CHICAGO MEDIA ACTION EMERGENCY ALERT, October 2, 2003
http://www.chicagomediaaction.org

We are forwarding the following alert from Free Press, which is calling 
for 5000 phone calls to Dennis Hastert's office by Friday.  

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The campaign to block the FCC's disastrous loosening of media ownership 
rules has reached a make-or-break moment in Congress.

On September 16, we won an historic victory. In response to 3 million 
Americans like you who contacted the FCC and Congress demanding a 
rollback, the Senate voted by an overwhelming bipartisan margin -- 
55 to 40 -- to strike down the entire package of FCC media ownership 
rule changes through a "resolution of disapproval."

However, the Speaker of the House -- Rep. Dennis Hastert -- is rejecting 
the democratic process. Hastert says he has no plans to allow a vote on 
the resolution in the House, and House leadership has called it "dead on
arrival." They won't permit a vote because they don't want it to pass.

Your phone call is the only way to force a vote. We need you to make two 
calls.

First, call the Speaker of the House at 202-225-0600. We recommend you 
say: "I am calling to urge the Speaker to allow a vote on the resolution 
of disapproval regarding the FCC's media ownership rule changes. By not
allowing a vote, the Speaker is ignoring the will of the public, the 
courts and his own colleagues. Thank you for your time."

Next step.... a letter is circulating amongst Representatives calling 
on the Speaker to allow the vote to reach the House floor. Over 100 have 
already signed on. If your Representative has not signed the letter, call
and urge him or her to do so.

Visit http://www.mediareform.net/callcongress to find out if your 
Representative already has, and follow the directions. Again, your call 
will make the difference.

Please make your calls now, and FORWARD THIS MESSAGE to everyone you 
know. For more information on the FCC and media reform efforts, visit 
http://www.mediareform.net.

Josh, Vidya, Russ, Ben, Yolanda
Free Press Team

PS: If you haven't done so already, be sure to also sign the online 
petition to roll back the FCC rules: go to
http://www.mediareform.net/petition.php .

PPS: This Saturday, October 4 at 10pm EST our friends at Free Speech TV 
will premiere via DISH Network Channel 9415 and via the web their 
week-long "Mobile Eyes on Media and Democracy." Tune in for interviews,
documentaries, and special event coverage tracking the latest 
developments in media justice, media reform and media literacy movements 
across the country. For more information, visit http://www.freespeech.org. 

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

This is an emergency alert 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

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