[Friday January 12] The first speaker, master of ceremonies for the opening event, was John Nichols, Editor of The Nation magazine.  He introduced the Mayor of Memphis, Dr. Willie W. Herrington, who welcomed us and invited members of the local media to attend some of the sessions about media bias!

Next up was Yolanda Hippensteel, of the Free Press, who announced that over 3000 people are attending this conference from almost every state in the U.S.

Then, Danny Glover, well known actor and activist quoted extensively from a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speech, delivered on December 27, 1962, at a church conference in Nashville, Tennessee, and related it to the need for unbiased and accurate media.

Then came Bill Moyers.  The crowd greeted him with a standing ovation and I'm proud to say I was the first on my feet at the front of the room.

From the NCMR2007 website:

[DETAILS EDITED OUT, SEE VIDEO LINKS BELOW!] He went out with another standing ovation and had to return for a curtain call before the audience would quit...

Later tonight there should be video available at the Freepress.net site and perhaps at youtube also.  I highly recommend you watch it.  I'll be back to update and give you a link here as soon as I can and to blog about the afternoon sessions.

You can get lots of other viewpoints of this conference by googling the NCMR2007 tag that has been set up for youtube and flickr, etc.

I've got to run to a break out session, but I'll be back when I can to respond to comments.

UPDATE [Saturday January 13]: Senator Bernie Sanders spoke to us this morning and delivered a barn-burner. I'll try to blog it more extensively later, but he delivered a line that perfectly expresses why I am here in Memphis this weekend: "If you're concerned about healthcare, if you're concerned about foreign policy, if you're concerned about the economy, or if you're concerned about global warming, you're kidding yourself if you're not concerned about corporate control of the media." Here's the video of Bill Moyers' opening talk from yesterday on YouTube.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Attending, participating in, AND blogging this conference concurrently is proving to be quite a challenge. I'll do my best to get a new diary out later today or tomorrow.