Senators threaten to block media ownership plan

Source: Washington Post

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two senators on Wednesday threatened to introduce bipartisan legislation that would block the Federal Communication Commission from easing rules governing media ownership.

Sens. Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, and Trent Lott, a Mississippi Republican, said they were studying possible legislation that would nullify an FCC decision expected on December 18.

"I think (relaxing media ownership rules) is not a good policy," Lott told reporters at a news conference. "I just don't think this is in the people's best interest."

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin recently said he wants the agency to wrap up its examination of media ownership and reach a decision by December 18 on whether to ease limits on how many media outlets a company may own in a single market.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/24/AR2007102401488_pf.html

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Chimpy and his friends are going to try to rush all kinds of bullshit through over the next year. Most of it will be heinous.

Doing is another

"we're perfectly wlling drop our drawers all the way to the floor on this, just please don't call us traitors".

:rofl:

...they haven't gotten their "donation" yet.

I will believe it when I see it

the democrats think being in congress means cave cave cave to the republicans.

He and Senator Lott(insert broken clock cliche:) are on the side of the angels on this. We don't need more Murdoch,Redstone, Disney, Clear Channel, control of our media.

I can't help but expect they're really just trying to cut a better deal. Such has my cynicism grown.

right side of this, after so very much damage has already been done.

I wonder what the chances are some of the filthy steps already taken can be rolled back?

Thanks to Crisco. This is surely so important. Rec.

Or otherwise known as the Media Ownership Reform Act.

From Congressman Hinchey's (D-NY22) website: "The Media Ownership Reform Act seeks to restore integrity and diversity to America's media system by lowering the number of media outlets that one company is permitted to own in a single market. The bill also reinstates the Fairness Doctrine to protect fairness and accuracy in journalism."
http://www.house.gov/hinchey/issues/mora.shtml

Read the bill, and tell your people in DC. Aren't you tired of having few choices? This bill would create LOCAL jobs in the media in many small markets, where robo-DJs play the same music all over the country. It would also provide for more LOCAL information to be disseminated through locally owned media outlets (newspapers, radio, television). There are some places in these United States where you cannot get accurate local weather. Things like local amber alerts could be put on the radio. Local media outlets would then, once again need writers, reporters, and the like, and it could help to stimulate the local economy of any given area.

I'm going to read it now.

R&K this thread, too. I've wanted them to clamp down on the media ownership for years.

This is what democracy demands.

I bet Faux news plays it as censorship.

Be on the lookout for flying pigs any minute now...

..wrong direction, boys!

as he listens to the construction of the gallows.

He sees a growing ascendancy of liberal politics, and he's afraid of gworing developing liberal dominance of the mass media.

including groups which properly are neither left nor right but which have cultural ties to the right (most prominently, the NRA). Additionally traditionally "red" rural areas where often there are no local news outlets hardly want even more of the same.

Media consolidation is just plain unpopular with everyone who isn't part of big media.

given that he's had the endorsement of the NRA in every race he's ever run in.

Oh, that Maurice Hinchey guy mentioned above? Another "right winger" who has had the endorsement of the NRA in the past.

The NRA endorses solely on the basis on a candidate's position on gun control. The candidate could be anywhere else on the political spectrum, for all they care, and their endorsements over the years prove this.

That doesn't mean there aren't more right wing members of the NRA than there are progressives -- of course there are. The organization's roots are strongly rural, where the culture is both pro-gun and conservative.

he hates the Bush administration like cancer.

after the house is rebuilt

Lott saw how the satellite fed stations failed to provide any emergency info or news after Katrina. Dorgan became alarmed when a tornado ripped through a ND town that had only radio stations running on remote, with no way for local weather/disaster folks to put out a tornado warning.

Both realized that one important function of LOCAL broadcasting is the provision of emergency information in disasters, and it's one of the obligations of having a license to use the PUBLIC airwaves.

...for such a non-sexy issue.

Senators & Reps are there to represent the PEOPLE of the United States - NOT FACELESS MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS!!

He was at our fundraiser, so I grabbed a moment to speak with him about this. He actually sounded mad when he said that 'Kevin Martin is an evil person. I'll guarantee you we will stop this.' Harkin was instrumental in blocking the Michael Powell attempt at consolidation a couple years ago.
After he was done with me I overheard him say to his tablemate 'Kevin Martin is just such an evil person.'

:patriot:

This congress has such a shitty record when it comes to standing up to the corporate coup that has taken place.
What ever the companies want the companies get.

The media conglomeration has already happened. Rupert Murdoch, Clear Channel and the three big networks own far more than they would ever have been allowed even ten years ago. Teddy Roosevelt is rolling over in his grave.

For radio, in particular, in many areas there are no more "local" channels since everything is piped in from somewhere else. This is not in the public interest and they are supposed to be public airwaves. In many areas the newspapers and TV are just as bad.

Congress needs to pass laws mandating divestiture and to prevent the FCC from making administrative rule changes that would ever again allow monopolies to control entire markets.

A respected guy, he wrote that it would be necessary to consolidate further, for radio companies to eek out profits in the face of competition from internet, HD, iPods, etc.

This is supposedly one of the good guys, and even he won't acknowledge how he and others like him made a total botch of radio by centralizing control of playlists and taking music out of the jocks' hands.

My feeling is that shareholders who bought into radio for short term investments deserve to lose their shirts - they're the ones responsible for the mess.

On Oct. 15, I predicted that Martin would try to bribe or manipulate the MSM with more of what Powell did in 2001-2004 and I begged Congress to do something about it.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/McCamy%20Taylor/77

Just a few days later, my predictions came true and I begged Democrats to beg Congress to do something about it.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/McCamy%20Taylor/79

I have also been sending emails straight to Congress and I will bet that a lot of other people have, especially Democrats and Independents who are fed up with the corporate media which martyred Dan Rather because it needed W. in the White House for Viacom to expand its empire or with News Corp. that serves as a propaganda engine for the WH for the same reason. (Note: Michael Powell was dangling the carrot of FCC directed media ownership rule relaxation in front of the MSM in the spring of 2003 at the same time that the MSM was not questioning the BUhs administration's case for going to war with Iraq. In June, 2003, he delivered on his promise. THAT was why CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, NYT and the rest went along with the war)

Regarding the right wing's anger with Martin, he has sold them out regarding the issue of a la carte cable. It is dear to the right, since wants to be able to boycott Bravo and other gay friendly channels. However in the spring of 2005, when McCain and Stevens were sponsoring a la carte cable, Martin recommended against it after meeting with Disney executives. ABC immediately started work on The Path to 9/11. However, ABC managed to make the program so laughably biased that it failed as propaganda. I think this was deliberate. Then ABC News broke the Tom Foley story, tying up the Democratic Congressional win---something Disney probably wanted all along, since Democrats oppose a la carte cable on the grounds that it will kill minority channels. Martin got used by Disney. He betrayed the right wing base for a political favor for the Republican Party which turned out to be no favor at all. I would be surprised if he can get elected as a Republican dog catcher after he leaves the Bush administration. So, I am not all surprised to see true Republicans (as opposed to Neo-Con Republicans) bucking him.

Onenote should show up soon to object. He is Martin's fanclub here at DU.

perfect with a Presidential election campaign coming up.

:headbang:
rocknation

just maybe...
the moderates are realizing that the fascists are about to take total control if they don't get stopped... if this fails, well, we all know what it could lead to... more faux type programming