As a follow-up to my previous post, let me share some excerpts from yesterday's lead editorial in The Seattle Times (one of the few independent newspapers left in the country, although one could argue that it's not a very good paper):
"The FCC has made it easier for big owners to buy up TV stations, radio stations, and newspapers like so many yachts...The commission asked large media chains what they wanted, and listened to them. It asked the American public what it wanted, received 750,000 responses, and ignored them. About 99.9% of the responses from the public were opposed to what the FCC did. It's time for America to ignore the FCC.
It's time, specifically, for Congress to declare that the FCC was wrong and the American people right, and to enact into law the restrictions the FCC has just ignominously diluted.
At stake is American democracy. That is because a democratic republic requires citizens who can find many points of view. And that is what is being lost here...
To this concern, FCC Chairman Michael Powell has been as uncaring as a stone god. He and his fellow believers unleashed a new round of mergers and acquisitions that will leach the industry of its remaining local flavor. What we shall get is raunch, blather, and blandness. The alternative is to fight back --- in the courts, in Congress, and, most of all, in a hurry."
If you agree with this editorial, as I do, then it's time to E-mail your elected representatives in the House and Senate and call for a Congressional vote on the new FCC ruling.
"The FCC has made it easier for big owners to buy up TV stations, radio stations, and newspapers like so many yachts...The commission asked large media chains what they wanted, and listened to them. It asked the American public what it wanted, received 750,000 responses, and ignored them. About 99.9% of the responses from the public were opposed to what the FCC did. It's time for America to ignore the FCC.
It's time, specifically, for Congress to declare that the FCC was wrong and the American people right, and to enact into law the restrictions the FCC has just ignominously diluted.
At stake is American democracy. That is because a democratic republic requires citizens who can find many points of view. And that is what is being lost here...
To this concern, FCC Chairman Michael Powell has been as uncaring as a stone god. He and his fellow believers unleashed a new round of mergers and acquisitions that will leach the industry of its remaining local flavor. What we shall get is raunch, blather, and blandness. The alternative is to fight back --- in the courts, in Congress, and, most of all, in a hurry."
If you agree with this editorial, as I do, then it's time to E-mail your elected representatives in the House and Senate and call for a Congressional vote on the new FCC ruling.