Mood:
caffeinatedNow Playing: IMPORTANT - Send the FCC your voice on Our News
Topic: MEDIA
Folks I just received this today in my email box
I filled it out and included a few sentences as my comments
Do you want your news compacted and dished to you by a few single sources?
Do you want the variety of information and news "removed" and replaced with
Corporate Interest?
The FCC is getting ready to consider more relaxing of laws that prevent the news from becoming one big Monopoly. The changes in rules will give more consolidation to big corporation that represent NOT --> You and me ......they work for Big Business and the Government ...I repeat .."They do not work for the citizen, they work and served BIG BUSINESS and the War Machine"
Say "no" to this potential abuse
and the sell out of "OUR NEWS" sources to
Limited Consolidated Big Corporations with profits as their guidelines
http://static.uspirg.org/usaction.asp?id=2034&id4=ES
* * * * * *
Dear Joe, 12-15-06
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) sets the rules that limit how many media outlets any one company can own. Currently no one company can own both the local newspaper and a broadcast television station in the same media market (unless a market had such cross-ownership before the rule was enacted). Other rules generally prohibit one company from owning more than one large local television station but only somewhat restrict the number of radio stations any one company can own in the same media market. Over the years, the FCC has relaxed these rules to allow big media to get even bigger. And now, the agency wants to go even further.In 2003 the FCC voted 3-2 to weaken these longstanding media ownership rules, despite over 3 million comments opposing the proposal. The U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals then rejected the rules, setting the stage for the FCC to reconsider them, a process which it announced this summer.
If the rules are weakened, as they already have been for radio, more big media companies will be allowed to own both the largest newspaper and the largest television station in any city. Big broadcasters will be allowed to own nearly all of the TV stations in a small or medium sized city. That's bad for democracy; for arts and culture; and for the free exchange of ideas.
Radio is the canary in the coal mine that should warn us against this action. Congress itself unwisely deregulated radio in 1996, when it also gave the FCC a tentative green light to go forward with its 2003 action. Clear Channel Communications now owns more than 1200 radio stations. Its use of national playlists and announcers has virtually stifled local news and local musical diversity on its stations.
The past two decades have witnessed the number of major corporations that dominate television, movies, music, radio, cable, publishing and the Internet dwindle from 50 to less than two dozen -- with power concentrated especially in 8 huge conglomerates. These include General Electric, Time Warner, The Walt Disney Company, Vivendi Universal, News Corporation, Bertelsmann AG, CBS Corporation and Viacom.
Over 10,000 of you have already emailed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) asking them to help prevent big media from getting any bigger and to instead encourage more diverse, independent and minority ownership.
The FCC is only accepting comments for a very limited time period so we need one last push to ensure that our message is heard before its too late. Can help us reach our goal of 12,000 comments?
http://static.uspirg.org/usaction.asp?id=2034&id4=ES
Sincerely, Maureen Kirk
{OSPIRG Executive Director}
