Friday, November 2, 2007

No Treats for FCC Chair and Media Monopolists

By John Nichols, The Nation

Federal Communications Commission chair Kevin Martin is doing everything he can to prevent public input that would challenge his rush to have the commission radically rewrite media ownership rules before Christmas. His latest tactic was to schedule a last-minute Halloween hearing on the proposed rule change -- which would allow one media conglomerate to own the daily newspapers, weekly newspapers, television and radio stations and primary internet news sites in a community.

But Martin's trick earned no treats for the media monopolists he seeks to serve, as the sneaky chairman was called on the carpet by his fellow commissioners, members of Congress and one of the nation's largest and most vigilant religious groupings.

Dissident commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein appeared at a rally outside the FCC's office in Washington to object to Martin's chicanery. "Neither we nor the public received any confirmation that the hearing would occur until ... just 5 business days before the event," the commissioners said before entering the building for the hearing. "This is unacceptable and unfair to the public."

Joining Copps and Adelstein were political, labor and community leaders who condemned Martin's assault not merely on media diversity but on the basic standards for making regulatory shifts.

"We cannot and we will not let the FCC shove new media ownership rules down our throats," said Congressman Maurice Hinchey, the New York Democrat who chairs the Future of Media Caucus in the U.S. House. "It is our constitutional obligation to stand up and demand that we see greater media ownership diversity, not less."

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said in his role as president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition,"We have a media diversity crisis -- too few, own too much, at the expense of too many. Stopping media consolidation is the most important way to help minority ownership. But the FCC is trying to fast-track media consolidation instead of creating policies that expand ownership opportunities. The FCC should be serving people, not profit."

L.A. Times story on FCC Hearing

NAHJ's Letter on Broadcast Minority Ownership Task Force

1 Comments:

Blogger From the CMO said...

I am sick and tired of hearing the same excuse from the police: "we can only do something if he actually hurts you physically".
We have been through constant attacks by a neighbor.

These are excerpts from some emails:


"Hey, you tiny little SHIT STAIN!!
You scumbag me behind my back to a bunch of old ladies. Trying VERY hard to come off as a player. What a joke!
If you are the BIG MAN that you pretend to be, show up ANY TIME this week. I'll be there every day. BIG MAN!! Come on!!
Shit stain!!
Punk!!
Mr. 40 houses!!
Otherwise, stay safely at your Help Desk job.
Real life is hard, eh SHIT STAIN! It's a lot tougher than scumbagging someone behind their back, eh?
Send THIS to your lawyer to see if you "can sue me for some reason". Or, call another clandestine meeting with the old ladies.
Any day, any time that you want to come at me, I'm ready.
If not, then stay in your little cubicle."


"Amnesia ploy now, eh?
You have a big mouth and nothing to back it up with. That's what this is about, Mr. Stain.
If you can't back up what you say, then keep your mouth shut.
They didn't teach you that in Mexico?"


"OK, I have waited to let the concrete settle. And, as
I suspected, the patch job that you did looks just
like that, a patch job. In fact, it looks like a
Mexican patch job, like you always do. "

What do we do? Sit back and relax while he goes get his gun (which he has already verbally threated to do) and go out on a shooting spree? This guy told the president of our HOA to "come out and fight like a man". She is a 70 year old widow, almost blind of one eye!

As a Christian man, I have never as much as raised my voice to him or exchanged any four letter words. I want to do the right thing, my question is: WHAT IS IT?

March 4, 2008 at 3:49 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home