Archive for September, 2008
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 by Josh Stearns
Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Maxine Waters (D-Calif.)went to the floor of the House late last week to speak out on media consolidation. With the Congress about to adjourn before the elections and consumed with the financial crisis, Inslee and Waters acknowledged that the Resolution of Disapproval (H J. Res 79) may not get a floor vote> But they wanted to thank the public for speaking out so strongly on this issue.
Intense pressure from local citizens and public interest groups throughout 2007 forced the FCC to back down from their efforts to completely eliminate media ownership limits. But last December, the FCC voted to lift the longstanding cross-ownership rule that prevents one company from owning a daily newspaper and broadcast station in the same market. Though narrower than the rule change proposed by the FCC in 2003, the new rule includes massive loopholes that could let a few giant companies swallow up more local media and could put minority media owners out of business.
The public response to this controversial giveaway has been profound. More than 250,000 people wrote the Senate, which voted almost unanimously in May to overturn the FCC rule. With your help we will keep the pressure on the House as well. We have more than 50 co-sponsors on the House version of the resolution. This bill is an important opportunity to get our policymakers on the record on this important issue and build a foundation of opposition against media consolidation in the next Congress.
We are still pushing forward with lawsuits that would nullify the FCC rule change. And we’ll keep pushing for media ownership laws that protect localism and increase female and minority ownership. We’ll be watching carefully for any proposed mergers, such as the developing case in South Bend, Ind. (where one company is trying to push through a deal that would allow it to own four of the six commercial news outlets in the entire market).
Our allies in Congress say they’re committed to continuing this fight next year and acknowledged that your actions have helped to lay a strong foundation of support that will pay off in the future.
No Comments »
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008 by Megan Tady
One of the most damaging media consolidation deals in the country is quietly underway in Indiana’s fourth largest city – South Bend.
But local activists and Free Press are making noise, attempting to stop a single company, Schurz Communications, from swiping more than its fair share of media outlets — and setting a dangerous precedent for the rest of the country.
Currently, Schurz already owns the following media properties in South Bend:
• South Bend Tribune (the local daily newspaper)
• WSBT-TV (the local CBS affiliate)
• WSBT-AM (the only local news radio station)
• WNSN FM
Schurz wants to purchase these TV stations in South Bend from Weigel Broadcasting:
• WBND-LP (the local ABC affiliate)
• WCWW-LP (the local CW affiliate)
• WMYS-LP (the local MyNetworkTV affiliate)
In case the math is a little fuzzy, here’s what Schurz will own when the dust settles: four of the six local network TV affiliates, the daily newspaper, the only news radio station, and the second-ranked FM radio station. This means a single company will own four of the six commercial news producing outlets in the entire South Bend market. Schurz would be the Murdoch of the Indiana-Michigan border.
Schurz Communications has been fighting back, pointing to their record of public service to assuage the fears of a media monopoly. But no matter the owner or their “harmless” intentions, consolidation on this scale puts diverse viewpoints and independent news at risk. Nobody should have such immense media power in a single community.
2 Comments »
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 by Megan Tady
Journalists arrested during the Republican National Convention breathed a sigh of relief last Friday – local authorities in St. Paul announced they would not prosecute them.
The announcement comes as welcome news for journalists, media organizations and citizens who launched a national public outcry to drop the charges against the arrested journalists. But many questions still remain about what appeared to be a planned attack against journalists and free speech during the RNC.
“We still need answers about why and how journalists got swept up in these arrests in the first place,” said Nancy Doyle Brown from Twin Cities Media Alliance. “And more than anything else, we need to ensure that this never happens again. We’ll never know how many important stories never got told because their authors were behind bars, not in the streets.”
Nearly two dozen reporters were arrested during the four-day event, including Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and two of her producers, Associated Press reporters, student journalists, and local TV photographers.
Other journalists were pepper-sprayed, and reporters with I-Witness were held at gunpoint during a “pre-emptive” police raid aimed at disrupting protesters. The press release from St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman’s office noted that the city’s attorney will use a “broad definition and verification to identify journalists who were caught up in mass arrests during the convention.”
