Quick Dispatch from the Michael Powell Protest this morning...

Posted by Mitchell - June 10, 2003 (entry 50)

A half-dozen spirited protesters braved the June rains for a public protest in the front of McCormick Place in Chicago on the morning of June 10, 2003. The focus of the protest was FCC Chair and corporate slave Michael Powell who came to Chicago to speak before the National Cable Telecommunications Association (the industry group of the cable TV industry)--even though Powell refused to come to the Midwest Public Forum on media ownership also held in Chicago two months earlier.

The protesters held signs ("FCC: Friends of Clear Channel", "FCC: Feeding Corporate Crooks", "FCC Chairman Michael Powell--Colin's Little A**hole") and a banner reading "Congress: Say No to Big Media", urging Congress to overturn the June 2 deregulation ruling by the FCC (which looks to be increasingly likely). After the protest, some of the participants took the signs to enter McCormick Place in an attempt to bring the protest directly to Michael Powell himself. An update on the success of that attempt is forthcoming...

Update: Karen reports to me by email:

As we were walking through the Hyatt, [we] spotted [FCC] Commissioner Kevin Martin! We had a nice conversation with him, he was very polite, and even told us that he felt he should have attended more of the public forums.

We got a picture with him - [we'll] see how it turns out.

Check it out: The New Yorker chimes in on media ownership.

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