Archive | June, 2005

FRB’s Lawyer Wants FCC Held In Contempt of Court

According to today’s Brattleboro Reformer, free radio brattleboro‘s lawyer, James Maxwell plans to file a motion for the FCC to be held in contempt of court for Wednesday’s raid on the station.

The article only hints around what justifies contempt in this case. I figure the reasoning will hinge on the fact that the FCC’s request for an injunction that would have taken frb off the air was denied. And it was on that basis and the assurance of the FCC to the court that a confiscation was not planned that rfb withdrew its request for an injunction against FCC action.

rfb’s challenge to the FCC is at the Brattleboro federal court, and the FCC and the US Atty pulled a fast one by going to the Burlington federal court for the search warrant. But if rfb had been granted an injunction, the Feds would have been barred from acting without trying to take it to the Court of Appeals.

It’s always interesting when two district courts are set at odds with one another, especially since the FCC was dragging its feet with regard to answering questions posed by the Brattleboro court. I will be curious to see what reaction the Brattleboro court has to the raid, and FCC’s request for summary judgement, filed last month.

It may be that this is yet destined for the Court of Appeals.

And on top of the contempt request, Maxwell is also seeking the return of rfb’s equipment.

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Capturing Public Broadcasting by Threat and Shady Gamesmanship

Pre-P.S.: Just as I was finishing up this post, I learned that the House voted not to cut $100 million from the CPB. Is it coincidence that this happens within hours of the appointment of the new CPB CEO?

I’m kind of immersed in the non-commercial radio world, at the intersection of public, community and underground. Right now it feels like people are losing their minds over the current threat to CPB funding from Congress and the reign of loyal Bush company man Tomlinson heading up the CPB board pushing whatever cash is left to the right.

The panic is real, and I think pretty justified, even if I’m too jaded to get panicked myself.

Our local, and excellent, news/talk public radio station has already just announced that it is dropping affiliation with American Public Media, and therefore losing several programs, including Prairie Home Companion, Sound Money, As It Happens and The Writer’s Almanac. Personally, I will most miss the CBC’s As It Happens, since it gives me a nice dose of Canadian perspective along with news about our friends north of the border that I would never get on any US news source.

A big cut from the CPB would likely threaten more national programs, and their ability to retain staff.

A massive CPB funding reduction would also hit my local community station, but less severely, and in a more targeted way. WEFT gets a grant from the CPB to pay for syndicated programming, and most of WEFT’s syndicated programming is news and public affairs, like Free Speech Radio News and Democracy Now.

WEFT gets 15 grand a year from the CPB, which isn’t chump change for a non-commercial community station. Losing that would force the station to scramble in order to keep these syndicated programs.

On top of that, a CPB hit would also affect the production of programs like FSRN and DN, which also receive some level of funding.

I say I’m a bit jaded, because it all looks like a big Republican gambit to capture public broadcasting, rather than simply kill it. Installing a right-wing crony at the head of the board of directors with an administration mouthpiece as CEO, it looks to me that the Republicans saw that an outright Gingrichian attack on public broadcasting would be less effective than simply taking it over.

I wonder if the plan isn’t to launch the funding threat from Congress, only to have Tomlinson and the new CEO swoop in and save the day by “convincing” their Republican House cronies to scale back the cuts.

It’s all about the managing of expectations. When you threaten
$100 million in cuts, with the plan to totally defund over the course of a few years, then it’s easier to get the public to accept a lower cut, say $25 or $50 million, as more reasonable.

And then Tomlinson and his new lieutenant Patricia S. Harrison can say, “See, we’re trying to save public broadcasting. We got Congress to back off.”

However, even if this is all spectacle, they’re playing with real bullets, and defunding public media, while it could be a bluff, is a big bluff.

Of course the media reform juggernaut has launched into full action to oppose the attack on public broadcasting, and that’s a good thing. I am glad to hear that our local Republican Rep. Tim Johnson opposes the cuts. He’s certainly not my favorite, but he also knows that his district is a public and community media loving one.

I sure as hell don’t want to see CPB funding go away. While I have real concerns with the institution of the CPB, how its funded and how it operates, I also believe that we need a rich, funded public and community media. Public media in the US is definitely a compromise that was intended to help justify the strip-mining of airwaves by the corporate broadcasters, but public media is necessary and vital, nevertheless.

I would prefer a truly independent CPB receiving its funding not directly from Congress but directly from the monies collected from spectrum sales. Every penny that comes from the impending auction of analog TV spectrum ought to to directly to public broadcasting, without impediment and without strings.

And, yet, I’m also glad that my local community station survives with very little CPB funding, making the station somewhat more immune from these right-wing fiduciary attacks. It does mean that the station is much more dependent on community donations, and because this is a small community, the station doesn’t have as big of a budget or staff as the public station or community stations in bigger cities.

But the independence means that a CPB cut will only be a flesh wound, and perhaps motivate listeners to pony up a bit more to keep the syndicated programming.

Government funding is not so different than corporate funding — it’s always a bargain with the devil.

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Brattleboro Reformer on RFB Raid: Eyewitness Account, and Police Chief Distances His Force

An article in today’s Brattleboro Reformer repeats most of the details contained in the station’s press release, but also has an eyewitness account of when the FCC and Federal Marshals hit the station early in the morning when it wasn’t staffed:

Brooks House resident Joe Dever noticed something going on in rfb’s rented space Wednesday. He asked an official at the scene what was going on, but the official told him he couldn’t comment.

When he figured out what was happening, Dever said, he ran back to his apartment and grabbed his camera. The pictures he shot show U.S. Marshals, FCC agents and members of the Brattleboro Police Department.

“The minute they saw that camera, they turned their heads,” said Dever, who has been rfb’s neighbor for four years.

Brattleboro Police Chief John Martin said the only thing his officers did was stand by in case an incident occurred. They weren’t involved in the search warrant.

“The main thing for us is if there’s something going on in our town, we want to make sure there are no problems,” Martin said.

The presence of Brattleboro police is interesting, since the community and town council have given the station such resounding support. Note that the chief distances his force from the raid itself.

When San Francisco Liberation Radio was busted in 2003 the SF police participated in the raid, even though the city council had requested that,

state and local law enforcement officials to refrain from involvement in activities that prevent San Francisco Liberation Radio 93.7 FM and other diverse local media from providing healthy democratic local media in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Other coverage:

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Radio Free Brattleboro Raided Today

I didn’t see this coming, since, as John pointed out, Radio Free Brattleboro’s case with the FCC is still pending in court, and the Feds only recently asked for a summary judgement. In fact, last year, the judge in the case ruled against the FCC’s request for an injunction to shut down the station while the case was pending.

Nevertheless, the station has been shut down:

At 6:58 this morning, June 22, 2005, armed with a warrant issued by a Burlington magistrate, United States Marshals entered the studios of radio free brattleboro and seized its broadcasting equipment. The seizure of equipment and shutdown of rfbÂ’s local broadcasts under authority of a warrant issued in Burlington comes while an action is still pending before Judge J. Garvan Murtha in the federal court in Brattleboro.

Click through to read the rest of RFB’s press release

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zine #3 is ready to go

Last night I assembled and stapled mediageek zine #3, just in time to haul it out to the AMC today. I’m pretty happy with it, and it features the new mediageek logo, that you can see up on top of the homepage.

Articles include an analysis of the Christian translator scandal by John Anderson, a follow-up examination of cheap plastic cameras and a review of the BBS Documentary.

I’ll get the zine page updated when I get back, including adding a PayPal link for ordering the zines on-line.

Meanwhile, I’ll be blogging from the AMC, where I hear tell there will be decent ‘net access.

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