Tell Congress: Investigate the Propaganda Pundits
The New York Times exposed a shady Pentagon program to embed up to 75 "propaganda pundits" on every major news network. These so-called experts went on the air to cover up bad news about Iraq with White House spin. This is a violation of every conceivable standard of journalism -- and possibly of federal law.
Send a letter to demand that Congress launch a full investigation into the "selling of the war."
HOLD BIG MEDIA ACCOUNTABLE
Your local television stations want to keep you in the dark. The FCC has voted to make TV stations more accountable to their viewers by disclosing basic information about the ways they serve the public.
Seems simple, right? But there are many things that Big Media don’t want us to know. And their powerful lobbyists and lawyers in Washington are now suing the FCC to stop the new disclosure rules from going into effect.
Defend your right to know. Tell the commissioners that local media need to be more accountable to us.
Tell the FCC: Stand Up for the Public
In exchange for a promise to serve the public, Big Media giants get a free license to use our public airwaves and make billions. The new rules will help you monitor the media and make your voice heard. They require stations to form community advisory boards and have someone in the studio at all times for public safety alerts.
In addition, stations would have to post information on station ownership, educational and community programming, and public complaints on their Web sites. This information helps communities pressure stations to improve their programming -- and even challenge their licenses at the FCC if they’re not meeting local needs.
Big Media’s lawyers and lobbyists are fighting rules like these. They are telling the FCC that no one cares about how their stations do business.
Prove the Lobbyists Wrong: Tell the FCC You Care about Local Media
Don’t let Big Media pull the wool over our eyes. Tell the FCC not to back down.
The Fight Continues! Overturning the FCC Media Ownership Rules
At the close of 2007, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin ignored countless hours of passionate citizen testimony and comments to push through a set of rules that allow a single company to own both the major daily newspaper and radio or TV stations in the same market.
The final text of these new rules was just released March 4. While Martin has painted the rule changes as “modest,” close examination of the changes reveals serious threats to the diversity of voices and the quality of journalism. No further consolidation in our already monopolistic media system is acceptable.
On March 5, Senator Dorgan introduced a Resolution of Disapproval that would essentially veto Chairman Martin's rule change. We have 60 legislative days to pass this veto so over the coming weeks, the StopBigMedia.com Coalition and activists across the country will be calling and writing their Senators asking them to support this important legislation.
The new rules also must past muster with the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which threw out the previous rule changes and sent them back to the FCC in 2005. Free Press has joined Media Access Project, Prometheus Radio Project, Georgetown Institute of Public Representation, United Church of Christ and Media Alliance in a lawsuit appealing the new rules.
Visit StopBigMedia.com for more updates and actions.
The Future of the Internet = Internet for Everyone
Big phone and cable companies continue their lobbying to kill Net Neutrality — the longstanding principle that prevents them from discriminating against Web sites or services based on their source, ownership or destination. But episodes of telco censorship (AT&T’s censoring of Pearl Jam lyrics, Verizon wireless blocking NARAL’s text messages to its members, and Comcast blocking use of legal peer-to-peer file sharing networks) have sparked ever more fervent outrage from internet and cell phone users.
In an encouraging response to a complaint filed by Free Press and members of the SavetheInternet.com Coalition, the FCC quickly moved to seek public feedback and expert counsel about the future of the Internet through a public hearing last week. So many people turned out that many had to be turned away at the door. This is one small indication of the passion many Americans have for the issue of Internet freedom. Submit your comments to the FCC today.
And in Congress, we now have a landmark bill in the “Internet Freedom Preservation Act” (HR 5353) a bi-partisan piece of legislation introduced by Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Chip Pickering (R-Miss.). This bill would make Net Neutrality the law of the land and mandate public meetings across the country to open the discussion to all Americans who use the Internet instead of just those inside the Beltway. Join us in working to get "100 co-sponsors in 100 days" for the bill.
As more and more of our media moves online, the importance of a connected nation becomes startlingly apparent. While the Bush Administration has declared victory on its goals of universal broadband access, the millions of Americans still on the wrong side of the digital divide beg to differ. 2008 needs to be the year all Americans have access to open, high-speed Internet services.
Public and Community Media: A Vision for 2008
Last year was a busy one for independent media makers. Hundreds of non-profit community groups from across the country applied for full-power, non-commercial radio licenses. The Local Community Radio Act of 2007 was introduced to create hundreds of new low-power FM radio stations. Public access community television continued the fight against state-wide franchising agreements. And small publications that were heavy hit last year by sharp increases in postal rates are still working to overturn the unfair legislation.
