CMA NEWSLETTER

FEBRUARY 2004:

* ACTION: STOP RCN CABLE FROM DEFAULTING ON CAN TV PAYMENT

* ACTION: GET "DEMOCRACY NOW!" SCHEDULED ON WBEZ-FM

* ACTION: HOLD cHICAGO "public" station WTTW ACCOUNTABLE

* ACTION: DEMAND CONGRESS RESCIND FCC OWNERSHIP RULES

* WHAT WAS CMA UP TO LAST MONTH?

* AUDIO - CMA ON WLUW'S "LIVE FROM THE HEARTLAND"  12/20/03

* 39%? / CLEAR CHANNEL VS.  LABOR / FCC LOCALISM HEARING / 

FCC OWNERSHIP RULES IN COURT / COMCAST-DISNEY MERGER?

* MEDIA FACTOID OF THE MONTH     * MEDIA QUOTE OF THE MONTH

* THIS MONTH'S WEBSITE     * FILM ABOUT AL-JAZEERA FEB. 15TH

ACTION:    STOP RCN CABLE FROM DEFAULTING ON ITS CAN TV PAYMENT                                 As mentioned in a previous alert, the  cable company RCN has recently defaulted on a $215,000 payment and an additional $19,000 production grant to Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV), Chicago's public access cable television network. On February 10th, the Chicago Cable Commission unanimously passed two resolutions condemning RCN. For more details, please click here.  

WBEZ-FM (Chicago's main NPR affiliate) had coverage of the issue on its Eight Forty Eight show (audio file).

And be sure to join the campaign to restore this funding here.

ACTION:    GET "DEMOCRACY NOW!" SCHEDULED ON WBEZ-FM  

"Democracy Now!" is a daily 1 hr. news show which actually covers the news without the spin factor. (You can learn more about Democracy Now! at www.democracynow.org and listen to any show aired since its inception in 1996 at its archives.) You can reach Mr. Ron Jones, WBEZ's News Manager, directly at (312) 948-4647.  Remember to be polite and professional when you call to make your request. 

ACTION:    HOLD cHICAGO "public" TV station WTTW ACCOUNTABLE                                    (1) Fire WTTW CEO Dan  Schmidt. (2) Call for a government audit of WTTW funds, which have been badly mismanaged. (3) Implement a regular series of monthly town halls and documentaries, organized by and for the diverse community of citizens that comprise Chicago. (4) Work with an independent commission to establish: [a] new programs for underserved communities, [b] a financial trust to separate content from funding, and [c] public elections for the Board of Trustees. For more information and to send an email to WTTW's chairwoman Sandra Guthman using our online complaint form, click here. 

You may also want to read this full-length cover story from the Chicago Tribune Magazine dated July 27, 2003 titled "Running WTTW Into The Ground". The magazine's cover graphic shows a TV-set shaped hole in the ground.

ACTION:     DEMAND CONGRESS RESCIND FCC OWNERSHIP RULES

A key bill in the House (House Resolution 72) which could overturn entirely the FCC's disastrous media ownership vote of June 2, 2003 vote. A lot of momentum is behind this already. We strongly encourage you to get involved. Please do so here.

WHAT WAS CMA UP TO LAST MONTH?    

As part of its public education forum series, Chicago Media Action organized a January 18 forum about the life and work of Martin Luther King at the Chicago Temple. Nearly 200 people attended the forum (attendance rivaled the record we set with our Sept. 11 forum). Katie Jordan, Chicago Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW) president, introduced the film "At the River I Stand"-- a documentary about Reverend King. We then played a portion of a speech that King gave in 1967 explaining why he opposed the war in Vietnam. Commentary followed, provided by the ever-excellent Salim Muwakkil and Cliff Kelley, along with an audience sing-along of Stevie Wonder's song "Happy Birthday" and audience comments and questions. A small contingent braved the frigid temperatures to protest afterwards at the Congress Hotel on Michigan Avenue in solidarity with the striking workers there of the Hotel Employees, Restaurant Employees International Union local #1. 

AUDIO - CMA ON WLUW'S "LIVE FROM THE HEARTLAND"  RADIO PROGRAM - 12/20/03

Listen to a downloadable mp3 audio file of a recent interview of Chicago Media Action's Secretary Scott Sanders on WLUW-FM's "Live from the Heartland" show. Scott talks about CMA and our campaign to hold the far adrift Chicago "public" TV station WTTW accountable.

listen to interview here; download free RealOnePlayer here 

Those in the vicinity of Chicago's north side can tune in to "Live from the Heartland" at 9am every Saturday on WLUW-FM, 88.7 on your FM dial. 

MEDIA POLITICS

39%?

