government

The following is printed verbatim as it was sent to me. This story has local impact.

We need to look at each municipality in Massachusetts, for instance, as well as all states, and see if there is any indication that what might be happening in Washington DC is not happening in the state house or city or town halls.

As it stands with regard to video, municipalities can insist that all video providers are all subject to the same franchise license terms and conditions. That would be proper as well as fair and to best serve our communities, including the Public access (P.E.G.) communities. Thanks to Chuck Sherwood for forwarding this through the Alliance for Community Media.

We should not be asleep on this issue.

Teletruth News Analysis, June 1st, 2010.

To read the full article:
Letters from House Democrats and Senate Repbublicans against
the FCC --- Sponsored by AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Astroturfers?
It's open season on the FCC's Broadband plans, from a new proposed bill by
Rep. Stearns (FL), or former politicians tied to astroturf groups --- Are
the phone and cable companies pulling the strings?

To protect the Public Interest, shouldn't these Senators and Congressmen
recuse themselves from voting on issues that directly help their
contributors --- AT&T, Verizon and Comcast?
Astroturfer: Some person, politician, 'expert', company, non-profit or
other entity that takes money from a corporation then uses their influence
for the good of the corporation - usually over the needs of their own
constituents, members, etc.

CNET reports that "Congress rebukes FCC on Net neutrality rules". http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20005834-38.html"The Federal Communications Commission's plan to impose Net neutrality
regulations just became much more difficult to pull off...A bipartisan group
of politicians on Monday told FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, in no
uncertain terms, to abandon his plans to impose controversial new rules on
broadband providers until the U.S. Congress changes the law...Seventy-four
House Democrats sent Genachowski. a letter saying his ideas will 'jeopardize
Jobs' and 'should not be done without additional direction from Congress'. A
separate letter from 37 Senate Republicans was more pointed. It accused
Genachowski of pushing 'heavy-handed 19th century regulations' that are
'inconceivable' as well as illegal."

Senate Republicans(PDF)

House Democrats (PDF):
The story doesn't mention that these letters are totally partisan --- as the
list of House Democrats and Senate Republicans who signed these letters
reads like a who's who of politicians who, almost all, are
campaign-financed by AT&T, Verizon and the cablecos as some of their largest
contributors.

More suspect, the location of these posted letters are on the Netcompetition
website, an astroturf euphanism for 'this web site is brought to you by
AT&T, Verizon and Comcast to keep their monopoly/duopoly power intact'.
Here's a link to NetCompetition's funding sources: AT&T, Verizon and
Comcast, not to mention a number of 'co-opted' groups like LULAC, who gets
millions in funding from AT&T and Verizon. http://netcompetition.org/index.php/go/about-us-members/ We wonder--- Are the initiators of these letters drafted by/created by some astroturf group who works directly for AT&T, Verizon or Comcast? And doesn't this smack of anti-trust violations when both the cable and phone companies --- the caretakers of the only wires --- are working together to
harm the Public Interest?
The Republican Letter: AT&T, Verizon and Comcast Funding.
Going  through the signatures we find that the majority of these signees
have AT&T, Comcast and Verizon as their major funders. Here are just a few;
John Mc Cain has AT&T as his Number 2 campaign and PAC funding source, Sam
Brownback has AT&T as Number 1, Jim DeMint has AT&T as Number 2, with
Verizon and Comcast making the Top 20.
Top 20 Contributors to Campaign Cmte and Leadership PAC

SOURCE :  Rank Contributor Total

John Mc Cain
2 AT&T Inc $57,500
12 Verizon Communications $34,250
20 Comcast Corp $28,000

Sam Brownback
1 AT&T Inc $11,000

Kay Baily Hutchinson
4 AT&T Inc $37,000

James DeMint
2 AT&T Inc $64,750
12 Comcast Corp $26,500
13 Verizon Communications $26,250

House Democrat Letter(s).

The Democratic letter, signed by 74 Democrats seems to be just as suspect as
a previous letter of House Democrats 'concerned' with the FCC's Net
neutrality' policies. The previous letter signatories showed that monies
were being paid by AT&T and Verizon to almost all of these concerned
Democrats. In short, the Congressmen gets money from a corporation, then
signs onto a letter of concern, which can only help the phone companies and
is against the interests of their own constituents.

The Hill blog mentioned that Congressmen John Dingell also sent a letter.
"Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) sided with major phone and cable companies in a
letter discouraging Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius
Genachowski from a plan to boost the agency's authority over broadband
access providers." Link

It seems that Congressmen Dingell also gets money from the cable and phone
companies, who are major contributors.
To read the rest of this analysis.

I am monitoring the FCC's "Workshop on Public and Other Noncommercial Media in the Digital Era" FCC workshop. There is a discussion focusing upon public media, non-profit journalism, media diversity, and topics including local communities. FCC members are listening to PBS producers, and administrators, broadcast lobbyist, and others. But missing from the table are PUBLIC ACCESS stations.

How can the FCC be serious about holding a workshop or any public forum covering a topic that includes the word "Public Media" while excluding groups representing Public Access stations?

