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Tag: freedom of the press

Stop Big Media Now

Stop Big Media Now

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Banking on your short attention span, big media is giving it another shot. Stop Big Media is trying to get the word out.

Tell Congress not to dismantle media ownership rules!

Kevin Martin, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has been keeping a secret from the American people. He wants to push through plans to remove decades-old media ownership protections. And he’s trying to do it without public scrutiny.

Senators Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.) have introduced groundbreaking bipartisan legislation that would hold the FCC accountable and put the people ahead of Big Media.

Letters like this — millions of them — stopped media consolidation in 2003. Sign the letter and tell everyone you know.

Do it now. Here is the letter default – you can edit.

I am writing to urge you to support S 2332, the “The Media Ownership Act of 2007.” This legislation will ensure that the Federal Communications Commission addresses the dismal state of female and minority ownership before changing any rules to unleash more media concentration.

Nearly 99 percent of the public comments received by the FCC oppose changing the nation’s media ownership rules to allow a handful of large conglomerates to swallow up more local media outlets. Congress rejected the same changes to the rules in 2003. Yet the FCC is still pushing a plan to overhaul the rules by the end of the year.

This legislation would mandate that the FCC give the public 90 days’ notice before holding a vote on new rules to ensure a full public accounting of the impact of media consolidation before changing the ownership limits. These steps are necessary to preserve diverse local media that meets the needs of our communities.

Diversity is the cornerstone of a democratic media system. Yet research by Free Press found that that while minorities make up 33 percent of the U.S. population, they own less than 8 percent of radio stations and 3 percent of TV stations.

This legislation would create an independent task force to address the crisis in minority media ownership.

Our democracy requires the free flow of local information from diverse voices. Please support the “The Media Ownership Act of 2007.”


More actions from Stop Big Media

America Ranks 53rd on Freedom of the Press

America Ranks 53rd on Freedom of the Press

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Reporters Without Borders’s Global Press Freedom Index tracks actions against news media.

America’s ranks 53rd on press freedom. We’re between Tonga and Uruguay.

Home of “freedom of the press,” the United States entered the list – when it started in 2002 – at 17th place. We fell nine places just since last year.

“The steady erosion of press freedom in the United States, France and Japan is extremely alarming,” Reporters Without Borders said. They particularly concerned this year about how some Western democracies, including ours, impose punishments on media that criticize political leaders.

A couple of examples:

Freelance journalist and blogger Josh Wolf was imprisoned when he refused to hand over his video archives. Sudanese cameraman Sami al-Haj, who works for the pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera, has been held without trial since June 2002 at the US military base at Guantanamo, and Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein has been held by US authorities in Iraq since April this year.

They also point out that the federal courts refuse to recognise the media’s right not to reveal its sources, and even threatens journalists whose investigations have no connection at all with terrorism. More details on the freedom of the press issues in the Americas is available in pdf format.

“Relations between the media and the Bush administration sharply deteriorated after the president used the pretext of ‘national security’ to regard as suspicious any journalist who questioned his ‘war on terrorism.'”

Relations between journalists and the White House aren’t the biggest kind of problem. On network news, it looks an awful lot like they are reading press releases half the time. How about paid advertising presented as news? How about disinformation, propaganda, and censorship by the Bush Administration and corporate interests?

Here are the top ten countries for press freedom:

  • Finland
  • Iceland
  • Ireland
  • Netherlands
  • Czech Republic
  • Estonia
  • Norway
  • Slovakia
  • Switzerland
  • Hungary

I remember that there was some other credible ranking list on the topic of freedom of the press. It went back further than 5 years, and was tracked by a US group – but I can’t remember it now, and wasn’t able to find it on a search.

Comment if you know.

A note about our press

A note about our press

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I’ts not so much that we have outright censorship. The White House sends out press releases. It doesn’t have a whole lot of interviewing. And it they don’t like what you say, they cut off all access.

Then, it’s a matter of money. Advertisers, network owners, and so on.

But you know, last night an old girlfriend was in town. As the three of us munched down our dinner in the kitchen, my hubby John started telling us about his last trip to Paris and all the stories that were reported there… and reported very differently. Ok, some of you out there have decided to hate France – why, I’m not sure. We wouldn’t even have a democracy here without them.

He said that when he was there, the Abu Graib story was hitting the world news. He picked up LeMonde one day (the more conservative of the two major French newspapers) and it was full of testimony from prisoners that had been there.

Do you recall reading a whole lot of testimony from the people who were actually there? I don’t – maybe I just missed it.

Just one example, but there were others. It is worth checking websites and alternative news sources. Out media just isn’t what it used to (at least aim to) be.