KC Media Watch / Action Alert #6

Here's encouraging news about the FCC rule changes that several previous
alerts have focused on. Fortunately, both Dennis
Moore (KS) and Karen McCarthy (MO) voted in favor of
the amendment described below. Please consider
dropping them a thank-you line or call. And thanks
for your work to keep media regulation fair!   Here's
the news, from Free Press: Because of public pressure,
the U.S. House overwhelmingly approved an
appropriations bill that blocks one of the FCC's new
rules. The bill prohibits expanding the number of American TV viewers
one media company may reach to 45%. It holds the cap at 35%.
This is great news, but it's not over.

The national TV cap is the least substantive rule
change. The rules relaxing bans on newspaper/broadcast cross ownership
and local TV consolidation (duopolies) are what really hurt media
diversity and independence. The White House and the Republican
majority in Congress oppose repealing these rules. Nonetheless progressive
Democrats made a bold effort. A full roll back was included in the
Hinchey-Price-Inslee amendment that we petitioned on
Tuesday after the Republicans tried to derail support by calling a
surprise vote.

Thanks to you, phones rang "off the hook" according to
House staffers. In the hours before the critical vote, voices from the
public changed minds in the Congress. Although the amendment lost, it
received a remarkable 174 votes, including 34 Republicans -- far
more than insiders thought possible. Getting a strong vote was
the mission, and we accomplished it. We needed to show legislators that
there is strong support in the House for the full FCC rollback.

The complex Congressional process now takes the FCC
rollback on two possible paths:

1)      The strong showing in the House on
appropriations gives repeal-minded Senators exceptional leverage in the
House/Senate conference negotiations on this bill. One or more
rules are likely to be rolled back in this conference.

2)      The Senate is pursuing a parallel strategy. A
"Resolution of Disapproval" that would repeal all of the FCC rules
has strong support in the Senate and has a good chance of passing in
September. It would then come to the House for another fight.

The House-Senate appropriations conference won't
happen until September. In the meantime, we are working tirelessly
to ensure that the Senate is skillfully coordinated and that the
House Democrats are unified when this comes back to the floor.

After years in which media companies have rolled their
agenda over Congress with few objections, Congressman Inslee said
a "tsunami" of public pressure was starting to change the course of
Congress. He was right. Growing numbers of Americans are realizing that
real democracy demands democratic media, and Congress is listening -
thanks to you.

Go to http://www.mediareform.net for more information
on the fight in Congress and media reform efforts across the country.

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P.S. To see how your Representative voted on the
important Hinchey/Price/Inslee amendment, check out:
http://clerkweb.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.exe?year=2003&rollnumber=407