Update on Media Consolidation Fight

The most recent installment of Bob McChesney's excellent Media Matters radio show (available as in mp3 format here) provides a clear overview of the FCC's plans to overturn the meager media ownership limits that currently exist.

McChesney is a professor at the University of Illinois and a founder of Free Press, the main national media reform group. Free Press's "Stop Big Media" site is excellent, and includes a blog.

The appalling issue of the two suppressed FCC studies is discussed in the broadcast.

Astroturf Meddling Follow-Up

Lehigh Valley Ramblings has posted an excellent follow-up to the astroturf meddling of AT&T's front group. (See post below.)

Reminder: Launch Event TONIGHT

Media Action of the Lehigh Valley, a new nonprofit dedicated to media democracy in the region and beyond, will hold its inaugural meeting tonight (Thursday, September 28), at 7:30pm in the Silkwerks Building in downtown Allentown (930 N. 4th St.; directions here). Dharma Daily of the Prometheus Radio Project will speak about community wifi in the Lehigh Valley, and Media Action LV organizers will discuss the new group's goals and plans.

The event is free and open to the public.

Corporate-Funded Astroturf Group Tries to Manipulate Local Debate

Hands Off the Interent, a fake grassroots organization that adopts phony 'public interest' rhetoric on behalf of its industry backers, tried to manipulate local debate on net neutrality. On Monday, Lehigh Valley Ramblings, a popular blog, posted a well-informed argument for net neutrality, noting that blogs like LV Ramblings would go extinct in the highest-bidder internet that telcom companies like AT&T envision.

It didn't take long for a paid flack from Hands Off the Internet--a textbook example of an astroturf group--to post an innocent-seeming comment in reply to the LV Ramblings post. HandsOff43 attacked "so-called net neutrality," and ended the comment with, "We at Hands Off the Internet are trying to educate consumers about the unintended bureaucratic sluggishness net neutrality regulations will surely bring. I hope this was informative."

After LV Ramblings's Bernie O'Hare called him on the sleazy attempt to ape the legitimacy of real citizen action, HandsOff43 returned with a second post. Its lead sentence:

"Bernie, We at Hands Off The Internet have nothing to hide except the facts."

I couldn't have said it any better.

For the record, the Save the Internet Coalition doesn't take a single penny from corporate sources.

National Conference on Media Reform: January in Memphis

From Free Press, the national media democracy group:

Media reform is coming to Memphis!

Mark your calendar and make your reservations -- registration for the 2007 National Conference for Media Reform is now open. This one-of-a-kind event will take place on January 12-14, 2007, in the home of the blues and birthplace of rock 'n' roll, Memphis, Tennessee.

Join Bill Moyers, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Jane Fonda, Amy Goodman, Phil Donahue, Ben Bagdikian, Davey D, FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein and many more for an unforgettable and inspiring weekend.

Sign up now for the 2007 National Conference for Media Reform

The 2007 National Conference for Media Reform is about broadening the movement and establishing the media as a viable political issue in America. This energizing weekend will present ideas and strategies for winning the fight for better media and connect you with thousands of media reformers from across the nation.

Here is the conference website.

Key PA Senate Vote On Community Media: Contact Senator Browne!

See the important action call from Prometheus Radio Project.

Call and urge Senator Browne to oppose the Pennsylvania video franchise bill (SB 1247):

Sen. Patrick Browne
(717) 787-1349

Hello Community Media Supporters of Pennsylvania, and Greetings from the Prometheus Radio Project!

We met with you earlier this summer to learn about the great work you are doing in your community, and to plug you into a network across Pennsylvania that would let you know when opportunities came up to fight for local control over your communications networks! Now, your community needs your help to fight for local control over video service
in your area.

On Tuesday, September 26th, both the state House of Representatives and the Senate will be voting on two companion bills that would allow Verizon to deliver video and phone service to our homes. Sounds okay at first -- cable companies across the state need strong competition -- except that the bills would move all decisionmaking that communities have over video delivery services to the state level. Today, communities across Pennsylvania have negotiated funding for school and emergency services communications, public access television, and much more with their cable companies. If Senate Bill 1247 or House Bill 2880 pass next week and are signed into law:

-- Cities and neighborhoods that are hard to reach, don't make enough money, or are otherwise deemed 'economically infeasible' can be denied access to new video service.

-- Cities without public access TV channels already on the air might lose their opportunity to build them -- and cities with public access TV might lose their right to negotiate for new funding or new channels.

-- If we have complaints about our video service, our cities have fewer tools to fight for our consumer protections.

-- Our state legislators will have no power to deny any company a franchise in our cities or towns, unless the applicant fails to fill out the application form right!

Here is the rest of the call.

The bill, as Free Press has pointed out, lacks any protection for net neutrality.

You can read an analysis of the bill, by PennPIRG, here.

Media Tank Turns Five

Media Tank, the terrific Philadelphia-based media reform organization, is celebrating its fifth birthday tonight...

When: Thursday, September 21, 2006, 7:00-10:00 pm
Where: Philadelphia Ethical Society, 1906 Rittenhouse Square

For more details, click here.

Jim Schneider's Work to be Featured in Philadelphia Sunday (Sept. 24)

The late Jim Schneider's legacy of media activism inspired the creation of Media Action of the Lehigh Valley (see About Media Action LV). One of Dr. Schneider's documentaries, on local antiwar activism, will be screened as part of Termite TV's series Life Size Action Pictures, this Sunday (Sept. 24) at 2:30 pm at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. More details here.

City Council Meeting to Feature Youth Documentaries on Downtown Allentown

Short documentary films made by downtown Allentown youth will be screened at Wednesday night's Allentown City Council meeting (7:30pm, at City Hall, 435 Hamilton St.). The films were created in August as the showpiece of Kids Media Access Project (KAMP), a two-week digital storytelling program sponsored by Congregations United for Neighborhood Action (CUNA) and Muhlenberg College. The films, created by 12 local youth ages 9-17, deal with shortfalls in recreation funding, litter, a youth dance troupe, and many other topics--in the voices of the young people themselves. I saw the films when they were screened in late August at the Allentown Art Museum; they are moving and honest in a way that only kids can pull off.

The KAMP program was created by Lora Taub-Pervizpour and Kate Ranieri, two steering committee members of Media Action of the Lehigh Valley, and faculty in Muhlenberg College's Media and Communication.

Launch Event Thursday, September 28

Media Action of the Lehigh Valley, a new nonprofit dedicated to media democracy in the region and beyond, will hold its inaugural meeting on Thursday, September 28, at 7:30pm in the Silkwerks Building in downtown Allentown (930 N. 4th St.; directions here). Dharma Daily of the Prometheus Radio Project will speak about community wifi in the Lehigh Valley, and Media Action LV organizers will discuss the new group's goals and plans.

The event is free and open to the public.