CMA Media Democracy Day Actions outside Chicago CBS Studios

Posted by Bob - October 20, 2004 (entry 242)

CMA flyered the public outside Viacom again on October 18, Media Democracy Day 2004.

Nine of us displayed issue signs and flyered another 500 people. Three of us were from the CMA board, three from Trinity Baptist, 2 from our emailings, and 1 was a sidewalk recruit. Two more board members and two more people from mailings were unable to come.

We had long and short discussions about Viacom-CBS censoring itself and canceling a major '60 Minutes' expose on fundamental war deception. Our handout also had a side publicizing the imminent CMA Oct. 24 'Pre-election Town Hall Meeting on the War in Iraq'

On the 18th we demanded entry to examine documents in Viacom's FCC-required public files (on ownership, public service intentions, license challenges, mail and email from the public, equal employment statistics, etc.). Of the 7 citizens asking to see the files, Viacom first said (illegally) that only 1 person could come in and that the rest of us would have to wait outside in the cold. Finally, 3 of us went in separately to the 3 stations' files, WBBM-TV, WBBM-AM, WBBM-FM. (Next time a better preparation caucus will anticipate stations' claiming they can limit public access.)

Viacom International Inc. owns CBS which owns CBS News, '60 Minutes', and WBBM-TV-2. Viacom also owns Infinity Broadcasting Inc. which owns WBBM-AM-780, WBBM-FM-92.6, and 5 more Chicago radio stations (as well as outdoor advertising and more).

To give people a good summary of the outrageous Viacom political self-censorship issue, refer them to www.fair.org/activism/cbs-niger.html.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed on this website are those of the individual members of Chicago Media Action who authored them, and not necessarily those of the entire membership of Chicago Media Action, nor of Chicago Media Action as an organization.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.