Seems GD-worthy. If there is an actual positive step to take, let's promote it. DUers are well aware of how important media control is. Seems fundamental to all the issues in GD and GDP.
Someone posted yesterday about the pitfalls of running to put out one fire after another (last night's being the "nuclear compromise").
Yes, let's put media reform on the political agenda. Especially if media consolidation and corporate control is not already a lost cause. With St. Moyers out their slaying dragons, the Truth may will out, after all....
NEWS DISSECTOR MAY 23, 2005
Danny Schechter's excellent blog is at
http://www.newsdissector.orgWhy We Need A Media And Democracy Act
"The threat to PBS was put on the agenda ? as it should be ? with a powerful challenge to Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) Chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson. Tomlinson's big-foot strategy at PBS and NPR is being exposed for what is ? a right-wing coup that will, if it is successful, drive what remains of more diverse or outspoken programming off the public airwaves.
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My idea: A Media and Democracy Act to package proposals for an anti-trust program to break up media monopolies; a funding strategy for public broadcasting and the independent producing community (perhaps financed with a tax on advertising); reinstatement of an updated fairness doctrine; free broadcasts for political debate across the spectrum; limits on advertising and monitoring for honesty and accuracy; guarantees for media freedom in the public interest; media literacy education in our schools; provisions for free wireless; media training and access centers; more support for media arts, etc.
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It is not my job to write the Act. That work can be done by media reform advocates and by members of Congress and their staffs who know the arcane world of legislation. All I know ? or remember ? is a chart I first saw in elementary school on "How A Bill Becomes A Law." As I recall, it made no reference to the power of lobbyists, lawyers and snake-oil salesmen on K Street.
One purpose of such an Act is not to expect to prevail the first time out, but to show what is needed and is possible, how government policy shapes the regulatory framework, and how national priorities and funding could be used to make a media system that can truly serve the public interest and informs our democracy.
A Media and Democracy Act is an idea that can help move this movement. It underscores the importance of working together to make media matter and to show a diverse range of interest groups that we can win if we work together.
It's an idea whose time is coming. I would prefer for it to happen in our lifetimes."