CHICAGO MEDIA ACTION NEWSLETTER, February 2, 2004 http://www.chicagomediaaction.org In this month's newsletter... * Suggested actions: The RCN fight and a key Feb. 10 Chicago Cable Commission meeting * Last month: CMA and MLK * Media politics: 39% limit passes, and victory near the Alamo * Factoid: Then and now * Quote: What's newsworthy? * Website: The NewStandard (1) SUGGESTED ACTIONS As mentioned in a previous alert, the cable company RCN has recently defaulted on a $215,000 payment to Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV), Chicago's public access cable television network. Organizing is underway to help CAN TV win this crucial funding fight. The next chapter in the fight will be written at the next meeting of the Chicago Cable Commission. The meeting will be held Tuesday, February 10, 11am-12pm, in the basement of the Harold Washington Library Center in downtown Chicago. The meeting is open to the public, and we encourage you to attend. For more details about the meeting, and how you can help in other ways, please visit http://www.cantv.org/rcn or download: http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/pdffiles/CANTV_flyer_2004-02-10.pdf Plus, there's a campaign to bring Democracy Now on WBEZ, Chicago's main NPR affiliate. To learn more, and to act, please visit: http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/news.php?id=139 And remember to take part in the campaign about WTTW, Channel 11: http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/index.php?link=rapid_response (2) WHAT'S HAPPENED LAST MONTH WITH CMA? As part of its public education forum series, Chicago Media Action organized a January 18 forum about the life and work of Martin Luther King at the Chicago Temple. Nearly 200 people attended the forum (it rivaled the record we set with our Sept. 11 forum). CMA presented the film "At the River I Stand"--a documentary about Reverend King, which was introduced at the forum by Katie Jordan of the Coalition of Labor Union Women. That was followed by a portion of a speech that King gave in 1967 explaining why he opposed the war in Vietnam. Then came commentary by the ever-excellent Salim Muwakkil and Cliff Kelley, along with an audience sing-along of Stevie Wonder's song "Happy Birthday". (3) WHAT'S HAPPENING IN MEDIA POLITICS? * Unfortunately, the 39% television ownership cap is now law. The law--whose number was intended to prevent Viacom (CBS) and NewsCorp (Fox) from having to divest some of their holdings--was stalled in mid-January in the Senate, but the opposition were able to ram the rule through nevertheless. For now. But a number of other legislative actions are waiting to come to the plate, and further action on this front will continue. * On January 28, 2004, the FCC held a localism hearing in San Antonio, Texas. The fear was that this hearing would be a repeat of Charlotte, North Carolina, which was stacked in favor of the corporate media. It didn't help that San Antonio is home to the headquarters of Clear Channel Communications. But activists nevertheless made their presence felt--big time. Heard were demands of reduced concentration and increased localism, all but drowning out the corporate flacks who were paid to attend. To learn more about this victory, please visit: http://www.mediareform.net/townmeetings/ (4) MEDIA FACTOID OF THE MONTH To quote from Ben Compaine in the January 2004 issue of Reason magazine: "Right now, the 50 largest media companies account for little more of total U.S. media revenue than they did in 1986." (5) MEDIA QUOTE OF THE MONTH "This is one story they're not gonna cover. Of course, if the network doesn't cover it, it must not be important, so why worry about it, right?" -- Albert Brooks, in the film Broadcast News, as he watches layoffs of fellow employees on the news show he works for (6) THIS MONTH'S WEBSITE http://newstandardnews.net The NewStandard is an independent, noncommercial, hard-hitting news resource, coming to us from Syracuse, New York. The NewStandard is brought to you by many of the same people who worked on ZNet. (7) MORE ANNOUNCEMENTS Chicago Media Action will be co-presenting a screening with Chicago Filmmakers of "Al-Jazeera Exclusive", a 60-minute documentary about the Qatar-based satellite television station in the time up to and during the 2003 War in Iraq. The film will be presented Sunday, February 15, at 7pm, at Chicago Filmmakers, 5243 N. Clark. For more information about the film, please visit: http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/news.php?id=144 The next CMA meeting will be on Tuesday, February 10, at 6:30pm, at 3411 W. Diversey (corner of Diversey and Kimball, near the Logan Square stop on the CTA Blue Line). All are invited. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** This is an email from Chicago Media Action, a Chicago activist group devoted to media issues. Chicago Media Action, P.O. Box 14140, Chicago IL 60614-0140 Call toll-free: 1-866-260-7198 Web: www.chicagomediaaction.org email: cma@chicagomediaaction.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, simply send an email requesting removal to mailinglist@chicagomediaaction.org