CHICAGO MEDIA ACTION NEWSLETTER: September 5, 2007 http://www.chicagomediaaction.org In this month's newsletter... * Venue and times (finally) set for the FCC's public hearing on media ownership and diversity in Chicago on 9/20/07 * Get a low or full power non-commercial radio license * Chicago unplugs WiFi plan * Comprehensive public school anti-commercialism bill in Massachusetts legislature * Survey of community media around the world (1) ANNOUNCEMENTS AND SUGGESTED ACTIONS *** Federal Communications Commission public hearing in Chicago 9/20/07 Maximedia, Minitruth. In fifteen days, Chicago will be hosting the fifth of six official FCC public hearings on media ownership and diversity. The hearing will feature panel presentations from yet-to-be-named local community leaders and broadcasters along with ample opportunities for public comment. Stop Big Media. DATE: Thursday September 20, 2007 PLACE: Rainbow PUSH Coalition - 930 East 50th Street (corner of South Drexel) Chicago TIME: 4 – 11 PM Check your email and the CMA web site for updates. For more, go to: http://stopbigmedia.com/=chicago For local updates, radio and other promotions, coverage, downloadable hearing flyers in English and Spanish, and more, go to: www.chicagomediaaction.org Who Owns the Media in Chicago? Get the facts: http://www.freepress.net/docs/who_owns_chicago.pdf * Want a new, full power, non-commercial radio station in the McHenry County area or the SW Chicago burbs? Want to help build a new progressive network for the area? Better hurry then! You've only got until the FCC's October filing window. Limited time offer!!! For more information: Chicago radio coverage map (pdf): http://tinyurl.com/2hn4p7 http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/news.php?id=536 Join this listserv: http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=mwmedia http://prometheusradio.org/full_power http://www.radioforpeople.org/ * This year Congress could put more low power, noncommercial FM radio stations in cities and suburbs across America. You can help by telling Congress to pass the Local Community Radio Act. Learn More: http://www.freepress.net/lpfm * Mark your calendar: the next National Conference for Media Reform will be held in Minneapolis, June 6-8, 2008. Join fellow activists, media makers, educators, journalists, policymakers and concerned citizens in calling for real and lasting changes to our nation's media system. 2008 provides us with a great opportunity to put the issue of media reform in the national spotlight. http://www.freepress.net/conference/ (2) WHAT'S NEW IN MEDIA POLITICS? * NBC's promise to the FCC was to grow the Telemundo TV network and compete with Univision to raise the quality of programming and service to the community. But instead, we are seeing massive job cuts, the elimination of local news operations, and more. The network is one of only two where Latinos can get their news and stay informed as to what is happening in their communities and countries. The Latino community is invited to voice its concern at the upcoming FCC hearing on the 20th. Read more: www.hispanicbusiness.com/news/news_print.asp?id=48628 www.redorbit.com/modules/news/tools.php?tool=print&id=705234 http://tinyurl.com/2yq287 www.nahj.org/nahjnews/articles/2006/october/telemundo.shtml * Chicago unplugs WiFi plan; further delay in getting the Internet to the people least able to afford it. http://tinyurl.com/2fc359 http://www.suntimes.com/technology/531339,wifi082807.article * Sun-Times holder seeks sale, board resignations. Boston Globe, August 31, 2007 http://tinyurl.com/2rzcvk (3) PUBLIC MEDIA NEWS * An awesome, comprehensive public school anti-commercialism bill is wending its way through the Massachusetts legislature. It includes a ban on ads displayed on any "electronic equipment" in public schools. Can we get one of these bills in Illinois? http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/hb489/hb489.pdf * "Make Public Media Ours, Not Theirs, Permanently" "...after the last broadcast of “the Star Spangled Banner”, test pattern, and the static that will then follow, after the very last decrepit broadcast receiver is turned off for the very last time, we will continue to require portals to a neutral internet to access an expansive, commerce-free, public media commons." Read the rest of this essay by CMA's Scott Sanders in the quite good September issue of Z Magazine, along with writings by Edward Herman, Noam Chomsky, Michael Albert and Phyllis Bennis, or you can read it here if you absolutely must: http://themediastructurefailed.zoomshare.com/files/z_sept_07.pdf Z Magazine, founded in 1988, is an independent monthly of critical thinking on political, cultural, social, and economic life in the U.S., available in print and online. http://zmagsite.zmag.org/ * Fearing Fines, PBS to Offer Bleeped Version Of 'The War' Paul Farhi, Washington Post Staff Writer, August 31, 2007 http://tinyurl.com/2ll2jd (4) FACT OF THE MONTH Older (BBC) viewers in particular have lost faith, with 67% of over-65s saying that they now trust the BBC less than they used to. (Source: ICM Research, which interviewed a random sample of 1,005 adults by telephone on July 20-22.) Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,2136731,00.html (5) QUOTE OF THE MONTH "I want more internet. I want every one of the 6 billion people on the planet to be able to connect to the internet - I think they will add things to it that will really benefit us all." -- Vint Cerf, one of the handful of researchers who helped build the internet in the 1970s, talking at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival. Cerf answers public questions: http://video.ft.com/specials/?clipid=1359_FT0385 (6) WEBSITE OF THE MONTH Waves of Change The current project of Deep Dish is a survey of community media around the world: radio, television, theater, murals, comics and the internet as forms of resistance to homogenous commercial culture. http://www.deepdishwavesofchange.blogspot.com/ *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 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 To unsubscribe from this mailing list, simply send an email requesting removal to mailinglist@chicagomediaaction.org