Forward thinking is not lacking in 2008. Led by the Prometheus Radio Project, LPFM activists from 20 states - including programmers from Radio Free Nashville - lobbied Washington last week to garner Congressional support for community radio. Public access television activists have successfully fought off attempts to push community television out of view. The time has come to end our appalling lack of commitment to fund public media (less than a paltry $1.50 per person). We need a dynamic public media system in this country that provides the access to the airwaves, returns local culture to communities, and provides a viable outlet for those who are overlooked in the mainstream media. Find out how you can support LPFM, public access TV, independent publishers battling postal rates, and increase funding for public media by visiting http://www.freepress.net/.
National Conference for Media Reform
Registration is now open for the 2008 National Conference for Media Reform, coming to Minneapolis, MN on June 6th 8th. This event will bring together over 3,000 activists, media makers, educators, journalists, policymakers and concerned citizens for three days of strategizing, learning, and collaboration on a plan for lasting change to our nation’s media system. More information on the program, logistics, and opportunities are available at our conference website: http://www.freepress.net/conference.
Please note we have a scholarship program to help fund attendance for stellar activists who couldn’t otherwise afford to attend (application deadline: March 31) and exhibit and advertising opportunities for organizations that wish to promote their work at the conference (deadline April 11).
KEEP INFORMED
Here are some major happenings in media reform. The past few weeks have seen some of the most crucial media policy developments in recent memory. It's not always easy to keep up with the ins-and-outs of media policy issues alongside your other important work.
But these debates will determine what information will -- and will not -- reach the American public.
Our ability to communicate our messages is at stake.
First, as we mentioned earlier, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and his three Republcian colleagues gave Big Media comapneis the ultimate Holiday gift - they voted to allow Big Media companies to own a newspaper, television station and radio stations in the same city. Martin pushed this through despite overwhelming opposition from citizens and Congress.
This is a crucial moment in the fight against media consolidation. A front page story in the
New York Times outlined the motivations behind FCC Chairman Kevin Martin's plan to fast track the vote on media ownership rules that will let the biggest media companies control even more local outlets. Despite a
massive public outcry at the FCC's public hearings and
authoritative research on the potential impact of weakened ownership limits, Martin pushed through changes that would accelerate corporate consolidation, destroy local newsrooms, and further aggravate our nation's
crisis in media ownership by women and people of color.
It's time to turn up the heat on the FCC and Congress. We're working with allies in Congress to introduce legislation that would safeguard public input and participation in the FCC's rulemaking process. And we all need to work together to shed a bright spotlight on what media consolidation to our democracy.
You can do your part by encouraging colleagues to
contact Congress on this issue and help spread the word about the FCC's media ownership rule changes through newsletter articles, e-mail blasts, blog posts, op-eds, letters to the editor, etc. There are lots of great resources on the
StopBigMedia.com Web site, including a fun Web game called "
Whack-a-Murdoch" -- your chance to drop the hammer on Big Media moguls and consolidation.
People from all walks of life and from across the political spectrum understand that media reform is crucial not just in creating better media, but advancing every issue we care about. Let's keep working together to expand this movement. Learn about these issues and get involved.
Telecoms Caught Censoring on Cell Phones and Internet
The verdict is in.
Leave the telephone and cable companies to their own devices and they will discriminate, block and play gatekeeper whenever it suits them. The past few months have provided plenty of examples. In the wired world, Comcast was caught red-handed blocking the legal file-sharing service BitTorrent.
This came just weeks after
Verizon blocked text messages from NARAL Pro-Choice America to its own members. And late August found
AT&T blocking statements critical of President Bush from a webcast of a Pearl Jam concert.
These are examples of exactly the type of censorship that Americans have warned would occur without Net Neutrality protections. Tired of the constant apologies, the
SavetheInternet.com Coalition is urging people to contact the FCC and their members of Congress to
demand laws that would protect the free flow of information on any platform.
Congress Advances Bills for Community Radio & Community Internet
On Capitol Hill and across the country, support continues to grow for Low Power FM (LPFM) radio. A bill now pending in Congress would create thousands more community stations offering uniquely local news, views and music programming. The Local Community Radio Act (S.1675) passed last week through the Senate Commerce Committee. A similar bill is pending in the House.
The Senate Commerce Committee also recently passed the bipartisan
Community Broadband Act (S.1853). This legislation promotes universal, affordable Internet access by empowering local communities to deliver essential high-speed Internet access to all their citizens. It would overturn statewide bans on cities building their own municipal Internet networks.
The next step for each of these bills would be a floor vote by the full Senate. Organizations and individuals interested in these issues should make calls to their senators, asking them to co-sponsor the bills and help ensure that they advance.
