Three days from now the FCC is expected in a series of 3-2 votes to approve changes to media ownership rules allowing further consolidation. Where radio saw its near-destruction as a useful information source following the Telecom Act’s passage and the consolidation that followed, we have not learned from this mistake, and now much of the same damage will be done to other media outlets.
If you’re inclined to watch the mess as it unfolds, the FCC streams video of its meetings online. I hope to have choice cuts of each Commissioner’s comments available for download in MP3 format later in the day on Monday.
As we stand on the eve of what is likely to be a big step backward in the fight for media democracy, it’s important not to give up hope, especially when the evidence continues to mount that this fight was long rigged in favor of corporate interests. It was heartening to see some evidence this week – from the corporate media itself – that paints a brighter view of the future. Continue reading “Perceptions of Reality on the Eve of Disaster”
Category: Journalism
Introducing Amendment One
Don Schellhardt, the attorney extraordinaire who co-wrote the first LPFM petition and has been coordinating the resistance campaign against IBOC digital audio broadcasting, is hankering for some writing experience. He’s now writing a monthly column called Amendment One, featuring various pontifications on issues of media and media reform.
The March and April columns are up now. Don’s latest work, “The Kahn Connection,” will bring you up to speed on the latest happenings with radio’s transition to digital. One must wonder, though, if the proposed alternative arrived too late in the game to change the FCC’s mind on what digital standard to officially adopt (IBOC stations are on the air now, and the FCC recently relaxed the transition rules allowing stations to convert immediately and go digital before notifying Washington).
When Viacom Attacks
My “day job,” so to speak, is an anchor/producer gig with WINS – the Workers Independent News Service. WINS is a syndicated radio news program that features stories of, by and for working people: we like to think of ourselves as an antidote for what passes as “business news” on the radio today. Where the corporate media tells you which stocks are up or down, we tell you who got screwed behind the stock moves.
Five days a week we produce one ‘headline-style’ newscast (three minutes in length), with a 30-second economic report (a little factoid capsule called the “Dow Bob”), and longer-form feature stories, many of which we get from independent stringer-reporters around the globe.
WINS programming is distributed via the internet in MP3 format through our web site, and in the 14 months or so that we’ve been in production we’ve built up an affiliate list of about 80 radio stations around the United States. We charge between $20-$40 a month for stations to subscribe, which gives them access to everything we do, to use as they see fit. Continue reading “When Viacom Attacks”
Partytown Mediajammers At It Again
Back in January, the one-man media-busting army that is Brad Johnson confronted a pack of journalists who’d camped themselves out in front of the home of a man whose pregnant wife has been missing since the winter holiday season. Brad and his wife Sandy live in Modesto, California, which for some ungodly reason seems to attract packs of journalists to tabloid-style stories unlike any other community in America.
The Johnsons also run the Partytown Streaming Network, which provides several free channels of music and news online, including one feed completely dedicated to independent journalism and special IMC protest coverage. Brad was once the broadcast engineer for Clear Channel’s Modesto cluster.
After watching throngs of cameras hover around the scandal of a former congressman a couple of years ago the Johnsons decided they’d seen enough. When this new salacious story broke involving the mystery disappearance of a pregnant woman, the Johnsons were ready for the hordes of cameras. Continue reading “Partytown Mediajammers At It Again”
When News and Promotions Collide
Pulled up on a Google News search recently for the term “President Bush.” From the looks of it, this TV station has its place in the march to war rhythm section down cold:
White House Spokesman Laughed Out of White House Press Room
This is just too good: if you visit CSPAN.org right now, and check out the center column marked “most watched video,” you can see that Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer’s Feb. 25 press briefing sits at the top of the list. The reason is due to the last three minutes of the half-hour video.
It involves a spate of tough questions which end in Fleischer’s rhetorical de-pantsing. As expected, the questions come from representatives of the “foreign media.” Continue reading “White House Spokesman Laughed Out of White House Press Room”
Media Coverage of Media Deregulation: Too Little, Too Late
The Pacifica radio network’s flagship program, Democracy Now!, featured a segment this week on the FCC’s current media deregulation crusade. It featured several guests, including whiz-bang media scholar Robert McChesney, Jeff Chester from the Center for Digital Democracy, and FCC Media Bureau chief W. Kenneth Ferree (who’s already scoffed at encouraging more public input on this issue as “an exercise in foot-stomping”).
While these three did the majority of the talking, a couple of other guests got some important words in edgewise. One of them was Mara Einstein, assistant professor of Media Studies at Queens College (CUNY). Einstein wrote one of the 12 studies the FCC released late last year to justify its current effort: hers was “Program Diversity and the Program Selection Process on Broadcast Network Television.” Continue reading “Media Coverage of Media Deregulation: Too Little, Too Late”
Freak Radio Reporter Arrested for Taping Public Meeting
Robert Norse, a reporter with Freak Radio Santa Cruz, had no idea his mini-tape recorder would cause so much trouble.
On Monday, Norse attended the inaugural meeting of a special committee empaneled by the the Santa Cruz, CA city council. The “Downtown Issues Task Force” is charged with implementing a controversial city plan to “clean up” downtown Santa Cruz. In addition to effectively outlawing panhandling, the plan would also place severe restrictions on street theater, leafleting, and the ability to set up informational tables. Continue reading “Freak Radio Reporter Arrested for Taping Public Meeting”
Press Freedom in the United States: "We're Number 17!"
Reporters Without Borders, an organization chartered with upholding Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (the freedom to communicate), has published its first-ever Worldwide Press Freedom Index, ranking the degree to which free media and speech rights exist in 139 countries.
The United States, home of the First Amendment and all that jazz, ranks #17 on the list – two spots below Costa Rica but three above Ecuador. Continue reading “Press Freedom in the United States: "We're Number 17!"”
Mediageek Busts AP Nut
Paul Riismandel flails the Associated Press for manufacturing news about the state of the radio industry instead of devoting the time and energy to actually write about the real problems at hand.
It would be easy to claim that there’s some nefarious doings afoot to squelch criticism of the corporate media from other corporate media outlets, but this really is a case of a low-IQ reporter stringing together recent related events to construct a theme around which to write a story. Missing the real story completely, however, definitely consigns whoever wrote this turd to the short bus.