Be a witness.

It is sad, but, perhaps no surprise that NBC, CBS and ABC are refusing to air the Be A Witness television ad that "challenges the networks to do a better job of covering the Darfur genocide." Be A Witness is an organization and alliance of individuals dedicated to changing that. Perhaps if the genocide in Sudan were better covered, folks here and abroad would be more motivated to end it, and save the lives of thousands of people.

You can help: send a letter to the television networks asking them to improve their coverage of Sudan. Be A Witness provides a sample text. Just edit it to your liking and with one click it will be sent to ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and FOX. Genocide IS news.

Here are some other ways you can get involved:

* Learn more about what's happening in Sudan.

* Divest from the Khartoum government.

* Support relief organizations that are working to ease the suffering in Sudan.

* Assist Sudanese refugees in the US.

* Write a letter of concern to your elected officials. Tell them the things that matter to you.

* Review the Tyndall Report which monitors the weekday nightly newscasts of the US television networks. Each week, the statistics quoted in Tyndall Weekly measure the time devoted to each story in minutes on all three networks (ABC, CBS and NBC combined).

* Write your local and national air and press media and let them know how you feel about the job they are doing. Hold them accountable.

Whether we like it our not, television has a lot of power. Let's make sure it is used for good.

"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems." - Mohandas Ghandi