KC Media Watch / Action Alert - Update on #2 & #5

Dear KC Media Watch Subscribers:

This isn't an alert, but a celebration!  You might remember that two KC

Media Watch alerts have called for us to 1) urge Congress to oppose FCC

(Federal  Communications Commission) rule changes that would

allow our local TV stations, newspaper, radio stations, and cable provider

to all be owned by one company and 2) urged Congress to support a new

bill that would roll back many of the rule changes that did,
 unfortunately, pass.

The following is a message from the group MoveOn, which gives a good

news update about the progress of the roll back.   YOU are part of this

success!  More updates on the FCC situation will follow as they happen.

Thank you!

--KC Media Watch

From MoveOn:

75 television executives from network affiliates descended on Capitol
Hill yesterday to prevent the House appropriations committee from
voting for a partial rollback of the FCC rule changes.

Because of you and thousands of others, Congress did something
unprecedented yesterday. Republican committee member Frank Wolf urged
his colleagues to vote their conscience, and stand up to the
lobbyists. And they did just that, delivering a 40-25 vote against big
media.

Conservative columnist William Safire wrote in todays New York Times:
"Here is what made this happen: Take the force of right-wingers
upholding community standards who are determined to defend local
control of the public airwaves; combine that with the force of lefties
eager to maintain diversity of opinion in local media; add in the
independent voters' mistrust of media manipulation; then let all these
people have access to their representatives by e-mail and fax, and
voil`! Congress awakens to slap down the power grab." (URL below)

The rollback still has a long way to go, but this is another big step
in our march to reverse the FCC and create a more diverse, independent
and skeptical media.

Your active participation is working. Congress is listening. There
will be more work in the weeks and months ahead. Stay tuned and stay
involved. For more information on media reform efforts, go to
http://www.mediareform.net or http://www.commoncause.org.

Sincerely,
--Eli Pariser
MoveOn.org
July 17th, 2003

P.S. Check out William Safire's editorial and another article from
today's New York Times on this win:

HOUSE PANEL ADDS VOICE TO OPPONENTS OF MEDIA RULE
By Jacques Steinberg, New York Times
July 17th, 2003
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/17/business/media/17FCC.html
"The recent decision by federal regulators to loosen media ownership
rules, already under fire in the Senate, took another blow in Congress
yesterday. This setback was dealt by the House Appropriations
Committee, which approved a budget amendment that would make it harder
for big broadcasting companies to acquire more television stations.

The vote represented a defeat for Michael K. Powell, the Federal
Communications Commission chairman, who has led the effort to change
the rules. It was also a rebuke to the Republican House leadership and
the Bush administration, strong supporters of the commission's
efforts."

LOCALISM'S LAST STAND
By William Safire, New York Times
July 17th, 2003
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/17/opinion/17SAFI.html?tntemail0
(See excerpt above)