CHICAGO MEDIA ACTION NEWSLETTER: May 1, 2004 http://www.chicagomediaaction.org In this month's newsletter... * Possible Rapid City Roadtrip, May 26, to Face the FCC * CMA all over the midwest, and a visit by Robert McChesney * Congressional action, protests against the NAB, and a CAN TV update * Media Factoid: Corporate media and corporate scandals * Website: The media and public opinion of world affairs (1) ANNOUNCEMENTS AND UPCOMING EVENTS * Possible roadtrip to Rapid City: The FCC will hold its Midwest Localism Hearing in Rapid City, South Dakota, on Wednesday, May 26, 2004. This is one of a series of hearings across the U.S. to address how well (if at all) the U.S. media address concerns relevant on the local and community level. The next scheduled hearing involves the Midwest; all five FCC commissioners are scheduled to attend. CMA is planning to take part and (if there's enough interest) to organize a roadtrip to Rapid City. Want to tell your media story to the FCC? Interested in taking part? Know someone who is or might be? Contact cma@chicagomediaaction.org or call 1-866-260-7198 to get involved. * CMA will be participating in a Racial Sensitivity Forum on Monday, May 17, at 2838 W. Peterson in Chicago. For more information, please visit: http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/news.php?id=173 * And remember the campaigns regarding WTTW and WBEZ. CMA encourages you to add your voice in our current email campaign. If you want to send an email supporting better public television in Chicago, please visit: http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/index.php?link=rapid_response * Plus, call the WBEZ comment line at 312-948-4701, and encourage WBEZ to air Democracy Now! * Save the date: Wednesday, June 16, 2004. Chicago Media Action welcomes Robert Jensen, journalism professor at the University of Texas and author of "Writing Dissent" and "Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim our Humanity", for a presentation on media activism. More details to come. (2) WHAT'S NEW WITH CHICAGO MEDIA ACTION? * In April 2004, CMA gave presentations in St. Louis (at the Union of Democratic Communications conference), Crystal Lake (for the McHenry County Peace Group's Current American Issues Series), Lisle (at the Unitarian Universalist Assocation's Central Midwest District Assembly), and Wicker Park (at the WLUW Record Fair, Pulaski Fieldhouse). * Media activist Robert McChesney gave a presentation at North Central College in Naperville on the emerging struggle to reclaim the media in the U.S. The presentation has been recorded and posted online here: http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/audiofiles/McChesney_2004-04-13.mp3 * What's more, Chicago Media Action is organizing a rally (as part of a nationwide series of rallies) planned for the Philadelphia ruling in the court case against the FCC. Stay tuned. * Attention Audiophiles: Audio files of a presentation on the Red Line Radio show "Toxic Frequency" are online here: http://www.chicagomediaaction.org/index.php?link=local_media_portal (3) WHAT'S HAPPENING IN MEDIA POLITICS? * On March 30, U.S. Representative Maurice Hinchley (D-NY) introduced the Media Ownership Reform Act of 2004. This legislation would repeal the FCC media ownership rules in its entirety, tighten caps on media ownership, and restore the long-dismissed Fairness Doctrine. Read more: http://tinyurl.com/yqueu * There's good news and bad news in the funding fight regarding CAN TV (Chicago's public access cable network). The good news is that the city of Chicago has collected more than $1 million in fines from the errant cable company RCN. The bad news is that CAN TV has yet to see any of the money owed it, for reasons that so far remain unclear. More is expected on this matter soon, including some possible actions by the Chicago City Council. Learn more and get involved by visiting: http://www.cantv.org/rcn * The week of April 19 saw the National Association of Broadcasters (the main lobby of the commercial broadcasters) hold their annual convention in Las Vegas. But protesters crashed the party. Read more: http://www.commoncause.org/news/default.cfm?ArtID=318 http://www.commoncause.org/action/action.cfm?artid=176&topicid=11 * Besides the official FCC localism hearings, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps is organizing a series of unofficial hearings on media matters. Four venues are scheduled for June and September -- Albuquerque, Detroit, Portland (Oregon), and Florida (perhaps Tampa or Miami). More information to come. (4) MEDIA FACTOID OF THE MONTH >From Robert McChesney's "The Problem of the Media" (p. 93)--available for purchase from http://www.mediaproblem.org/: "Media firms, too, like [their corporate brethren] WorldCom and Enron, employed questionable accounting practices that inflated profit expectations and fleeced workers. Moreover, a stunning number of major media corporations and executives were under investigation for criminal activities by 2002, including Disney CEO Michael Eisner, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, Charter Corporations, and Vivendi Universal." (5) MEDIA QUOTE OF THE MONTH "Movements for democracy are learning how to organize for democratization of media. In Brazil and the United States, or anywhere else, a free flow of information and opinion is not only worth fighting for -- it's essential." -- Norman Solomon, in a ZNet daily commentary, December 1, 2003. To read the entire commentary, please visit: http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2003-12/01solomon.cfm (6) THIS MONTH'S WEBSITE http://www.pipa.org The Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) is a project out of the University of Maryland which carries out research on U.S. public opinion regarding foreign policy and international issues by conducting nationwide polls, focus groups and comprehensive reviews of polling conducted by other organizations. PIPA's work shows in dramatic fashion the role the media plays in crafting popular opinion about world affairs. (7) ADDITIONAL ANNOUNCEMENTS * Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman will be Chicago on Friday, May 21 to promote her new book "The Exception to the Rulers". Amy will be at the Border's store at 150 N. State St. in downtown Chicago, on Friday May 21 at 12:30pm. For more info, call 312-606-0750. * Chicago Indymedia is throwing a May Day Art Party to show your videos, your photographs, and listen to your poetry and speakouts. May 1, 2004 @ Polvo Art Studio, 1458 W. 18th St. 1R. For more info, visit: http://tigger.uic.edu/~tyun/mayday * The next CMA meeting will be on Tuesday, May 11, at 6:30pm, at 3411 W. Diversey (corner of Diversey and Kimball, near the Logan Square stop on the CTA Blue Line). All are invited. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** This is an email from Chicago Media Action, a Chicago activist group devoted to media issues. Chicago Media Action, P.O. Box 14140, Chicago IL 60614-0140 Call toll-free: 1-866-260-7198 Web: http://www.chicagomediaaction.org E-mail: cma@chicagomediaaction.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, simply send an email requesting removal to mailinglist@chicagomediaaction.org