The mediageek radioshow’s resident Zine-queen Aj Michel makes another appearance on today’s show to discuss some upcoming happenings in the ‘zine world and talk about some new ‘zines to hit the scene. Here’s references to the stuff she’ll talk about: Zine Events Zine Slam 2003 at the UC-IMC, Saturday March 15, 4PM to 6PM at […]
Archive | February, 2003
Who Is the FCC’s Public?
The Washington Post reports on the rough makeup of the attendees at the FCC’s “public forum” on media ownership rules held yesterday in Richmond, VA:
“By midday, 195 of the People had made their way to the convention center here. One hundred nineteen of them were white men in suits; many of those men were grumbling about the trip down from Washington. Twenty-two people were scheduled to address the commission; 13 of them had traveled here from the District.”
Sounds more like a Communications Industry Retreat than a public forum. Realistically, aside from well-funded lobbyists, who has the time and money to travel across the country to attend some FCC forum in Richmond? Maybe people who only live a couple of hours away and don’t mind missing some work.
Otherwise this qualifies as a public forum as much having the Supreme Court pick the President counts as democracy. Oh, wait…
The FCC’s Public Farce
John at DIYmedia.net accurately sizes up the “hearing” on media ownership rules that the FCC is throwing in (at?) Richmond, VA today:
“The ‘hearing’ has become a ‘forum,’ with an hour-long introductory performance, three 50-minute panel discussions and an hour for lunch. The panels are packed with “experts” – scholars, media executives, professional journalists, and inside-the-Beltway public interest advocates (read: lobbyists with consciences). In other words, these are the same people that have been discussing the issues of media ownership among themselves the whole f*cking time, mostly in private. …
“Just from a mathematical standpoint, the fact that only 90 minutes of this six-hour event is actually devoted to public comment sucks large ass and says a lot. It also validates a view I’ve held throughout this whole farce – that it is a farce.
“Folks, I hate to be a party pooper here, but the FCC committed to the changes it will make to the media ownership rules before this whole rulemaking even got rolling. The recent and sudden outburst of publicity and faux attention is window-dressing to give the changes a sense of legitimacy. …”
But, admit it, John, you love to be a party pooper.
According to the only press account of the “public forum” so far (according to Google News) it looks like indeed the same old tired arguments from the same lobbyists, corporate shills and pundits have been rolled out with little, if anything new. I haven’t had either the time nor the stomach to sit through the FCC’s webcast of the event, but perhaps we’ll be able to glean some more substantive highlights by tomorrow.
FCC Gets Detention
The full slate of FCC Commissioners will be making another rare appearance at the House, this time at Billy Tauzin’s Energy and Commerce Committee. Tauzin and many other Reps are pissed that the FCC went the compromise route on deregulating the mandatory sharing of local telephone networks by the regional Bell operators. And they’re especially livid that the FCC decided to delegate to the states the authority to decide whether or not a particular Bell operator, like SBC, has to open its network to competitors.
Topping it off, the FCC made this decision with a slim 3 to 2 vote where Chairman Powell was on the losing side, as more moderate Republican commissioner Kevin Martin sided with the Commission’s Democrats. Now Tauzin, a strong advocate of handing over the store to the big Baby Bell monopolies, is calling in the Commissioners for detention and a good spanking.
Tauzin has even gone so far as to label Martin a “renegade Republican.” It will be interesting to see whether this will reign Martin in or if it will only strengthen his resolve to go his own way, even if that means bucking Powell and some powerful Republican legislators.
The full FCC made its last appearance in front of Congress just a month ago in front of Sen. McCain’s Senate Commerce Committee. It’s a very rare occasion that the full FCC is summoned to Congress, thus the fact that it’s happened twice in two months is a strong indicator of how telecommunications and media ownership issues are being moved to the front burner of domestic policy. Unfotunately, the mainstream press still treats this as a business story, not national news.
Finally, even though I’m not crazy about the decision made by the FCC last week, especially since it still hands over more power to the crooked likes of SBC, I still have to enjoy the political theater of it all. As it is, consumers like you and me are already getting pretty screwed by our local Bell companies who enjoy de facto monopolies in most cities, regardless of competitors. Since as citizens and consumers we have little or no say in how the FCC or a Senate committee runs its business, sometimes the healthiest response is to sit back and watch the coyotes fight over the scraps.
Connecticut’s Progressive Radio News
The Hartford Courant profiles the producers behind the very good and very consistent weekly radio news program, Between the Lines:
“In a mongrel studio at Bridgeport’s WPKN-FM, Scott Harris and his production crew compete for space with old televisions, record players, cardboard crates and even suitcases. …
“‘We’re always up front with the fact that this is advocacy journalism,’ said Harris, 47, who grew up in Norwalk tuning into the political discussions about Vietnam and other inflammatory issues on New York radio.”
While the mainstream media, especially the likes of FOX News’ O’Reilly Factor, just plain lie about the fact that they do advocacy journalism.