It is disturbing to hear the term "public media" in the context of open debate concerning issues such as government funding, media diversity, local journalism without representation from Public Access organizations present. The public access community should also be outraged and outraged that through such discussions, at a government agency level, others are allowed to cloud the public access brand by, what I feel is infringing upon, the term " public media " as they exclude public access television centers.

Public Access television can be found all over this country and may be as broad based and widely seen as any other broadcast or cable network.

We say that "WCCA TV is more that a TV station , it is a community resource" and that is what makes us so unique. Not only are public access stations such as WCCA TV 13, providing important unique and local news and information programming. It does something that no other media, including PBS does. It provides hands on opportunities and media tools, to individuals as well as organizations, necessary to learn and develop skills in television and electronic media production as well as to directly participate in the creation and distribution of what I believe is the most relevant programming in a public forum that is presented on television and digital outlets. Public Access generally benefits their community with a substantially much higher return ( exceeding 150 times more in many cases) for the public investment as well.

I invite you to go back an review What is going on at WCCA for a glimpse at what this public access center is doing. Imagine, the combined value of every access center in Massachusetts and even the nation.

Learn, Create, Connect those three words sum up what WCCA TV 13 , "The People's Channel", is all about.
Support Public Access Television today.

I hope the FCC would consider being a little more inclusive with future workshops.

I consider WCCA TV to be public, by nature of it's mission and non-commercial content don't you.

Many feel the Comcast/NBC merger is a bad idea for public access to the free flow of information. For example the following has been extracted from The CAP Times on line. More on the Comcast merger here
Some key quotes taken from the article:

"We are writing to express our opposition to Comcast Corp.'s acquisition of NBC Universal. If this deal is approved, it would further consolidate a U.S. media industry that is already controlled by a handful of corporate conglomerates. Localism, diversity, and competition in today's media, all of which are severely weak, would be nearly lost. At a time when it is critically important for the public to be able to access independent sources of information, we believe this acquisition should not go forward and urge you to reject it."

Check this out:
State Wide Franchising Not living Up to Lobbyist Promises
Oligarchy at work for the special interest the only winners here are the phne companies and the politicians that obviously get paid off.
It's a good thing Massachusetts hasn't bought into this nonsense.

From the free press Misty Perez Truedson. Educate yourselves with this one. We ran into one of these while battling the Verizon Bill a few weeks ago ( remember the "Stringer"? ). Here's what Misty writes:

Check out our new AstroTurf tool and Tim Karr’s latest blog post.

-Misty
Unmasking Astroturf

Timothy Karr
Timothy Karr's Unmasking astroturf

If you haven't been paying attention to the work of "astroturf" groups in Washington, in the media and at your local town hall meeting, now's the time to tune in.

These front groups for hire have been everywhere this summer -- spreading misinformation about health care reform, carbon emission caps and financial regulation.

I really do not need to comment here but as a local blogger friend of mine consistently says, it is time for the oligarchy to end. It is amazing to me how some huge mega companies can spend hundreds of millions of dollars to advertise and promote their product under the guise of making life easier while all the while they seem to be profiting at the expense of communities. What is more shameful is how some "elected" tolerate such activity seemingly ignorant of community voices by sponsoring legislation to encourage such corporate behavior. Here are some links that are well worth your time if you are interested in community media:

att-is-a-big-steaming-heap-of-failure

How NTIA dismantled public interest provisions

This PDF file Free Press Reply comments
In particular, pages 26-29 where Free Press examines Verizon's practice of dumping rural customers onto smaller companies who then go bankrupt.

link to apprising Whats wrong with the broadband

This is the NTIA PDF
BTOP RULES notice of funding availability

Short Deadlines for stimulus funds hits munis hard

Don't forget this is about your access to technology, to channels of communication, to community, to information, to be included. Make sure your legislators are not forgetting that.

Our Friend Chuck Sherwood, sent us this link that ties in PEG channel interest:
from Image and Media Partners
Enjoy!

A collective of Massachusetts public access communities are asking friends of Public Access to join us in opposition of Senate Bill # 1531, in house, H 3765, aka Verizon Bill. The bill is apparently a scam being spun as a boost for competition, when we see it as actually an attempt to give Verizon an edge over cable competitors. If successful the bill will place municipalities at a disadvantage when it comes to determining community media, technology and other franchise license related needs. Verizon tried to pass a similar bill before back in 2007, Worcester city council and administration, to their credit and wisdom, joined a large number of cities and citizens across the state in defeating it. Saving this municipality millions of dollars, local controls, senior discounts, locking out potential discriminatory "cherry picking" service practices and maintaining our Public Access as well. The right thing is to shoot this Senate Bill 1531, also known as the Verizon Bill, down immediately. To our Senate representatives we hope you do not fall asleep on this one

On July 22, 2009, there will be a public hearing at the State House on Senate Bill #1531. Join us in saying NO to this Bill.
Please contact your State Representatives and Senators and explain how this bill will adversely affect stations such as WCCA TV and therefore your community. This link should tell you who your local legislators are - http://www.mass.gov/legis/city_town.htm .

We hope our city council ( read more)