Milwaukee Steps up to the Mic
 |
Tomorrow, Milwaukee residents will get a say in the debate over media consolidation during a “Town Meeting on the Future of Media” featuring Federal Communications Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps.
This town meeting finds Commissioner Copps returning to the city where he grew up. In a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel op-ed, Copps remembers the Milwaukee media of his youth as “vibrant” with “locally originated programs, hometown talent, good coverage of public issues and political campaigns and competing newspapers with wildly different editorial bents.”
At tomorrow’s public meeting, the two commissioners will hear “how much of that vibrancy remains,” as the Milwaukee community testifies on how well media are serving local needs and interests. Comments at tomorrow’s town meeting will be entered into the public record and submitted to the FCC and Wisconsin’s congressional delegation.
It looks like FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin will miss yet another public forum on media ownership. Since launching the latest round of changes to media ownership rules, Martin has been conspicuously absent from town meetings in Asheville and Los Angeles — and has yet to announce any dates for the six public hearings he pledged to hold.
The Milwaukee event is being organized by Free Press in partnership with local groups. It’s the fourth such meeting to be organized by Free Press in the past 12 months.
Click here to learn more about the Milwaukee hearing.
