Chicago public access facilitator CANTV organized a lobbying day bus trip to Springfield on Wednesday, April 18th. Over thirty people, mostly all access producers, participated in this day of action organized by CANTV director Barbara Popovich. Below are my reasonably accurate recollections of the conversations I had there that day with Illinois State Representative Lang and Illinois State Senator Silverstein and their secretaries about AT&T's anti-public access, anti-consumer telecommunications legislation aka HB 1500:

Illinois House

Lou Lang (D), a 20 year Illinois House veteran, is an Assistant House Majority Leader. I live in his district.

While waiting for Rep. Lang in his office:
(Sanders) "You know, I'm a real troublemaker on media issues."
(Lang's secretary) "Oh?"
(Sanders) "I have worked on media reform for many years. One of the groups I'm here for, Chicago Media Action, is connected to two FCC petitions to deny the license renewals of each tv station in the Chicago area, and, among other things, I'm the sole community organizer specifically connected to the only FCC commercialism fine against a major U.S. public tv station."
(Lang's secretary) "I'll let him know you're here. He's going up to the 3rd floor right after he comes back."

Later, upon spotting Rep. Lang on the third floor:
(Sanders) "Representative Lang. My name is Scott Sanders. I'm here with Chicago Media Action and CAN-TV to fight HB 1500. I'm a constituent. I live on "x" street in Skokie and I worked at the Skokie Public Library with "yz" for ten years, someone you know I think.
(Rep. Lang) "Yes I do know "yz"... I've been working on 1500 and almost nothing else for a long time. All these AT&T lobbyists keep talking about "competition" and "lower rates".
(Sanders) "So do you have a public position on the bill now?"
(Lang) "It's got problems. I couldn't support it unless it is fixed."
(Sanders) "You know, back in the eighties when cable was new here, we had a cable company in Evanston that was horrible, in every area of service. Without a competing provider, we pressured Cablevision's monthly basic subscription rate down to only four dollars for almost two years.
(Lang) "I do remember Cablevision. You should have my job."
(Sanders) "1500 is a solution in search of a problem. I don't see how a bill like that could ever be fixed."
(Lang) "It would take extraordinary changes for me to support it. It's just a money grab bill."
(Sanders) "OK."

Rep. Lang then gave a nice long on camera interview to CANTV.

I must respectfully decline Rep. Lang's offer that I take his job.


Illinois Senate

Next, it was off to Illinois Senator Ira Silverstein's office. Silverstein (D) is an Assistant Illinois Senate Majority Leader. I live in his district too:

(Silverstein's secretary) "The Senator has been hearing from people today who do not like HB1500 and he doesn't like the bill either. Wait right there. You'll only get a few moments with him as he walks by you."

I gave her my card. I couple minutes later, out popped Senator Silverstein.

(Silverstein) "I'm sorry but I'm very busy."

I handed him just the simple, one page summary of the whole issue. He paced, reading rapidly.

(Silverstein) "OK. You'll have to go now."

He seemed angry. At under a minute, my visit with Senator Silverstein was what you might call a quickie. The Illinois Senate has yet to schedule any official discussion of this legislation. If we keep up the pressure, particularly on the Illinois Senate, it may stay that way. Contact your Illinois Representatives and Senators. Tell them to Keep us Connected. Say no to ILHB1500!!!

I am guardedly optimistic that HB1500 will, with effort, fade away. That's not what is happening right now with similar bills, unfortunately, in a number of other states.

For more information: Save Access | Alliance for Community Media
Illinois Legislators Speak Out on HB 1500

Posted by Scott Sanders, Chicago Media Action
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