of money as speech.”
Don’t worry if you’re called naíve. Don't worry about cynics who mock you or fatalists who declare that a constitutional amendment is impossible. That’s nonsense. We’ve amended the constitution 27 times in our history. Back in 1971, the amendment to lower the voting age to 18 was the quickest to be ratified in U.S history, four months following its passage by Congress. And after 13 years without a drink, in 1933, Americans okayed the amendment to repeal prohibition faster than a saloon’s swinging door.
So look around for organizations you can join or contact for information. There’s a national coalition already at work named Move to Amend it’s called and a group leading the fight called FreeSpeechforPeople.org. And see you here next time.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
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