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Media Heroes trading cards

Cory Doctorow at 9:11 pm Tue, Jul 8, 2008

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Jeff sez,

Recently announced at the media reform conference in Minneapolis, the full color media heroes trading cards recognize the accomplishments of twenty-one praiseworthy journalists, media activists, and educators. The fun and informative cards are a fantastic teaching tool for students, or an exciting gift for friends, family or budding media activists.

The Media heroes being honored include historical figures such as legendary anti-lynching reporter Ida B. Wells, Newspaper Guild founder Heywood Broun, and Elias Boudinot, founder/editor of the first Native American newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix. Also recognized are contemporary media movers and shakers, including intrepid PBS producer Bill Moyers, Paper Tiger TV co-founder DeeDee Halleck, Puerto Rican community activist Richie Perez, and others. Organizations or collaborations singled out for hero status include news program Democracy Now!, media watch group FAIR, and the Children's Television Workshop, creators of Sesame Street.

Link (Thanks, Jeff!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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  • zuzu

    Also, DN! (finally) does the Right Thingâ„¢ and licenses all of their content as Creative Commons and publishes all of their video as MPEG-4 on the Internet Archive.

  • nprnncbl

    @locomotivebreath1901:

    Sesame Street is seditious?

    Seriously?

  • Gar the Pitiless

    What would be very nice is a Media CCG.

  • Bonnie

    But where’s my Boing Boing Heroes tarot deck?

  • mdhatter

    What would be very nice is a Media CCG.

    Networks: The Failing?

  • EH

    Is the the Spirit Of Truth guy in the back of the stack?

  • spleenal

    If you like this you may like my quantum physicists vs philosophers top trumps deck.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/10352951@N05/2331060266/

  • insect_hooves

    I’m waiting for the Types of Media trading cards. Especially the Trading Card trading card. Looks like Noclip!

  • consideredopinion

    Unfortunately, not far off the dystopian variant:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most-wanted_Iraqi_playing_cards

  • macrumpton

    I am waiting for the Media Villains series. Censors and distorters working hard to keep the truth from infecting the populace. USA #1

  • james foreman

    I think every political group should make a deck of cards like this one – it’s a handy, simple, clear, direct way to show what individuals GROUP X thinks is awesome.

    This group of people, for instance, is pretty obviously political and left-leaning. I tend to clench when people start talking about media justice, so I’ll be sure to give these folks a wide ideological berth.

    Having said that, no list of big-time media changers is complete without Howard Stern. Seriously.

  • zuzu

    Sesame Street is seditious?

    Clearly you missed the hidden meaning of “You’ve got to put down the ducky if you want to play the saxophone.” ;)

    Mr. Rogers defending the Corporation for Public Broadcasting before the U.S. Senate is a rather moving 6 minutes to witness, however.

  • Brian Carnell

    They had me at Ida B Wells, but lost me at Heywood Broun. Heywood Broun as a media hero? Broun was a longtime admirer of and advocate for Stalin. He was one of 88 prominent liberals who signed a letter denouncing the Committee for the Defense of Trotsky and proclaiming the signers collective admiration of the Soviet Union. He was one of the signers of a 1939 letter that extolled the virtues of the Soviet Union, which was of course interested only in international peace, and deplored comparisons of it to Nazi Germany.

    Like other fellow travelers, it was only the Soviet-Nazi pact which finally persuaded him to stop giving Stalin rhetorical blow jobs and actually start to ponder the reality of the Soviet Union. Of course, by then, hundreds of thousands of Soviet dissidents had been subjected to horrendous human rights violations, all with Broun blithely signing any pro-Soviet letter or petition that came his way.

  • Troy

    Amy from Democracy Now?!? Ugh. Root canals are more fun. Dour and irrational conspiracies spouted from a self-righteous piehole do not heroes make.

  • Takuan

    I may assay sketches of what I imagine some commenters here look like, based upon their post content and style…..

  • Kieran O’Neill

    #3: I tap 15 representatives and bring “FCC Relaxation of Anti-Monopoly Regulations” (Legendary enchantment) into play.

    If “Rupert Murdock” (Legendary Mogul) is under your control, all opposing creatures of type “small media outlet” are silenced.

  • Kieran O’Neill

    #8: Lol. Tak-kun, that would be awesome. Please do it, and, erm, post a link to the results in a comment thread?

    Note that you can cheat, since some commenters (commentators?) put real photos in their profile pics…

  • Kieran O’Neill

    On the topic of media control and Rupert Murdock, it looks like there’s a chance this could change.

    Interestingly (and tellingly), the Digg link is to an article that appeared on CNN.com, and which now gives a 404…

    Surprise, surprise.

  • phquaryn

    What, no Farai Chideya (News and Notes)? It would be the cutest ole card in the deck.

  • locomotivebreath1901

    There’s no doubt about it: Ida B. Wells is a courageous champion of civil rights for Black Americans at a time when that type of crusading would get you killed.

    She is a true hero. But the rest of that lot are not anything, except seditious.

    To lump Ida B. Wells with such anti-American low lifes such as failed socialist candidate for congress, Heywood Broun; leftist-utopian propagandist, DeeDee Halleck; DNC spinmeister, bill moyers & mob rule anarchist promoters, Democracy Now! is an assault upon the decent memory of this brave woman who loved her people & the rule of law – not the mob.

  • zuzu

    I tap 15 representatives and bring “FCC Relaxation of Anti-Monopoly Regulations” (Legendary enchantment) into play.

    The problem is that the FCC exists solely for regulatory capture by mass-media giants such as NewsCorp as an enormous barrier to entry to preclude competition from smaller news sources.

    Technically the FCC is obsolete and hasn’t been necessary to dole out monopolies on radio frequencies for some time, thanks to cognitive radio and software defined radio.

    c.f. open spectrum and ultra wideband.

  • Xeni Jardin

    @#19, +1 to that! Farai FTW!

  • cndc

    #7, #12 Whether you agree with the frame or tone of Democracy Now! it has given a voice to so many that are voiceless with complete independence. Amy Goodman is a hero because she pushes the boundaries and forces viewers to engage impolite truths about our government and its role at home and abroad. Yes, they sometimes go barking up the wrong tree but dammit they ask hard questions and aren’t afraid to take on anyone and name names.