"This new list-serve is part of a continuous quest -- for significant, information and insight in the midst of mainstream spin and blather. The corporate-backed media have the resources to dominate much of what passes before people's eyes and goes into their ears. Now, in the spring of 2003, with another horrendous war burnished into recent memory, more than ever we need intrepid and forthright media work to help bring some sense of reality into our daily lives to counter to nonstop flood of mass media. With appreciation and rededicated energy, let's support this new effort to share with each other some vital work that gives us hope for creating a world of peace and justice rather than war, conformity, suppression, wealth and poverty."

(Norman Solomon is currently executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, a nationwide consortium of public-policy researchers. He is the author of "Media Beat," a nationally syndicated column on media and politics that appears in the San Francisco Examiner and other daily newspapers. A longtime associate of FAIR, he has written op-ed articles on media issues for many papers, including the Boston Globe, Washington Post, Newsday, New York Times, Miami Herald, Los Angeles Times, USA Today and Baltimore Sun. Norman Solomon is also Co-author of his ninth book: "Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn't Tell You") To read more about him, and the nine books he has authored, go to: mediabeat@igc.org)