Only week left to submit your comments to the FCC on media consolidation.

[helderheid]

Sign here

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/117907037?z00m=104736&z00m=104736<l=1158680215

It was just revealed that staff members at the FCC were ordered to destroy all copies of a report showing increased media consolidation would be harmful to the public. News broke this week when U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) questioned FCC Chairman Kevin Martin about the report during his Senate reconfirmation.

The FCC hid the report at a time that suspiciously coincides with their current efforts to consolidate news networks. Critics have long accused the FCC of supporting policies that favor large media companies like AOL/Time Warner, Disney and Viacom and this news supports those claims. The report found that locally owned stations produce more local news coverage than network and non-locally owned stations.

If you haven't yet signed our petition against media consolidation, now is the time. The public comment period ends in one week! Tell the FCC to keep news independent and stop media consolidation: http://go.care2.com/e/Msq/Qw/PcSz

Read more below:
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Currently, the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) has rules that limit the number of local media outlets, such as radio, television and newspapers, that one corporation can own. This allows local interests and public participants to have a voice in the dialogue.

But big media conglomerates have been lobbying the FCC to rewrite these rules, giving them the green light to buy up local markets and expand what's known as "media consolidation." The result would be good for the wallets of big media, but bad for local participation -- the lynchpin of our democracy. Stop your local media from being swallowed up!

If the FCC throws these rules out, ONE media company could potentially own the major daily newspaper, at least EIGHT radio stations and THREE or more television stations in the same town. You can stop this from happening: http://go.care2.com/e/Msq/Qw/PcSz

Don't let large companies obliterate the diversity and democracy in our media. Join Consumers Union in protecting the authenticity of local radio stations, daily newspapers, and TV shows by petitioning the FCC to uphold current rules that prevent media consolidation! Go to: http://go.care2.com/e/Msq/Qw/PcSz

Thanks for making a difference today.

[lonestarnot]

1. done.

[Daphne08]

2. Done. This is important, everyone. K & R. n/t

[chat_noir]

3. Boxer Produces Another Unpublished FCC Report

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/18/2006 5:01:00 PM
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) has written FCC Chairman Kevin Martin about yet another report she has a copy of, and saying she wants a full investigation into whether the FCC is suppressing information for political reasons.

Last week, she created a stir with a copy of a TV localism report that the FCC had prepared but not released in 2004. Former Chairman Powell denied he had any knowledge of the report. This time is is a 2003 radio ownership report, though the information she quotes--that Clear Channel expanded from 62 stations in 1996, to 1,233 in 2003 or that there was a decrease in the number of owners over that period of time is not exactly suppressed information.

"I have now received a copy of the Commission's draft 2003 'Review of the Radio Industry,'" she wrote. "The report found, among other things, that while there was a 5.9 percent increase in the number of radio stations in the country between March 1996 and March 2003, there was a 35 percent decrease in the number of radio owners.The report also found that Clear Channel Communications, the largest radio group owner, went from owning 62 stations in 1996, to 1,233 in 2003.

"For reasons I do not understand, this report was never finalized even though the FCC had released similar reports in 2002, September 2001, January 2001, and 1998," she wrote Martin. "Moreover, the Commission has not released a "Review of the Radio Industry" report since 2002.This is in spite of the fact that this information would be highly relevant to the Commission’s ongoing proceedings on localism and media ownership."

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6373194.html

[helderheid]

5. Thanks!

[Lars39]

4. K&R

[april]

6. Done thanx