DO YOU LIKE LIVING IN A DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC?
If you do, then you will have to help preserve it. There is something very important going on and it will take each of us stepping up to stop it. FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin continues his campaign to hand over our airwaves to Big Media. He is pushing once again to weaken the rules that govern cross-ownership of media outlets. Independent journalism is disappearing as media ownership becomes more and more consolidated. This consolidation gives us “managed” news. The conglomerates decide what we hear about and what we don’t. They decide what is in the public’s best interest. Are you satisfied with others deciding that for you?
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 10 huge conglomerates. While enriching investors, these changes have endangered democracy – which demands an informed citizenry with access to a variety of voices and viewpoints. ( http://www.freepress.net/issues/ownership )
Bill Moyers continues to speak out against the FCC’s justifications for further media consolidation:
First, the claim that newspapers are in dire financial straights depends on your definition of dire. The average profit margin for publicly-traded newspaper firms last year was 17-18 percent – that’s higher than the average Fortune 500. Second, Chairman Martin says his new rules would just affect the 20 big markets. Not so. A giant loophole buried in the fine print could open the back door to runaway consolidation in nearly every market, large and small. Third, it’s the FCC’s charge to ensure ‘competition, localism and diversity’ in media. These new rules fail on all three accounts. The FCC’s own data shows that markets with cross-owned outlets provide less news as a whole. And when it comes to diversity, these new rules will make a disgraceful situation even worse. The very few commercial TV stations owned by people of color – hardly 3 percent of the total – will be in the crosshairs of the media giants. Fourth, who do these guys work for, anyway? As you will see on our website at PBS.org, one FCC commissioner after another has gone to work in the media world. How can you serve the public when in the back of your mind you think that one day Rupert Murdoch may have a big job for you? Remember Michael Powell? He was the last FCC chairman who wanted to let big media have all it can eat. Powell is now in the pay of “the world’s leading private equity firm focused on media, entertainment, communications and information investments.” Finally, whatever your position on this, you have until December 11th –December 11th – to let the FCC, Congress, and the White House know what you think; that’s when the FCC’s public comment period closes. Check it out on our website. ( From Bill Moyers Journal, November 16, 2007: )
We need to flood the FCC, Congress, and the White House with calls, letters and emails insisting they stop the growing consolidation of media ownership. We need to do it NOW. December 11 is only two weeks away. Please take a few minutes now and let them know you value a free press and you want the FCC to stop selling out to Big Media. For your convenience contact information for the FCC, Congress and the White House is listed below.
Federal Communications Commission, 445 12th Street, SW, Washington, DC 20554
Chairman Kevin J. Martin:
KJMWEB@fcc.gov
202.418.1000
Commissioner Michael J. Copps
Michael.Copps@fcc.gov
202.418.2000
Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein
Jonathan.Adelstein@fcc.gov
202.418.2300
Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate
dtaylortateweb@fcc.gov
202.418.2500
Commissioner Robert McDowell
Robert.McDowell@fcc.gov
202.418.2200
Members of Congress::
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
PHONE COMMENTS: 202-456-1111
EMAIL: comments@whitehouse.gov