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8:00-8:01 Billboard:
Telecommunications Industry Has Lavished FCC Commissioners
with Millions of Dollars in Travel Gifts
INTRO: the revelations come as the FCC is about adopt new
media consolidation rules favorable to industry giants
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps Speaks at the Final Public
Hearing Before FCC Overhauls Decades-Old Rules Governing Media
Consolidation
INTRO: FCC Commissioner Michael Powell, son of Sec. of State
Gen. Colin Powell, failed to attend the final hearing on new
rules that analysts say will lead to the largest wave of corporate
media consolidation in U.S. history
The Peaceful Mbuti People Call on the UN to Prosecute Government
and Rebel Fighters as Civil War Rages in the Congo
INTRO: fighters are targeting the Mbuti people, who are
peaceful, indigenous pygmies
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:15 Telecommunications Industry Has Lavished FCC Commissioners
with Millions of Dollars in Travel Gifts
Federal Communications Commission officials have been showered
with nearly $2.8 million in travel and entertainment gifts
over the past eight years – and most of those gifts
are from the telecommunications and broadcast companies the
agency is supposed to regulate.
A new study released today by the Center for Public Integrity
found FCC staff members and commissioners accepted more than
2500 trips. Most of them were to convention hot spots, like
Las Vegas and New Orleans. Destinations also included San
Francisco, London, Aspen, Buenos Aires, the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The National Association of Broadcasters in Washington topped
the list of travel sponsors, paying for over 200 trips worth
nearly $200,000. The National Cable & Telecommunications
Association, and the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association,
came second, and third.
All of the gifts appear to have been legal under government
guidelines.
But they raise questions about the FCC’s neutrality.
Not one consumer watchdog group has sponsored an FCC trip.
And all of this comes as the FCC is poised to overhaul the
decades-old rules governing media consolidation on June 2nd.
Industry giants are lobbying for the overhaul, which experts
say will unleash the largest wave of corporate media mergers
the U.S. has ever seen.
8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break
8:21-8:40 FCC Commissioner Michael Copps Speaks at the Final
Public Hearing Before FCC Overhauls Decades-Old Rules Governing
Media Consolidation
Last night was the final public hearing with FCC commissioners
about the proposed overhaul of the rules governing media consolidation.
The FCC is expected to pass the rules on June 2nd by a majority
of one. FCC chairman Michael Powell – son of Secretary
of State General Powell – strongly backs the rule changes.
He is supported by the two other republicans on the Commission,
and opposed by the Commission’s two Democrats, Michael
Copps and Jonathan Adelstein.
The issue is not merely bureaucratic. Analysts say if FCC
votes for the rule changes, it will unleash the largest wave
of corporate media consolidation the US has ever seen. A single
CEO could legally own the largest TV network, the largest
radio conglomerate, the largest newspaper, and the largest
Internet company in the country.
Corporate media conglomerates lobbying for the rule changes
include AOL Time Warner, which in addition to AOL and Time
magazine owns HBO, CNN, and dozens of magazines; General Electric,
which owns NBC; Disney, which owns ABC, and Viacom, which
owns CBS; and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., which owns Fox
News and many other outlets.
Consumer watchdogs, trade unions, and media activists have
had a harder time making their voices heard. Powell has done
everything he can to avoid holding public hearings on the
issue. When Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps called on
the FCC to conduct public hearings several months ago, Powell
refused. Copps said he would hold hearings of his own, and
in January, a coalition of trade unions and media activist
groups held the first public hearing on the issue in New York
City. Powell initially said he would not attend, but as public
pressure mounted, he reversed course at the last minute. Another
hearing at the University of Southern California was held
in April – and Powell did not attend. The FCC convened
its only official hearing in Richmond, Virginia in February.
The final hearing was held last night in Atlanta. Again,
Powell and the other republican commissioners boycotted the
hearing.
- Michael Copps, FCC Commissioner, speaking at the final
public hearing on proposed changes to the rules governing
media consolidation, Atlanta, May 22, 2003.
Link: Democracy Now! archived FCC coverage including links
to listen to the entire Atlanta FCC hearing: www.democracynow.org/FCC2.shtml
8:40-8:41 One Minute Music Break
8:41-8:58 The Peaceful Mbuti People Call on the UN to Prosecute
Government and Rebel Fighters as Civil War Rages in the Congo
The United Nations has asked France to lead a peacekeeping
force in the mineral-rich Ituri region of Congo, amid reports
of growing atrocities in fighting between rival factions there.
The UN has also asked Britain to join the force.
