CauseNET for February 11, 2004

ALERT: FCC Battle Continues in Philadelphia and Washington

 

Today in Philadelphia and Washington, DC, the FCC will face a grilling on two fronts: In court and in Congress.  In Philadelphia, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in the case of Prometheus vs. FCC, where our allies against media consolidation will argue for a repeal of all the new media ownership rules approved by the FCC.

 

In Washington, a House subcommittee will hold a hearing on indecency on the airwaves.  Scheduled to speak are all the FCC Commissioners as well as Viacom chief Mel Karmazin and NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue.

 

Today’s big media seems more interested in profits than the public good.  Whatever your view of what happened during the Super Bowl halftime, that episode has brought to light the impacts of huge corporations consuming more and more of the public’s airwaves.  While important national issues are ignored on mainstream TV, media conglomerates chase profits with little concern for the American people.

 

There is a bill that is gaining momentum in the House: it is House Joint Resolution 72 and it rolls back ALL the new FCC regulations.  A letter circulated to Speaker Dennis Hastert already has over 200 signatures urging the leadership to bring this bill to the floor for consideration.  This is the companion bill to Senate Joint Resolution 17, which was an important victory in the Senate last fall.

 

We need YOU to write your Congressperson today and ask them to support House Joint Resolution 72.  Click here to write your Representative:

http://causenet.commoncause.org/afr/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=5048056

 

Click here for our legislative update:

http://www.commoncause.org/action/action.cfm?artid=138&topicid=11

 

An update on the court case in Philadelphia:

http://www.mediaaccess.org/mediaownershipcase.html