UnCommon Sense TV Media was created as a forum for presenting information and perspectives concerning pressing political issues of our times. It is committed to working to renew a truly democratic republic through the use of independent and citizen-supported media in order to help fulfill the promise and ideals inherent in the timelessly progressive principles of the American Revolution.

HISTORY

UnCommon Sense TV was conceived in the spring of 2003 and launched that summer with its television premiere and corresponding website activation in July.

The program was created by Andy Valeri, a long-time veteran of access television and community media, who has also spent years in the music and arts world through involvement with music and film production via his own company, Big Beef Records. He had spent years producing and promoting not only music, but literally hundreds of television programs as well, many of them live, which were aired on cable television outlets around the country and later via the internet.

Unfortunately, the growing dangers to the future health and sustainability of the American republic necessitated a realignment of focus towards pursuing a course of action directed at re-engaging the pressing political issues facing our nation. Amongst these issues have been the ever-increasing threats to the very existence of an independent and publicly responsive media system, through regulatory changes and corporate consolidation of ownership of America’s information infrastructure.

In developing USTV, Valeri was joined by long time friend and creative colleague Ed Lacy, also with a long history of involvement in music and the arts, as well as a veteran of a number of efforts of political activism over the decades.

Valeri and Lacy put the call out to friends and associates asking for help in undertaking this venture, and an all-volunteer crew and support staff of USTV quickly and enthusiastically came together. All were united in the belief and desire to participate and contribute with their own unique skills and experiences in contributing to the citizen’s media effort that is UnCommon Sense TV Media.

PROGRAM EVOLUTION

The program continued to develop and evolve, going from a live on-air discussion format to more of a video journalism presentation. A major focus of USTV has been to bring focus and attention to topics overly neglected in the corporate media, with a particular emphasis on deconstructing the media system in our nation and how it works and who it serves. Another point of increased emphasis has been on the role of the modern corporation in our state, and its unrivaled position as the dominant institution of our age and the ramifications of that reality on our society.

UnCommon Sense has developed its web presence from its original role as a reference library for content from the television show, to being an active extension and supplement to the program itself. The launching of a blog version of the site in 2006 served as an enhancement to the dialogue and discussion which would regularly take place within the program itself. It has allowed for better sharing of ongoing, timely information by not only the USTV producers and program guests, but also for contributed commentary from colleagues, associates, viewers and readers.

COMMUNITY ACTION

USTV Media has often been actively involved in the production and promotion of live civic events as well. One such event was the 2005 gathering in Dayton, Ohio with television production pioneer Phil Donahue and Amy Goodman. producer and host of “Democracy Now!”, and their public dissertation on the role of media in today’s society. We were also involved in helping to organize and promote the screening of the Phil Donahue-produced film “Body of War” in the Dayton, region, which included personal appearances by Donahue himself. USTV was also involved in the production and promotion of speaking engagements and radio and television interviews with author and radio journalist David Barsamian in 2012.

Ongoing local organizing efforts on behalf of keeping local community media alive and well has been a mission of those involved with USTV Media. This includes civic participation with Keep WYSO Local, a citizen-participatory group dedicated towards keeping the public in public radio in the Miami Valley region of Ohio.

We also continue to take the lead in sponsoring and distributing programs such as Democracy Now! and Free Speech TV in the Miami Valley region, as well work to bring other like-minded and engaging programs to as many community television outlets as possible. These have included amongst others such programs as Liberty News TV and The Last Televangelist by Reverend Billy & The Church of Life After Shopping.

INTO THE FUTURE

Expansion and evolution of the focus of the efforts of the creators of USTV Media from television into additional venues of communication, both in their local region as well as nationally, has become an ongoing objective.

In light of these efforts, Andy Valeri has been a long-time member of the Alliance for Community Media (ACM), serving for a number of years on the editorial board of the Community Media Review (including as chair). He was managing editor for their 2010 issue on Community Media and Human Rights, which focused on some of the international dimensions of this issue, and is also interested in further developing an artist’s collaborative in support of communication rights.