A few days ago, aid workers reported finding the bodies of
more than 200 people killed on the streets of the provincial
capital Bunia, including women and children. Some of them
were decapitated and the hearts, livers and lungs were missing
in others. Two U.N. aid workers were also killed this week.
Rival factions are engaged in a bloody civil war, and they
are backed by the neighboring states of Uganda and Rwanda.
While much of the world’s attention has been focused
on elsewhere, millions of people have died in the war. Between
1998 and 2000, the International Rescue Committee estimates
that close to 3 million people lost their lives to war, starvation
and disease in the country.
Numerous countries have been involved in the civil war, all
of them vying for a piece of the nation’s natural resources.
At one stage six African nations had troops in the Congo,
plundering the country's resources of diamonds, gold and oil
and lending support to rival factions.
The Ituri region is also rich in resources. Apart from the
region's farmland and valuable cross-border trade, Ituri is
the gateway to the Kilo Moto gold field, the world's largest.
A Candian company, Barrick Gold, claims it owns the exploration
rights to the gold mine. Former President George Bush Sr.
serves as senior advisor to Barrick Gold’s board of
directors. Interest is also rising in Ituri's oil reserves
in the Lake Albert basin. The company Heritage Oil signed
a licensing deal last year. It is part-owned by British entrepreneur
Tony Buckingham.
The fighting in the Ituri region is between the Lendu and
the Hema factions. But many of the civilians whose bodies
have been mutilated were not members of either group. They
were peaceful Mbuti people.
We’re joined right now by Sinafasi Makelo, who is a
Mbuti spokesman. He is in New York to demand the United Nations
prosecute government and rebel fighters.
- Sinafasi Makelo, a representive of the Mbuti people with
the organization Support Action for the Protection of the
Rights of Minorities in Central Africa – DRC. He is
also on the board of directors for Land is Life. He is forming
an alliance of communities and is trying to organize a conference
on the violence against the Mbuti in the Congo in December.
The Mbuti people are also known as pygmys.
Link:
www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=7160&Cr=DR&Cr1=Congo
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
9:00-9:01 Billboard:
As the White House moves to develop a new generation of nuclear
weapons, Dr. Helen Caldicott speaks on nuclear proliferation
and the invasion of Iraq
INTRO: The Senate voted Tuesday to repeal a 10-year-old ban
on research and development of low yield nuclear weapons or
mini-nukes.
9:01-9:06 Headlines
9:06-9:07 One Minute Music Break
9:07-9:20 As the White House moves to develop a new generation
of nuclear weapons, Dr. Helen Caldicott speaks on nuclear
proliferation and the invasion of Iraq
The Bush Administration came a step closer to developing
a new generation of nuclear weapons when the Senate voted
to repeal a 10-year-old ban on research and development of
low yield nuclear weapons.
The Pentagon wants to build more so-called “mini-nukes”
which have a blast equivalent of about one third as large
as the Atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
Advocates of the bill say the weapons could target enemies
more precisely while limiting civilian casualties. Opponents
say it will undermine efforts to discourage nuclear proliferation
around the world.
One of the most impassioned advocates for nuclear disarmament
is physician, humanist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Dr.
Helen Caldicott.
Dr. Helen Caldicott has devoted the last 30 years to an international
campaign to educate the public about the medical hazards of
the nuclear age, and the necessary changes in human behavior
to stop environmental destruction.
She founded and headed Women's Action For Nuclear Disarmament
and Physicians For Social Responsibility.
She has written for numerous publications and has authored
five books, the latest of which is The New Nuclear Danger:
George Bush’s Military Industrial Complex.
She spoke two days ago on nuclear proliferation, the Bush
administration, and the invasion of Iraq.
- Dr. Helen Caldicott, speaking at UC Berkeley. Dr. Caldicott
is a pediatrician, founder for the Nuclear Policy Research
Institute, and the author of The New Nuclear Danger: George
Bush’s Military Industrial Complex
Contact: www.nuclearpolicy.org
9:20-9:21 One Minute Music Break
9:21-9:40 Helen Caldicott CONT’D
9:40-9:41 One Minute Music Break
9:41-9:58 Helen Caldicott CONT’D
9:58-9:59 Outro and Credits
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Kris Abrams, Mike Burke, Angie
Karran, Sharif Abdul Kouddous, Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press
with help from Noah Reibel and Vilka Tzouras. Mike Di Filippo
is our music maestro and engineer. Thanks also to Uri Galed,
Angela Alston, Emily Kunstler, Orlando Richards, Simba Rousseau,
Rafael delaUz, Gabriel Weiss, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Karen
Ranucci, Fatima Mojadiddy, Denis Moynihan and Jenny Filipazzo.
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