"The night after I was sworn in, I waited for a visit from the angel of public interest. I waited all night, but she did not come…I still have had no divine awakening and no one has issued me my public interest crystal ball."—Michael Powell, Chairman of the FCC.
Inja Coates will be wearing wings and a halo on March 22 when she joins hundreds of other media activists who will be descending upon the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) headquarters in Washington, D.C. In Michael (son of Colin) Powell, activists believe they have found the perfect foil.
"Media democracy issues are coming into their own," said Coates, who is the director of Media Tank. "It’s an issue that’s beginning to resonate in the public mind. People see things like Enron and 9-11 happening and they realize they aren’t getting full information."
Coates is part of an ad-hoc coalition that has come together since January to organize the March 22 event. The event will include singers, speakers, and performances from Billionaires for More Media Mergers and Reverend Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping. Also, public interest "angels" like Coates will try to deliver a crystal ball to Powell.
"It’s hilarious," said Seeta Pena Gangadharan, a media policy analyst and protest organizer. "This is going to be a tremendous embarrassment of the FCC and Michael Powell."
Founded in 1934, the FCC is responsible for overseeing the usage of the publicly held radio and television broadcast spectrums. The commission relaxed ownership restri ctions during the 1980s and eliminated the Fairness Doctrine which required equal time for opposing points of view. In 1996, the ownership cap for radio stations was lifted and one company (Clear Channel) now owns more than 1,200 stations. Powell became FCC Chairman in 2001 and quickly denounced the Commission’s ownership regulations as "the oppressor" and stated that "the market is my religion." Under his chairmanship, the FCC has moved to rescind several important regulations including a cross-ownership ban that prohibits companies from owning a television station and a newspaper in the same city.
People received another jolt February 19 when a federal appeals court ruling weakened a pair of key regulations that limit the number of broadcast TV stations a single company can own and that forbid a company from owning both a cable channel and a broadcast station in the same city. Ruling on behalf of AOL Time Warner, Viacom, News Corp and General Electric/NBC, the court declared the limits "arbitrary and capricious" and not in the public’s best interest. Financial analysts and media activists agree on one thing: that the cumulative rule changes could spawn unprecedented media mergers.
"It’s galvanized a lot of people," said Pete Tridish of the Prometheus Radio Project. "I doubt the court realized how much people would dislike it."
The March 22 protest has received numerous endorsements and organizers hope it will help jumpstart the media democracy movement in the United States. Plans are already afoot for actions at the September 12-14 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) meeting in Seattle. And, U.S. activists are working with international groups to celebrate Media Democracy Day on October 19 with a global day of action.
"I think more and more activists are going to come to the conclusion that there are so many injustices in the world in part due to the fact that our public forums are privately controlled," Tridish said. "It leads to an uneducated public and a generally depraved culture where the only good is selling sneakers and toothpaste."
For more information, see www.americanresurrection.com, www.infoliberationfront.org
