Michael Powell says that the FCC may be the most lobbied agency in Washington and thinks that may not be entirely a good thing. The lobbying he appears to have in mind are the million plus messages protesting the Chairman and his Republican cohorts' proposed lossening of media ownership rules sent by grassroots American citizens, whose only stake in the ruling was the fact that they're the "public" whose "interest" Mr. Powell and his fellow commission members are supposed to be looking out for, they own the public airwaves, they pay Powell's salary, and they are what puts the democratic in democracy.
Chairman Powell appears to be a great deal less concerned about any undue influence that might have been exerted on his decision by those handful of conglomerates who had everything to gain from the proposed rules changes.
Changing Michael Powell's mind was probably a hopeless task. Trying to wasn't. It got a shamelessly ignored story on front pages and cable news; it forced the issue into the public consciousness, and to the mainstream media's great surprise, people didn't like what they were hearing enough to make some public noise about it.
Not that the Republican wing of the FCC gave two hoots about what anything as amorphous as "the public" thought.
Congress cares. And Congress can overturn the ruling.
June 19th is the magic date That's when John McCain has scheduled a committee vote on legislation that would override the FCC ruling.
Not a lot of time. But enough
What's needed is a deluge of calls, emails, faxes, and postcards to committee members, and also to your own Senators and Representative, who are especially sensitive to constituent opinion.
Check out MoveOn for information about how to contact members of Congress. Or visit Lisa at Ruminate This, which is fast becoming a one stop help center for citizen activism, as well as being one of the wittiest and best looking blogs going; she has a toll-free number up for contacting Congress.
This is possible. This we can do. And beyond the value of slamming the brakes on media consolidation, the unprecedented success of a grassroots movement in getting Congress to say "no" to deregulation could change the dynamic of the mainstream media's discussion of the Bush domestic agenda.
Some of this was discussed at the excellent Media Forum of the Take Back America/Conference for America's future, televised by C-Span last Friday, and again Sunday evening. Eric Alterman, Farai Chideya, and John Moyers were all as terrific as you would expect. Jeff Chester of the Center For Digital Democracy was a revelation about what's at stake in the new architect of the internet, and Dan Carol of Carol/Trevelyan Strategy Group was inspiring in his broadening of the definition media. Turns out we have more power than we realize, but we better figure out how to use it, else we'll lose it.
If you missed the broadcast, check out the streaming Video at C-Span. I can't help you with a link because my bad tech karma is always exceptionally high when I try and access anything at C-Span. (Once, while there, my Real Player just disappeared)