Some of the most compelling and important reporting from the RNC came from independent journalists outside the Xcel Center. It’s vital that all journalists can operate without fear of intimidation or repression.
“We’re pleased that the St. Paul authorities ultimately acted to uphold the rights of all journalists — including those citizens using blogs, cheap cameras and cell phones to report news as it happens,” said Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, the national media reform organization. “Our task now is to ensure that our press remains free to report on the events, issues and stories that matter to our country, our communities, and our democracy.”
Less than three days after the initial arrests, more than 60,000 people across the country signed on to a letter from Free Press, demanding that Mayor Coleman and local authorities immediately “free all detained journalists and drop all charges against them.” These letters were delivered to St. Paul City Hall the day after the convention following a press conference that included local citizens and many of the journalists who had been arrested earlier in the week.
“The news from St. Paul City Hall is certainly welcome regarding the decision to drop charges against journalists who were arrested and cited during the RNC,” said Mike Bucsko, executive officer of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild, who spoke at the press conference. “However, it is essential the elected officials in St. Paul and Ramsey County examine the circumstances that led to the needless detention and harassment of journalists to ensure this type of indiscriminate behavior on the part of law enforcement does not happen again.”
No Comments »
Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 by Joe Torres
The House still has not moved to pass the “resolution of disapproval” to overturn the FCC’s decision to allow newspapers to own broadcast stations in the same market. But this week, civil rights groups joined Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) to keep the pressure on lawmakers to say no to further media consolidation and to the marginalization of communities of color in the media.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, and Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, were among nine civil rights groups that sent a letter this week to House members. They’re calling on lawmakers to support bipartisan legislation (H.J. Res. 79), sponsored by Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Dave Reichert (R-Wash.), to invalidate the FCC’s decision last December to lift the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban.
The Senate passed its version of the resolution of disapproval in May by a near-unanimous voice vote, a margin of victory demonstrating that media consolidation is a non-partisan issue. So far, the House version has 51 co-sponsors.
The Commission claims that its vote allows a company to own a newspaper and a broadcast station only in the largest markets. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin called the rule change a minor tinkering with the cross-ownership restriction.
But civil rights groups, lawmakers and public interest groups have denounced the vote for the harm that further media consolidation would have on minority owners. People of color own just 3 percent, or 44, of the more than 1,200 full-power TV stations in this country. Rep. Waters urged her Congressional Black Caucus colleagues to support the resolution because the number of African American owners has declined from 18 to 8 – nearly 60 percent – from 2006 to 2007.
The FCC’s rule change has also been criticized for its gaping loopholes that would allow companies to easily obtain a permanent waiver to own a newspaper and broadcast station in any market in this country, regardless of its size.
Rep. Waters chastised the FCC for its lack of transparency during the ownership proceedings. She cited the agency’s failure during its vote to disclose that the rule change would grant five permanent waivers to companies operating in violation of the new rules. In one action, she noted, the Commission awarded more permanent waivers than it had during the entire 30-year history of the cross-ownership restriction.
The Senate agrees — allowing further media consolidation is simply unacceptable. It’s time that the House voted to support the resolution of disapproval.
1 Comment »
Monday, September 8th, 2008 by Tim Karr
Journalists and St. Paul citizens assembled outside St. Paul City Hall Friday to deliver more than 60,000 letters to Mayor Chris Coleman and prosecuting attorneys demanding that they immediately drop charges against all journalists arrested this week as they covered the Republican National Convention.
By Friday morning, dozens of journalists, photographers, bloggers and videomakers had been booked by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s office in what appears to have been an orchestrated round-up of media makers covering protests during the convention.”
From the pre-convention raids to the ongoing harassment and arrests of journalists, these have been dark days for press freedom in the United States,” said Nancy Doyle Brown of the Twin Cities Media Alliance, who delivered the letters on behalf of the nonpartisan media reform group Free Press.
Stories That Will Never Be Told
She was joined by a crowd of local activists and journalists, including Amy Goodman and Nicole Salazar of Democracy Now!, KFAI-FM radio host Andy Driscoll and Mike Bucsko, executive director of the Minnesota Newspaper Guild.”
