In an exhaustive feature this month, the Amherst Alliance’s Don Schellhardt not only breaks down the situation in Congress on the prospects for media reform, but whomps you with charts detailing the latest Senate vote, including a symbol-laden synopsis of each vote-caster’s current political situation. It is a huge mass of information, with a grassroots lobbying tips for your own use sprinkled through.
Category: Media Policy
Mikey Powell Floats Trial Balloon on Departure
First came the rumor, then the call from a member of the “business press” – now FCC Chairman Mikey Powell himself appears to be floating the notion of stepping aside. In Sunday’s business section (naturally) of the New York Times, Powell got to bitch about his job: “I have a tired family, tired children and a tired spouse. Candidly, I once said I would be in this job for three years and then leave. That was three years ago.”
The entire article is quite long but worth a read. The basic synopsis is that he’s a nice guy who is politically ham-handed. It’s not that he’s a bad regulator; he’s just not good at greasing the political wheels of D.C. with enough finesse. It’s analogous to praising a thief for his line of work but lamenting the time he gets caught.
There are, however, a few doozies which deserve highlight: Continue reading “Mikey Powell Floats Trial Balloon on Departure”
Courts, Congress Move on FCC Media Rules
As was somewhat expected, the Senate approved a Resolution of Disapproval yesterday which would force the FCC to redo its media ownership rulemaking. I’m with Mediageek on the relative importance of this. More interesting was the Third Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to retain jurisdiction over the spate of suits seeking to reverse the FCC’s decision.
Prometheus and the Media Access Project are duly pleased with the decision, and rightly so – when Mikey Powell waves his hands and says “don’t blame me, blame Congress and the courts for making me do it,” he speaks partial truth. Continue reading “Courts, Congress Move on FCC Media Rules”
BusinessWeek Wants Mikey Powell's Head on a Stick
As he stews in his own political juice, with Congress breathing down his neck, FCC Chairman Mikey Powell can use all the friends he can get. One would assume those friends would include the business/finance community, seeing as how Powell’s a fervent acolyte for their religion.
Think again: BusinessWeek magazine published this piece online yesterday, which is a pretty straightforward indictment of Powell, ending with,
“Powell refused to make a public case for the merits of his proposal. Then, he skewed the data to try to fool people. Plenty of other telecommunications policy experts have the political skills to handle the FCC job less contentiously than Powell. He should leave, before he’s shown the door.” Continue reading “BusinessWeek Wants Mikey Powell's Head on a Stick”
Last-Minute Court Action Halts Media Ownership Rule Changes
Everybody owes a round of thanks and praise to the Prometheus Radio Project, who filed an emergency petition to stop the implementation of the FCC’s media ownership rule changes, which were scheduled to go into effect tomorrow. After a two-hour hearing in Philadelphia today a three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals granted the stay, suspending all rule changes until Prometheus’ case gets a proper hearing on its merits.
In a 
three-page decision, after deferring a chance to predict the success of Prometheus’ challenge to the media ownership rules, the court agreed that the challenge deserved full consideration before the rule changes were implemented, especially “given the magnitude of this matter and the public’s interest in reaching the proper resolution.” Continue reading “Last-Minute Court Action Halts Media Ownership Rule Changes”
August Amendment One: Capitalizing Media Reform
Like it or not, to run with the big dogs in Congress it takes funds. Money, moolah, dinero, cash, the stuff everyone likes but others would rather not think about. Don Schellhardt gives a glimpse of the hard reality: even the cost of postage is out of most of our means individually, if one were to go into lobbying full-time. People also need to be paid for spending time on the Hill.
In completely unrelated news, the latest addition to Truthful Translations of Political Speech deserves special mention. Tom Compagnoni perfectly beat-matches the Prime Ministers of Great Britain and Australia with G.W. Bush in
WMD – American Justice (MP3, 1.7 MB). This is, amazingly, just Track One of a forthcoming album’s worth.
Partial Hiatus Ahoy & Miscellaneous Notes
Look for more sporadic news updates this month as I hunker down and pound out major portions of my master’s thesis. Regular refreshes (like the Schnazz) will continue, and news updates will occur if the story’s is big or unique, both of which could happen considering the FCC’s official implementation of its media ownership rule revisions takes place on September 4.
All of the coordinated grassroots media reform e-mail and call-in campaigns have worked so well to date that a big petition push is now on, and a national conference on media reform is slated for November 7-9 here in Madison. The Amherst Alliance has also ginned up 
a double-sided flyer for “LPFM Summer,” which is starting to hit full stride. Continue reading “Partial Hiatus Ahoy & Miscellaneous Notes”
Latest Amendment One: "LPFM Summer"
Don Schellhardt’s newest column is about a grassroots lobbying effort taking place over the next couple of months while Congress takes a summer break: call your Senators and Representatives and bug them at home about media reform.
The goal is twofold: build momentum for rollback of the FCC’s June media ownership rule changes and convince Congress to restore the FCC’s LPFM service to its original parameters.
Since the political conditions are ripe for success on both fronts, the timing for such a campaign couldn’t be better.
Long-Overdue LPFM Interference Report Complete: No Third-Adjacent Channel Protections Necessary
When Congress gutted the low power FM service enacted by the FCC in 2000, it reduced the number of available LPFM frequencies around the country by more than two-thirds by implementing “third-adjacent channel spacing protections.” This forced LPFM stations to find a clear frequency with at least three channels separating it from existing local stations, which in urban areas is all but impossible. This single fact alone cut the number of potential LPFM stations from thousands to a few hundred at best, with most of those located in rural or suburban areas.
The passage of the “Radio Broadcasting Preservation Act,” however, did contain one caveat: the FCC was mandated to conduct an interference study to make sure the third-adjacent channel protections were necessary. The study was to be completed by February 21, 2001. It was actually finished in March, 2003, by the MITRE Corporation, who subcontracted the field testing of temporary LPFM stations in seven communities around the country. Continue reading “Long-Overdue LPFM Interference Report Complete: No Third-Adjacent Channel Protections Necessary”
Free Press Launches TeleLobbying Campaign to Congress
The critters are back on the Hill after an Independence Day vacation and some of the items on the legislative slate are bills that would repeal part or all of the FCC’s media ownership rule changes.
The National Rifle Association mobilized hundreds of thousands of people to flood the FCC with post cards, so Free Press is automating the call-your-congresscritter process, providing everything but the call to make your opinion known on these bills, in three minutes or less.
From Bob McChesney’s call to action: Continue reading “Free Press Launches TeleLobbying Campaign to Congress”