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Hi, I would like to thank everyone who attended the FCC Hearing in
Richmond yesterday. Despite the rain, sleet, snow, despite it being a workday (I
took the day off as a vacation day), many people made the point of coming
down and speaking. I had a sore throat and did not speak myself, but I did
not have to thanks to all the wonderful speakers. My only question is if
anyone outside of the hearing room really heard them.
Before I get to that though, let me give a quick run down. We had a fair
amount of snow and sleet move in to Richmond Wednesday afternoon and
evening, so we focused on plans around the Flicker program at the Canal Club that
night. James Parrish, Richmond Moving Image Coop's director, did a
wonderful job of alerting all the people to the issue and introducing speakers
after the regular Flicker program. I was impressed by the 60 or 70 people that
came to Flicker despite the elements outside.
Prometheus' Philadelphia crew arrived in the middle soon after the regular
Flicker program began. I took them to get a quick bite and then returned
to the program. My apologies if I seemed gruff and anti-social, I was
feeling pretty crappy. After Flicker was over we went to the Fusion space that
houses Radio Free Richmond. Alan Schintzious, the guy behind Fusion and the
President of the Virginia Center for Public Press, graciously allowed the
majority of the crew to stay upstairs in his residential area. We stayed up
for a while in RFR's basement studio working on posters. We were hoping some
more people from Chicago were going to arrive but evidently they were
delayed.
The next morning the sleet and rain was in full effect. I went to the Pace
Center on Franklin but it was locked and no one was there. So that meeting
was quickly cancelled and we concentrated on getting people to the
Convention Center. I went out to get some breakfast food for any one who needed
it. At first the security guard tried to tell us to leave, we were on
'private property', until we mentioned that it was a public hearing. We eventually
did have a group of about 20 people or so demonstrate for a short while in
front of the Convention Center on 5th St, though the rain kept coming. We
spoke to a few reporters and passed out copies of the Media Alliance's
booklet. We found it easy to get into the Hearing room itself and there were
lot of seats available.
As the Hearing officially started I ran over to a copy shop to get a
couple hundred copies of Prometheus' fact sheet printed so we could leave some
on the public literature table (a lot of great stuff from all sides was on
the table). Special thanks to Didi, who gave me contributions for food and
copying. We were able to get a good smattering of seats in several areas of
the hall. Prometheus' tv set costumes, sitting next to lawyers in suits
made good photo ops of the audience. Our mad scientists' outfits stood out and
drew attention to our position that we disputed the FCC studies as bad
science. I estimate the crowd at about 100, though a lot of people would leave
as new people arrived.
Several of the Commissioners made comments preceding any discussion to
introduce the issues. The moderator was introduced (an ex-law professor from
William & Mary). I felt like the moderator and Commissioners ran the
discussion pretty well, despite taking some liberties. The moderator went so far
as to voice his personal opinion that the Commission should focus on its
role with frequency management more than anything else (actually I agree with
that). Of course, as the day went on it became apparent that the 'public'
hearing was mostly taken up by panelist discussion. Commissioners Abernathy
and Copps both asked pointed questions of panelists on a few occasion.
Copps was the only Commissioner who seemed supportive of the public speakers'
concerns.
I am not going to say much about the panelist discussion, cause hopefully
you are already familiar with most to of the positions taken. There were
three (or was it four panels) that spoke to the issues of localism,
diversity, and competition. I do think the minority broadcasters made strong
arguments. 'Rocker' Jenny Toomey did a great job of countering Clear Channel's
representative's doublespeak. Although a few panelists spoke in favor of
deregulation in terms of economic theory and competition, most of the panelists
were very concerned by the Commission's reasoning and were against
deregulating. I also agree with the moderator's comment that it seemed like people
came prepared with lots of good facts to back up their arguments and many
of them took issue with the FCC's facts. After the first panel, the public
received about 20 minutes to make comments, then we broke for lunch.
Originally we planned to do a march on Media General at lunch. But we only
got about 30 minutes for lunch between panels and it was still sleeting
outside so no one wanted to join up when I asked around. Its too bad, cause I
think this might have driven home the point to a lot of people, especially
locals. I know the Richmond Free Press reporter was disappointed it did
not happen. I grabbed some pizza in the 6th St. Marketplace. I wish I could
have directed people to some other places, but 6th Street was close to the
Convention Center and everyone seemed to scatter quickly on their own.
After lunch, after the another panel, the public got about another 20
minutes of comments in. The next panel started immediately. After that the
moderator simply let loose the public and allowed us to speak for 40 minutes.
Keep in mind after a whole day of 'public' hearing, the entire public got
about 80 minutes of speaking time. What should be repeated over and over, and
as loudly as possible, is that EVERY SINGLE PUBLIC SPEAKER SPOKE IN FAVOR
OF THE FCC NOT DEREGULATING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No one, I mean no one, got up to the mic and said it would be cool for
Clear Channel, AOL, Media General or NBC to own more.
If the FCC is supposed to represent public interests, the public has
spoken to what those interests are.
I was very impressed by the public speakers. Despite the common position
against deregulation, they represented every walk of American life- from
independent AM broadcast entrepreneurs to LPFM activists, from self-styled
socialists to conservative Republican housewives, from minority newspaper
publishers to white guy environmentalists, old/young, black/white, male/female,
students/professors. And everyone spoke cogently and passionately and
covered many points not mentioned by the Commission or panelists. Not everyone
agreed to all those points (one guy got up to the mic and said FCC
Commissioner Michael Powell is the son of war criminal Colin Powell and he was
concerned about the military's ability to manipulate corporate media, he was
booed by some people for crassness but I had to respect him for giving his
own individual point of view). The concerns raised by everyone had validity
to them. Particularly disturbing were tales of corporate censorship. If
people are not allowed to buy their own ads in the "marketplace of ideas", than
why should we rule in favor of the "market"? Several citizens spoke up and
said they did not care about consumer concerns so much as they were
concerned the FCC was ignoring CITIZEN concerns. I was especially proud of
Richmond people, my neighbors, who took the time to speak.
The question I keep coming back to is did anybody hear them? Some media
was there but I did not see that many cameras. Where was the corporate media
that is promising us even more news, all the time? When I got up this
morning I listened to my local NPR affilate, WCVE, (keep in mind this happened
in their broadcast location), there was 10 second mention of the event. It
ignored the fact that ALL public comments were against deregulation and the
last part of their report reiterated the corporations' argument for
deregulation. The Richmond Times-Dispatch article (I gave the link at the top of
this email) was on the front page. It said "virtually" all the public
speakers were against deregulation (get it- virtually- like they were not really
there) and then reiterated the corporate argument. The rest of the local
news is all about the official opening of the Greater Richmond Convention
Center this weekend, never mind what just happened there.
I am anxious to see if national coverage did better, but honestly I am
pessimistic. Hopefully future FCC hearings will mean more, but I am pretty
sure Richmond, while a moral victory for those of us there, will be ignored in
the war of corporate domination.
After the Hearing wrapped up, Prometheus crew and a few of us locals
headed to Aladdin's at Laurel and Broad. They got back on the van and went home
in the rain.
Thanks,
Scott
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