Tragically, there are stories that the world needed to hear this week that will never be told,” Brown said. “They won’t be told because reporters working on them were sitting in the back of squad cars, were stripped of their cameras, or were face down on the pavement with their hands cuffed behind their backs.”
On Thursday, the final night of the convention, it appears that authorities ratcheted up their attacks on both protesters and credentialed journalists, lobbing tear gas and percussion grenades into crowds and arresting student journalists, local TV photographers, Associated Press reporters, and two MyFox journalists, among others.
Other journalists have also been pepper-sprayed, and reporters with I-Witness were held at gunpoint during a “pre-emptive” raid aimed at disrupting protesters last weekend.
Mayor Chris Coleman has refused to reply to my repeated calls and e-mails asking for his response to allegations that journalists were specifically targeted by authorities.
Post-Mortem
A crowd of journalists — many of whom were arrested earlier in the week — entered City Hall and delivered the letters into the hands of St. Paul Deputy Mayor Ann Mulholland and City Attorney John Choi, who briefly told them that the legal system will sort out their concerns.
The mayor and public officials “need to do a post-mortem to examine the circumstances” of these arrests, said Bucsko, who represents reporters at the Star Tribune and the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “I hate to think that journalists were being targeted,” adding that it appeared that “there was discrimination based upon their jobs.”
The signatures were collected in less than 72 hours as people nationwide expressed their outrage over St. Paul’s attempts to stifle the many journalists documenting events surrounding the tightly scripted spectacle in the city’s Xcel Center.
Wellstone’s Worst Nightmare
Groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, The Newspaper Guild, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Reporters Without Borders, the Society for Professional Journalists and the Writers Guild of America, East have also sounded the alarm over the unusually harsh treatment by city authorities.”
The city of St. Paul has a black eye right now, and I must say that Paul Wellstone would be rolling in his grave,” said Denis Moynihan of Free Speech TV, who spoke outside City Hall today.”
Mayor Coleman must salvage the damaged reputation of the state and the city by dropping charges against all journalists immediately.”
No Comments »
Friday, September 5th, 2008 by Megan Tady
Police have been rounding up, detaining and arresting journalists throughout the week at the Republican National Convention. But tens of thousands of people across the nation have responded with demands to protect free speech.
This morning, local advocates and independent journalists delivered more that 60,000 letters to St. Paul City Hall calling on Mayor Chris Coleman and local law enforcement officials to drop all charges against journalists arrested while covering protests outside the Republican National Convention.
The signatures were garnered in less than two days as people expressed their outrage over St. Paul’s attempts to stifle independent journalists documenting what’s happening outside the highly orchestrated activities and speeches in the Xcel Center.
Journalists have been widely targeted during the four days of the convention. On Monday, local law enforcement officials arrested Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and two producers from her show, Associated Press photographer Matt Rourke, and several independent videographers while they were covering protests outside the RNC. The Democracy Now! crew has been released but still faces serious charges.Other independent journalists have also been pepper-sprayed, and reporters with I-Witness were even held at gunpoint during a “pre-emptive” raid aimed at disrupting protesters.
On Thursday, the final night of the convention, it appears that authorities ratcheted up their attacks on both protesters and credentialed journalists, lobbing tear gas and percussion grenades into crowds and arresting student journalists, local photographers, Associated Press reporters, and two MyFox journalists, among others.”
From the first [smoke] bomb until the time when they herded everyone onto the bridge was about 15 minutes,” said MyFox national editor John P. Wise in an article on MyFox.com. “They cuffed me, took the [press] credential off me, checked my pockets. I was told a couple of different times that they were going to let [the media] go … but then I saw they were tagging my camera bag.”
The letters delivered today demands that Mayor Coleman and local authorities immediately “free all detained journalists and drop all charges against them.” This call has been echoed by groups the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association of Black Journalists, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, The Newspaper Guild, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Reporters Without Borders, the Society for Professional Journalists and the Writers Guild of America, East.
Nancy Doyle Brown of the Twin Cities Media Alliance, who helped present the letters, expressed her frustration and anger over the treatment of journalists.”
