CHICAGO MEDIA ACTION NEWSLETTER: March 7, 2005 http://www.chicagomediaaction.org In this month's newsletter: * March events against war and war-mongering media * Fighting the Illinois Telecom Wars: Good news and bad news * Radio updates: WZRD gets back on the air; new legislation in Congress * Ads on a San Francisco public television station * The FCC, flypaper, and orphans (1) ANNOUNCEMENTS * CMA will be co-sponsoring the March 19, 2005 antiwar march and rally, on the second anniversary of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Learn more: http://www.chicagoactions.org/m19/ * As part of the week of protests leading up to March 19, CMA organizers will be distributing flyers in front of the Chicago Fox News affiliate (205 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago) on Monday, March 14, from 4:30pm to 6:30pm. * 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, March 8, at 6:30pm, at 3411 W. Diversey, in Chicago (at the intersection of Milwaukee, Diversey, and Kimball, near the Logan Square blue line stop). (2) WHAT'S NEW WITH CMA? * CMA was one of sixty local and national organizations to join a coalition in support of community internet efforts. Read more: http://www.freepress.net/news/release.php?id=49 * Aside from organizing preparations for the actions listed above, CMA appeared in an article in the Columbia Chronicle (the newspaper of Columbia College in Chicago): http://www.ccchronicle.com/paper/citybeat.php?id=982 (3) WHAT'S NEW IN MEDIA POLITICS? * The Illinois Telecom Wars are heating up. Good news: One bill (Senate Bill 499) suggested in the Illinois General Assembly which would have killed community internet efforts outright has been removed from consideration. Bad news: On March 3, Senate Bill 1700 was introduced -- a major bill which would gut a lot of consumer protections and public interest obligations for internet providers in Illinois. Read more and get involved: http://www.saschameinrath.com/node/108 http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/newsletter/cma_alert_2005-02-22.txt http://www.getillinoisonline.org * WZRD, the community-oriented radio station of Northeastern Illinois University, fell off the air for a number of weeks due to licensing problems. Fortunately, WZRD won temporary authorization from the FCC to broadcast for six months, during which time the station can work to restore its broaddcast license. * Senator John McCain has introduced legislation to expand the number of Low Power FM stations in America; this follows up on efforts in 2004. http://www.freepress.net/lpfm/ * There's a growing scandal afoot involving religious broadcasters greedily grabbing low-power radio repeaters: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0228-06.htm * Community broadcasting lost one of its shining stars in February 2005. Dirk Koning -- the founder of the Grand Rapids Community Media Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and an instrumental organizer of community media efforts worldwide -- passed away during a medical procedure. Read tributes: http://www.grcmc.org/dirkkoning/ * A couple of things pertaining to media and children. Our media activist friends at Commercial Alert wrote a great article for Alternet entitled "Bush and Kids: Standing Small" concerning the negative effects of advertising on children: http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/21369/ Want Congress to crack down on junk food marketing to kids? Send emails to your members of Congress in support of the Parent's Bill of Rights: http://www.commercialalert.org/pbor.pdf To take action, visit: http://actionstudio.org/?go=1201 * Writer Ann Coulter makes outrageous racist comments about journalist Helen Thomas. Read more and take action: http://capwiz.com/adc/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=7122486 * The National Conference on Media Reform will take place May 13-15, 2005 in St. Louis. Travel scholarships and registration fee waivers for the conference are still available, and the deadline for applying has been extended to March 15. People of color, women, youth, grassroots activists, media producers, and others often under-represented in media policy work are especially encouraged to apply. Learn more and apply here: http://www.freepress.net/conference (4) FACT OF THE MONTH San Francisco public TV station KMPT-TV, controlled by the Minority Television Project, was given a Notice of Apparent Liability (NAL) on February 9, 2005 by the FCC for airing three Chinese-language advertisements a total of 98 times in early 2002. The NAL states "We will not hesitate to take even stronger enforcement action against noncommercial educational licensees that engage in similarly serious violations of our underwriting requirements." The MPT in the station's call letters stand for "Minority Television Project". Source: Broadcasting and Cable, February 7, 2005 (5) QUOTE OF THE MONTH "TV programs are the flypaper to get people to watch the ads." -- former FCC commissioner Nicholas Johnson (www.nicholasjohnson.org) (6) RECOMMENDED WEBSITE http://www.orphanworks.org/ For designers, academics, artists, musicians, and filmmakers, using copyrighted works can be a huge headache, particularly if the copyright holder can't be found or can't be determined. This website is a campaign to solicit input to the US Copyright office on such "orphan works". *** *** *** *** *** *** *** 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