Coalition Mobilizes for FCC Hearings in L.A.

After much speculation, the FCC has announced that the Oct. 3 LA hearing will occur at two venues with an afternoon and an evening session — and that there will be an opportunity for public testimony at both sessions.

Part One

1:00p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
University of Southern California (USC)
Los Angeles, CA

Part Two

6:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
El Segundo High School
El Segundo, CA

For more information about these two hearings, and for ways that you can help out, click here.

All five FCC Commissioners are expected to attend what may be the public’s last chance to speak out against Big Media before Martin moves to lift the last significant limits to runaway consolidation.

A broad-based coalition of local and national groups is urging their members to attend the hearings and testify about the impacts of media consolidation. They include the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, California NOW, CALPIRG, Free Press, Media Alliance, MoveOn.org Civic Action, National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians-CWA, National Hispanic Media Coalition, National Latino Media Council, Newspaper Guild-CWA, Prometheus Radio Project, local churches and many others.

Jean Thomson of Los Angeles puts the hearing into perspective:

“My family has totally given up watching the broadcast channels for news. Now the newspapers are consolidating for greater profits. With the large conglomerates taking over all outlets in the area, the news is no longer news — it is just the spin of the owner’s philosophy. We see the same information in the newspaper, television, radio — word for word. If we don’t speak up now, we will not longer have a chance to be heard.”

Click here to read the Coalition press release.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 27th, 2006 at 5:01 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.