LOCAL MEDIA ALERT!!

dr. elsewhere here

A very brief aside from the title topic at hand: Again, apologies for my woefully extended absence. My lack of net access degenerated into a crashed video card on my laptop (at least that's what it appears to be), so I have been seriously out of the loop for days now. This has included travel to the Deep South, where I will be for several days, a visit that promises not only continued limited access, but also some reflection on the local zeitgeist, such as it is in these parts.

Now, to the issue at hand: Having a brief opportunity to get online (TOM DELAY RESIGNS!! Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition folks; there is evil strategy in his decision.), I downloaded email to find a call to alarm that I really should have been following for weeks now (insert my by now familiar excuses about here).

Most of you likely have cable TV, but many of you may have no awareness of your local public access channel. When cable began picking up steam, the FCC required the cable access giants (comcast, verizon, adelphia, etc.) to provide for local media "airspace" to fulfill their public service obligation. These stations are totally cool. I mean, TOTALLY COOL! As a member of mine (annual dues typically run from nothing to $25), I requested that DemocracyNow! be broadcast daily live, and it is. As a member, I requested that a video of my choice be aired (with the producer's written permission), and it was. As a member, I also took free classes educating me on the entire process of TV production, from camera work to sound to direction and editing, and have since participated in several local productions. If I had but world enough and time, I could conceive and produce my own show. One that I've considered is a live local call-in talk show canvassing local reaction to national and world events. If you have never investigated the potential of this resource, I urge you to do so NOW. It may go the way of the dodo if we do not act quickly and with great force.

Consistent with this administration's disdain for all things labeled "public," "service," or "obligation," the House Commerce Committee has been hearing testimony on the COPE bill (Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement), which is quite clearly a media giant lobbying document that will reduce their public service obligations while strangling local public access cable channels.

This might seem trivial, folks, but it is a major next step in the destruction of our free press. Not only will this move make it merely "quaint" that once we were able to watch our city council meetings live, follow candidates for local elections and the results of these, or the local high school play basketball live, or see local artists interviewed, or rerun the homecoming of a local hero, but it will gut our ability to present local issues to the public via the TV medium.

And, it could drastically restrict our local ability to present and debate national issues.

This may not seem as huge as the issue raised in the FCC two years ago regarding media ownership. But like so many other issues the radical right (read: "those determined to control every aspect of our lives for fun and profit") has taken on, they simply downshifted their strategy to winning every little battle when they could not take the big war, even by stealth.

The COPE bill is in subcommittee just now, at the stage of making changes before it is voted on for floor presentation and vote. There is not much chance it will die in committee, but the changes necessary for salvaging local public access as we know it, or as we should know it, are at stake. It's expected to reach a full House vote soon after Easter, so we don't have much time at all.

For more information on all these matters, I urge you to visit the website of Alliance for Community Media, and then please, PLEASE, contact your local Congressional representative TODAY and TOMORROW, TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY, to let them know just how seriously you take this matter. The website for ACM has a list of six talking points to make that easier for you to speak intelligently about the matters at hand, although getting to the place where you actually know enough about the details to make sense of those talking points will require some education, but education the ACM site offers brilliantly.

And by all means, alert everyone you can to this important issue. We as a motivated public managed to block the media ownership madness, despite complete media blackout on the topic (gee, why would they do that??). There is of course another blackout on this local public access issue now, too, so it's up to us to do something, fast and furious. We're going to have to win back our democracy, and our free press, one battle at a time, so gear up!

Democracy is not a spectator sport!! ACT NOW!

Thanks.