The targeting and harassment of journalists that we’ve seen during the RNC sends the message that the Twin Cities don’t value the essential role that journalists play in a democracy,” she said. “From the pre-convention raids to the ongoing harassment and arrests of journalists, these have been dark days for press freedom in the United States. We’re bringing Mayor Coleman more than 50,000 letters from people across the nation demanding that all charges pending against these journalists be dropped.”
1 Comment »
Friday, September 5th, 2008 by Tim Karr
In St. Paul this week, a new generation of media makers is under assault by the city’s mayor and law enforcement officers.
These local officials think freedom of the press extends only to their allies in mainstream media.For the rest of us, practicing journalism is a crime.
While reports of brutal police arrests and home invasions are still coming in, by Tuesday night the picture became clear. Dozens of journalists, photographers, bloggers and videomakers had been arrested in an orchestrated round up of independents covering the Republican National Convention.
Targeting the New Press
The list of those detained ranges from the well-known (Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman) and well-established (Associated Press photographer Matt Rourke) — to the bootstrapping bloggers and video makers who are covering local protests for TheUptake.org, Twin Cities Indymedia, I-Witness and other outlets.
Police — with firearms drawn — raided a meeting of the video journalists and arrested independent media, bloggers and videomakers. Journalists covering protests have been pointed out by authorities, blasted with tear gas and pepper spray, and brutalized while in custody.
Democracy Now’s Goodman reports that a U.S. Secret Service agent ripped her press credentials from her neck the moment she identified herself to him as a member of the media. Her producers emerged yesterday from their jail cells bloodied and scarred, reporting unusually harsh treatment at the hands of local and federal authorities.
Mayor Coleman’s Silence
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman hasn’t responded to repeated phone and e-mail requests for comments on the targeting of journalists. Instead he praised the work of Police Chief John Harrington and painted those arrested as a small band of outsiders and vandals intent upon committing felonies against the good people of his city.
In less than a day, more than 35,000 people have signed a letter from Free Press (my employer) to Mayor Coleman condemning the arrests and demanding that he and local prosecutors immediately “free all detained journalists and drop all charges against them.”
But when Salon.com’s Glenn Greenwald pressed Harrington and Coleman to respond to widespread reports of journalist arrests, Harrington claimed ignorance while Coleman stood silent at his side.Police spokesman Don Walsh intervened only to say that “arrest have been made” and that all those arrested were involved in criminal activities and not “simply non-participants.”
Strib Forgets About Free Speech
In a bizarre editorial on Tuesday, the Minneapolis St. Paul Star Tribune hailed the police crackdown as “appropriate,” blaming unrest on outsiders from beyond the Twin Cities.”Many of those arrested in St. Paul weren’t carrying IDs or wouldn’t give their names. Those who were identified came from Lexington, Ky.; Brooklyn, N.Y.; Portland, Ore., and dozens of other U.S. cities,” they wrote. “These weren’t the sons and daughters of Highland Park and south Minneapolis.”
The Star Tribune itself is owned by out-of-towners from Avista Capital Partners, a New York City private equity firm specializing in energy, healthcare and media investments.
Other than a brief story about Goodman’s arrest, the paper has failed to report on the apparent targeting of independent reporters, even though groups like the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists have sounded the alarm.
Sweeping Real Journalism Under the Carpet
Here we have every indication of an orchestrated assault by federal and local law enforcement agencies to stifle independent sources of information. As shocking as this conduct is, more disturbing is the fact that the mayor’s office and the local daily seem so unconcerned.
It’s not difficult to understand why. With local leaders making every effort to roll out the welcome mat for mainstream media and the GOP, they’d rather sweep beneath the carpet those pesky independents who are showing us a side of the spectacle that is less scripted for prime time.
As an elected representative, Mayor Coleman should take a stand on behalf of a free press, rein in aggressive and violent tactics by local law enforcement, stop the targeting of journalists and immediately drop all charges against them.
As a powerful news organization, the Star Tribune should know better, and should be sticking up for a free press, regardless of the form it takes.
For now, the democratic spirit of journalism is alive not in the Star Tribune newsroom, but among the video-blogs and cellphone reports that are bubbling up from outside the convention.This editorial was originally published on HuffingtonPost on September 3.
No Comments »