Valeri has also completed an originally-designed Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies program at the University of Dayton, home to the first accredited undergraduate program in Human Rights studies in America. The program is focused on expanding the framework of how we understand mediated communication in the realms of social policy, academic theory, and most importantly as an indespensible factor in the fulfillment of democratic rights and accountability. The program’s goal is to create educational opportunities for emphasizing communication and access to the means to engage in it in a technological society as a fundamental human right. The main thesis of this effort is explained rather well in this short video, commissioned by Global Partners & Associates.

Valeri was invited by the India Media Centre at the University of Westminster in London, to participate in an international gathering on The Changing Face of Journalism In India, where he presented on the role that media plays in supporting social justice and human rights in India.

Valeri has since had academic works on WikiLeaks published in Policy Futures In Education out of Oxford, England, , as well as an analysis on the propaganda characteristics of the Pentagon’s Military Analysts Program. He presented a piece on Communication, Human Rights, and The Threat of Weapons of Mass Surveillance: Why Communication Rights Are Essential To the Protection and Advancement of Human Rights in the 21st Century, at the conference on The Social Practice of Human Rights: Charting the Frontiers of Research and Advocacy, sponsored by the University of Dayton in October of 2013. You can read many of these works, along with some of Valeri’s other writings, on his Academia.edu web page.

This is all part of the ongoing endeavor to transform our work from that which is based upon defensive reaction, to one more of creative response to the challenges and opportunities of the coming days ahead.

FIND OUT MORE

Join The USTV Mailing List and receive regular updates regarding the activities of UnCommon Sense TV Media and the latest developments with the program. You will also receive bulletins on the latest postings to the site, timely action alerts on issues of pressing concern, as well as our ever popular ‘Quotes of the Day’.

Find out more about the program and where it has been seen around the country Here

Go here for a complete list of episodes of UnCommon Sense TV.

Connect on Twitter @ustvmedia

Thank you for your time and your interest in the work of USTV Media.

——————–

* STATEMENT ON TEN YEARS OF USTV MEDIA *

“I am firmly convinced that the passionate will for justice and truth has done more to improve [the human condition] than calculating political shrewdness, which in the long run only breeds general distrust.” - Albert Einstein

The year 2013 marked ten years of UnCommon Sense TV Media, and of our continuing effort to inform, educate, and activate a more conscious civic engagement in our society.

As readers and supporters of USTV Media have likely noticed, our video media activities have decreased since the days of the ongoing production of our regularly scheduled nationally distributed television program “UnCommon Sense.”  The program was originally created as a direct response to the launch of the factually unsupportable, legally illicit, and morally degrading invasion of Iraq by the Bush administration in 2003.  However, USTV Media has continued to serve as a vehicle for ongoing efforts to redress social and political injustices, and for sustaining a democratically accountable constitutional republic.

The continuing need to apply these efforts is more apparent than ever, particularly considering the lack of any meaningful attention to core systemic issues which are at the root cause of many problems currently afflicting our nation, and the world. The corporate corruption of our politics, out-of-control growth of an unaccountable surveillance state, ever increasing restrictions of constitutional rights of our citizens (particularly the abrogation of the First and Fourth Amendments), degradation of our shared environment and public common spaces in the name of private profit, ever-increasing centralization of our media systems into fewer and fewer hands, the dismantling of our society’s capacity to sustain independent and honest journalism, and on and on… These are just a few examples of the key problems that urgently require redress. USTV Media remains committed to providing a platform for focusing on these problems, and for helping to develop and implement informed and principled solutions them.

The means that we can use to pursue our efforts most effectively will likely take new forms in the future. Some of these will be found under the banner of USTV Media, others through different configurations. These efforts may manifest in print or in video, or often times through the radio, where our presence may possibly increase in the coming days. Of course there is our ongoing work here on the internet, though again our presence has been somewhat lessened of late, due largely to our respective academic endeavors and local civic organizing work. 

Regardless of how and where we direct our creative efforts, we will continue to provide information and updates about those ongoing efforts via USTV Media. We hope that you share our passionate interest in making for a more just and peaceful world, and that you will continue to connect with us in these efforts here through the platform of USTV Media.

Pass it on…

Andy Valeri and Ed Lacy
UnCommon Sense TV Media