Unfortunately, the 39% television ownership cap is now law. Passed was a "compromise" between the 45% in the FCC rule changes imposed last June 2nd and the previous 35% cap favored overwhelmingly by virtually everyone except media owners. Viacom (which includes CBS) and NewsCorp (which includes Fox) would have been forced to divest some of their holdings under the 35% cap. Instead, they were able to stymie the opposition and ram the rule through. For now. But a number of other legislative actions are waiting to come to the plate, and further action on this front will continue. You can count on it. (pictured: NewsCorp head Rupert Murdoch) 

CLEAR CHANNEL VS. LABOR 

A new AFL-CIO report entitled "The Clear Picture on Clear Channel" (download pdf here) commissioned by national media unions finds that the business and social practices of communications giant Clear Channel have had a profoundly negative impact on working people and their communities.

FCC LOCALISM HEARING

On January 28, 2004, the FCC held a localism hearing in San Antonio, Texas. The fear was that this hearing would be a repeat of Charlotte, North Carolina, which was stacked in favor of the corporate media. It didn't help that San Antonio is home to the headquarters of Clear Channel Communications. But activists nevertheless made their presence felt--big time. Heard were demands of reduced concentration and increased localism, all but drowning out the corporate flacks who were paid to attend. 

To learn more about this victory, please click here. 

(pictured: FCC Chairman Michael Powell - son of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell)

FCC OWNERSHIP RULES IN COURT

Oral arguments began February 11 in Philadelphia regarding the case of the Prometheus Radio Project against the FCC. This is the case which won a stunning stay over the FCC's rules last September, one day before the rules would have gone into effect. Stay on top of the latest developments here.

COMCAST - DISNEY MERGER?

In a very scary prospect, the business world is abuzz with the announcement that the cable company Comcast launched a multi-billion-dollar bid to buy out Disney. Read more about the bid here.

MEDIA FACTOID OF THE MONTH:     The minutes for Chicago "public" TV station WTTW's board of directors meetings are not available to the public. And public comment is not normally allowed at Window to the World board meetings, in case you were thinking of complaining to the board about the minutes not being available!

MEDIA QUOTE OF THE MONTH:    "This is the press, an irresponsible press. It will make the criminal look like he's the victim and make the victim look like he's the criminal. If you aren't careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." -- Malcolm X

THIS MONTH'S WEBSITE:    http://newstandardnews.net The NewStandard is an independent, noncommercial, hard-hitting news resource, coming to us from Syracuse, New York. The NewStandard is brought to you by many of the same people who worked on ZNet. 

FILM ABOUT AL-JAZEERA SCREENING FEB. 15TH  

Chicago Media Action will be co-presenting a screening with Chicago Filmmakers of "Al-Jazeera Exclusive", a 60-minute documentary aired in the BBC2's "Correspondent" series, about the  Qatar-based satellite television station in the time leading up to and during the 2003 invasion and continuing occupation of Iraq.  A number of key moments are included: the day when Saddam's ministers tried to ban al-Jazeera, the al-Jazeera decision to screen images of American and British corpses, the 'accidental' bombing of the hotel in Baghdad where al-Jazeera's reporters were based and the reaction of al-Jazeera's staff to the death of its reporter in that blast. Once again, a high quality and relevant film has been overlooked by Chicago "public" TV station WTTW. The film will be presented Sunday, February 15, at 7pm, at Chicago Filmmakers, 5243 N. Clark instead. 

Download a PDF flier of the event here. To find more info, click here.

What does the British press have to say about "Al-Jazeera Exclusive"?

The Guardian, Rupert Smith

Verdict: impressively unbiased "BBC2's "Al-Jazeera Exclusive" was not only an impressively unbiased piece of reporting, it was also a compassionate, sometimes hilarious insight in to the workings of TV journalism... Al-Jazeera was instantly painted as a wicked purveyor of anti-American propaganda. The journalists themselves told a different story... It was hard not to admire the equanimity of al-Jazeera's staff, particularly Mawafak, the on-air translator, who managed to relay President Bush's claim that "we are not against the Iraqi people" while worried sick about his family in Baghdad. He later learned two of them had died in air raids."

The Times, Paul Hoggart

Verdict: remarkable, important and valuable "This documentary had a deadly serious purpose; to show the British people how a war that our soldiers were fighting for our government with our money, was being seen throughout the Arab world... We may not like what they showed or how they interpreted what they showed, but for one hour this remarkable documentary gave us the chance to see a conflict, which may yet have momentous consequences for this country, exactly as millions of Arab people saw it. For that reason alone it was important and valuable."

The Daily Mail, Christopher Matthew

Verdict: as close to the true facts of the Iraq war as we are likely to get "Yesterday evening, many who suspected that the images of the Iraq war they were shown on TV night after night and the press briefings by top coalition brass revealed little of what was really going on may well have had their worst fears confirmed... The true facts of the Iraq war will probably never be known, but last night's documentary may come as close to telling them as we are ever likely to get."

Link to Al-Jazeera's English language web site here.

• Selected public broadcasting reform and media reform resources, books and periodicals are here.

• The next CMA meeting will be on Tuesday, February 24, 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.