Please see the following from our friends at Free Press regarding the upcoming FCC meeting on media consolidation in Stanford, California. If you or someone you know will be in the area please share this with them.
FRIDAY – FCC at STANFORD UNIVERSITY
The FCC is coming to Stanford on Friday, May 21st, for a public hearing on the impact media consolidation and tech innovation has had on journalism. This is part of their 2010 review of media ownership laws. You probably remember that during the Bush administration the FCC relaxed media ownership laws – particularly the 30 year-old newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership ban (a move we have shown will hurt newsroom jobs and lead to less local news)
Even though President Obama has opposed media consolidation, Big Media has been beating down the door at the FCC. They are pushing the Obama FCC to go even farther than the Bush FCC and dramatically relax media ownership laws, letting absentee Big Media giants control even more local media.
This fight is coming to Stanford on Friday, and we need to turn out a crowd to show the FCC the public still cares about media consolidation.
What: Media Ownership Public Hearing
When: May 21, 2010,10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (the public comment section is at 11:45 and 3:30)
Where: Stanford University, Dinkelspiel Auditorium, 471 Lagunita Drive, Stanford, CA
*This event is free
The public hearing on Friday will have time for local communities to weigh in on these issues. We need to be sure the public interest is strongly represented or the only people they will hear from are giant companies.
Please share this broadly with others.
Some of the panelists include Tim Westergren, Founder of Pandora Music, Eddy W. Hartenstein, Publisher and CEO, Los Angeles Times, Jim Joyce, President, National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians, and Vice President, Communications Workers of America and Alan Mutter, Publisher, Reflections of a Newsosaur, and Tiffiniy Ying Cheng, Co-Founder, Participatory Culture Foundation. The full agenda is here: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-298195A1.pdf
If you have questions or want to help with turnout – please contact me:
Josh Stearns
Program Manager
Free Press :: www.freepress.net
SaveTheNews :: www.savethenews.org
Twitter: @jcstearns
Phone: 413.585.1533 ext. 204
For more commentary on this FCC meeting from Executive Director of the Media Alliance, Tracy Rosenburg:
Big Media and the FCC Roadshow: Controling the Message both Online and Offline
