CHICAGO MEDIA ACTION NEWSLETTER: April 3, 2005 http://www.chicagomediaaction.org In this month's newsletter: * CMA against the Chicago FOX TV affiliate * Upcoming media organizers' conferences in Urbana and St. Louis * Musical chairs at the FCC: Powell and Ferree out, Martin might be in * Tribune gets slapped again in court for breaking media ownership rules * Six Degrees of Conrad Black (1) ANNOUNCEMENTS * All of the television broadcasters in Illinois have their broadcast licenses up for renewal in 2005. Chicago Media Action is calling for input from viewers of Illinois TV broadcast stations (preferably in the Chicago area) about stations which are not keeping to their mandate for serving the public. If you have any suggestions or specific concerns which might constitute grounds for a license challenge, contact CMA (respond to this email, or call 1-866-260-7198). We may help challenge one or more Illinois TV stations with petitions to deny later in 2005. * The next CMA meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, April 12, at 6:30pm, at 3411 W. Diversey, in Chicago (at the intersection of Milwaukee, Diversey, and Kimball, near the Logan Square blue line stop). We encourage all those interested -- especially women and people of color, along with others who are frequently underserved by our media -- to attend. * The National Conference on Media Reform will take place May 13-15, 2005 in St. Louis. Featured guests include Al Franken, Amy Goodman, Naomi Klein, Robert Greenwald, George Lakoff, Bill Fletcher, Robert McChesney, and much more. CMA has been selected by Free Press to run a special action clinic, and CMA will also participate in the conference's Media Democracy Showcase. Learn more about the conference and apply here: http://www.freepress.net/conference * The Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is hosting a conference entitled "Can Freedom of the Press Survive Media Consolidation" on May 10-11, 2005. Learn more: http://www.comm.uiuc.edu/icr/about/initiatives/iimpr.html (2) WHAT'S NEW WITH CMA? * As part of the week of preparatory protests leading up to the main antiwar protests in Chicago on March 19, 2005, CMA organizers distributed flyers in front of the Chicago Fox News affiliate (205 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago) on Monday, March 14, 2005. Read more: http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/index.php?link=fox_protest_2005-03-14 (3) WHAT'S NEW IN MEDIA POLITICS? * FCC chair Michael Powell and FCC Media Bureau Chief Ken Ferree are both out of the FCC -- Powell will be joining a think tank, Ferree will be the Chief Operating Officer for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. To replace Powell, the Bush administration has tapped Republican FCC commissioner Kevin Martin, whom CMA organizers met first-hand after a June 10, 2003 protest. * The city of Chicago has expressed serious interest in considering a citywide Wi-Fi network, and in so doing has already voted to reserve its right for community internet in the city, regardless of what might transpire in Springfield about the Illinois Telecommunications Act. Read more: http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/53926/index.php http://www.freepress.net/news/7118 http://slashdot.org/articles/05/03/09/2130212.shtml?tid=193&tid=1 The fight for the future of Illinois telecommunications is still being fought. Citizens Utility Board has assembled an online action form on this issue. Take action today: http://www.cubaction.org/showalert.asp?aaid=1099 * The Tribune company loses a court case in Connecticut as a judge orders a divestment of a TV station amid a continuing blatant violation of cross-ownership in Connecticut. The Tribune vows to fight the ruling rather than obey the law. Read more: http://tinyurl.com/6n5j2 http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/news.php?id=292 * Two Supreme Court cases which could shape the future of the Internet were heard on March 29. Learn more and read analysis of the court arguments: http://www.freepress.net/content/grokster_brandx http://www.wetmachine.com/index.php/item/255 * The Chicago International Documentary Film Festival takes place from April 1 through April 10, 2005. Films of media-related interest include: + The Power of Nightmares -- a three-part BBC documentary about the intertwined stories of neoconservatives and radical Islamists: http://www.chicagodocfestival.org/power_of_nightmares.htm + Hitler's Hit Parade -- about popular culture and the fascist state: http://www.chicagodocfestival.org/hitlers_hitparade.htm (4) FACT OF THE MONTH According to former WTTW host John Callaway, Chicago TV host Jim Tillmon holds the distinction of being the African-American to have most recently hosted a regular news/local public affairs series made by Chicago public TV broadcaster WTTW Channel 11. Tillmon last served as a WTTW host in the early 1970s. (5) QUOTE OF THE MONTH "Maybe there's a lesson in that, that they [Congress] ought to step in and say, 'Okay, here are the rules'. If it doesn~Rt happen, the reality of this will continue to percolate along, it will be at the agency, we~Rll be back in court." -- Ken Ferree, who had been a prominent advocate of the controversial 2003 FCC media ownership rules changes (6) RECOMMENDED WEBSITE http://www.namebase.org/cgi-bin/nb06?_BLACK_CONRAD_M This webpage is a Java-enabled graphic which shows the degrees of separation between Canadian media mogul Conrad Black and other prominent well-connected politicos. More about Black: Richard Perle, prominent neoconservative warhawk who is a board member of Hollinger International (which owns the Chicago Sun-Times) was warned on March 24, 2005, that he may soon come under an official Securities and Exchange Commission investigation due to his ties to Conrad Black. Black, himself the subject of a $1.25 billion racketeering lawsuit filed by Hollinger, has been denied a reorganization by a Canadian court, and has been sued again, this time for $525 million. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** This is an email 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: 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