CHICAGO MEDIA ACTION NEWSLETTER: May 6, 2007
http://www.chicagomediaaction.org

In this newsletter:

* An number of media actions, locally and nationally
* CMA members join public-interest lobbyists in Springfield
* FCC chair Kevin Martin gives a stand-up routine mocking media activists
* A novel about media concentration (written by a Chicagoan) debuts


(1) ACTIONS  /  ANNOUNCEMENTS (and there's a lot of them)

* The dismal rewrite of the state's telecom bill, House Bill 1500, is still up for grabs.  If passed, this bill would likely decimate public access programming across all of Illinois, and prove ruinous to consumers, local control, and community infrastructure.

Residents of Illinois: If you haven't yet spoken up about the matter to your representatives in the state legislature, please do so soon; time is running out.   You can do so from the website of the Keep Us Connected coalition:

http://www.keepusconnected.org

http://www.cantv.org/PDFs/Competition.pdf

* The U.S. government is trying to impose devastating rate hikes for both internet radio broadcasters and small-scale magazine publishers.  Activist campaigns have emerged to address both concerns (including an emergency bill introduced in Congress).  Learn more and get involved:

http://www.savenetradio.org/

http://www.saveourinternetradio.com/

http://action.freepress.net//campaign/postal

* If you live in the Illinois counties of Kendall, Will, or Dupage -- take note.  There are coalition efforts underway in those counties now to use a rare FCC opportunity in October 2007 to bring high-power noncommercial radio to those counties.  Others in predominantly rural communities elsewhere in the U.S. may also be able to use this opportunity as well.  Read more:

http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/news.php?id=536

http://www.radioforpeople.org


(2) WHAT'S NEW WITH CHICAGO MEDIA ACTION

On April 18, CMA joined dozens of representatives of the Keep Us Connected coalition on a bus trip organized by CAN-TV to Springfield, Illinois to lobby against AT&T's vile cable legislation HB 1500.  Go to www.keepusconnected.org for more information on HB 1500 and to take action.
 

(3) QUOTES OF THE MONTH

FCC chair Kevin Martin gave a standup routine at the annual dinner of the Federal Communications Bar Association, and proceeded to mock the media activist movement:

Talking about the FCC's answering machine, Martin said: "Hi, you've reached the FCC. If this is AT&T, please press one for our merger approval hotline. If you're calling from a Vonage phone, please hang up and dial from a Verizon phone."

Martin praised FCC commissioner [and media consolidation critic] Michael Copps as having done an "extraordinary job of rallying his troops on the media ownership review," while flashing a picture of Copps as Elvis for his appearance at a Nashville public hearing on media ownership, then as The Pope addressing "the faithful in Columbus," the site of a town meeting on ownership.  Then came the kicker: "Can you imagine the crowd he'd get if the FCC were actually going to do anything on media ownership?"

Read more and weep:

http://www.diymedia.net/archive/0407.htm#041907

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/blog/1380000138/post/780008278.html


(4) BOOK OF THE MONTH

Longtime Chicago radio personality Rick Kaempfer has published a novel about media consolidation, entitled "$everance", due for release in early May 2007.  More details:

http://www.encpress.com/SEV.html

http://www.rickkaempfer.com/rick_kaempfer_severance.asp

A short promotional film on is available on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9UqFW5cu1U


(5) WEB SITE OF THE MONTH

Make Internet TV: You Make the News
This guide has step-by-step instructions for shooting, editing, and publishing online videos that can be watched and subscribed to by millions of people.
http://makeinternettv.org/

Make Internet TV is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, supporting citizen journalism and the building of community through the use of digital media at http://www.kcnn.org/


*** *** *** *** *** *** ***

This is an email from Chicago Media Action, a Chicago activist
group devoted to media issues.

This newsletter is edited by Scott Sanders and Mitchell Szczepanczyk.

Chicago Media Action, P.O. Box 14140, Chicago IL 60614-0140
Call toll-free: 1-866-260-7198
Web: http://www.chicagomediaaction.org
E-mail: cma@chicagomediaaction.org

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