TELL THE FCC HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT THERE LATEST PROPOSAL
The following two letters offer some information as to what
the FCC is proposing, and more importantly what you can do
about it!
(from Pete Tridish)
additionally, media tank and prometheus radio project have
developed a web tool that allows your comments to not only
be filed in the formal fcc rulemaking process, but simultaneously
sends the comments to our two senators, the president, every
member of the senate commerce committee, and to all of the
FCC Commissioners... so one letter from you goes to the offices
of the thirty or so key decisionmakers.
the link is here: http://www.prometheusradio.org/comment_rulemaking_2003.shtml
and below is some background:
pete tridish
The Media Moguls Are Preparing To Swallow The World!
Are You Ready To Bite Back?!?!
Prometheus Radio Project is a group that fights for media
reform. For twenty years the FCC ignored community radio.
Today, there are sixty one operating low power stations and
450 construction permits issued to date, and thousands more
applications are still coming down the pipeline. As our movement's
success in low power radio showed, the comments of ordinary
people can make a difference in Washington. Even though low
power advocates faced the opposition of nearly the entire
incumbent radio establishment, we got federal regulations
changed and opened up opportunities for thousands of new radio
stations across the country. And one day, we will reverse
the craven act of Congress that lost us so many of the urban
low power radio opportunities.
We're writing today to ask you to add your voice to another
proceeding at the FCC. The FCC has called for comment on their
current chairman's proposal to eliminate nearly all of the
last existing protections against media monopolies.
These corporations do not do business the way your local
hardware store owner does. They do not compete the way a hardware
store owner competes, selling hammers and nails at the best
possible price, location and so onŠThese corporations
compete by leveraging political influence to grant them monopolistic
advantages in the regulatory structure. To "compete in
a global market place," they argue that they must be
granted dominance in the markets of their choosing. Corporate
welfare for the communications giants abounds as the public
is left with an ever more commercialized, biased and automated
media landscape.
If the industry has it's way, the same transnational corporation
could legally own all the media in your town- up to 8 radio
stations, two TV station, the daily newspapers (or both daily
newspapers) , the alternative newsweekly, the monopoly cable
provider franchise, the satellite provider. They might own
the magazines you read and the music you listen to as well.
And they just might be the owner of the nuclear power plant
down the road, too!
Radio today lays in ruins after 6 years of deregulation.
Thousands of talented programmers in the industry have been
replaced by computers and local service has been forsaken
in favor of satellite driven jukeboxes. The largest radio
license holder in the US, Clear Channel Corporation,thinks
of itself not as a radio company, but as an advertising company.
We urge you to speak your mind about these developments.
TV, Cable, and newspapers will soon follow in the footsteps
of radio, leaving our media to sink to ever deeper depths
of shallow commercialism. As citizens, we can demand more.
As the low power radio fight showed, our political system
is deeply flawed and corporate influence can all too easily
eviscerate a good idea. But low power also showed that citizens'
movements can force real changes in even the most moribund
and obscure of Federal bureaucracies. Please join us in making
your views on media consolidation known by to the FCC, Congress,
and the President.
We've worked to multiply your letters impact twentyfold
when you comment to the FCC. If you go to http://www.prometheusradio.org/comment_rulemaking_2003.shtml
your comments will not only be filed as formal comments by
the FCC, but they will also be forwarded to all the relevant
decisionmakers in this issue: your state's Senators, the members
of the Senate Commerce Committee which the FCC must report
to, the five Commissioners of the FCC and the President. And
we will keep them and print them all out to dump by the wheelbarrow
full on someone's desk if thy need some extra persuading!
The deadline for "formal comments" is January 3rd,
and "reply comments" is February 2nd. The FCC proceeding
number is MB 02-277
Don't think for a second that we'll stop at letters and
comments- Letters and comments are an essential first step
in any campaign for reform. We encourage you to comment now
in time for the deadline, tell your neighbors and spread the
word! You can join the planning for demonstrations this spring
against the media moguls by joining the listserv activist@mediatank.org
Thanks,
Pete Tridish
Prometheus Radio Project
Hi folks:
We've got up to January 2nd, 2003, to file a comment on
the FCC's proposals to relax media ownership limitations.
That's Thursday. FAIR's Press release on this issue can be
found at http://www.fair.org/activism/fcc-call-action.html.
Sending an email comment to the FCC is easy. The docket
# for the issue is 02-277. Just clip the
FCC comment format below into a blank email and fill in the
appropriate blanks. "CO" in DOCUMENT TYPE means
"comment," so just leave that as is. Type your comments
on the last line <TEXT> and send it to ecfs@fcc.gov.
Please forward this message far and wide! Thanks!
Matthew
Lasar
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