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Monday, December 26
This Week in Media
by
Arron Wings
on Mon 26 Dec 2005 11:20 AM CST
 This Week in Media
The
biggest news this week was all but ignored by the media. The
grassroots group Iowans for Better Local TV filed a formal Petition to
Deny with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), challenging the
renewal of a broadcast license to KGAN Channel 2 in Cedar Rapids, a
station owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group. The petition is
available online and the supporting affidavits and exhibits (close to
400 pages) will soon be available for reading at the Iowa City Public
Library.
Free Press was also active this week, filing a Formal Complaint with the FCC protesting “payola punditry.”
The
Senate confirmed two members to the FCC, Michael Copps (returning) and
Deborah Tate (new), on Wednesday. The confirmations fill four of
the five seats with a nomination for the fifth expected early next year.
A great editorial by Marie Cocco details the terrible track record of the press in 2005.
“This has been an annus horribilis for the American press.
Other
years have produced more spectacular scandals — the serial fabrications
of former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair come to mind. But
nothing resembles the depressing mixture of press failure,
brass-knuckled administration enforcement of secrecy, and blatant,
taxpayer-funded promotion of government propaganda we suffer now.
Add to
this the corporate slashing of newsroom budgets that decimates staffs
and diminishes what the remaining, overworked journalists can produce,
and you have a poisonous stew.”
Click here to read the entire editorial.
And Free Press Minutes Media Minutes are here.
Please
consider becoming more active in Media Reform as one of your
resolutions for the New Year. Sign up to be an Free Press
E-Activist here or join Iowans for Better Local TV by sending an email
to feedback@IBLTV.ORG.
Thursday, December 22
Group Delivers Petition To Deny the Broadcast License of KGAN Channel 2
by
Trish Nelson
on Thu 22 Dec 2005 04:00 AM CST
 Group Delivers Petition To Deny the Broadcast License of KGAN Channel 2
Iowans for Better Local Television to hold broadcaster to a higher standard of service
Iowans
for Better Local Television (IBLTV) are gathering at the offices of
KGAN-TV to deliver a copy of their Petition to Deny the License Renewal
to Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The petition requests that
KGAN-TV Channel 2’s application for license renewal not be granted
until a public hearing is held to ascertain whether the broadcaster has
met the “statutory public interest” standard.
Television
station licenses are granted by the FCC for an eight year term. The
deadline for Iowa television stations to apply for license renewal was
October 1, 2005. The public has until December 30, 2005 to file
petitions to deny these renewals, or informal comments to the
FCC. Thus, it will be another eight years before citizens have a
chance to examine the performance of their local stations. According to
IBLTV Co-Chair Trish Nelson, KGAN and its corporate owner, Sinclair
Broadcast Group, have failed to meet the FCC’s programming and
management standards required of all television license holders.
The
petition states that KGAN owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group, appears to
have lied to the FCC, violates the FCC’s ownership rules, has a
technically inadequate signal, fails to meet standards for children’s
programming and does not do an adequate job of reporting local issues.
“Filing
a license challenge against a broadcaster is an enormous effort,”
Nelson said. “We’ve met to work on the petition twice a month for the
past year; we’ve visited KGAN nearly a dozen times; we’ve recorded,
watched and analyzed hundreds of hours of KGAN programming; we’ve read
hundreds of public comments; many of us have even taken vacation time
from our jobs to complete the project by the FCC’s deadline.”
In the
coming months the FCC will review IBLTV’s license challenge and report
back its findings to the group. “If the FCC is ever going to deny a
television station license renewal, this is the case,” IBLTV member
Arron Wing said. “Sinclair, honored by Business Week as one of the
worst managed companies in the country, manages to increase profits,
while its revenues decrease, by engaging in joint operating agreements,
cutting staff, and totally ignoring its statutory and moral obligations
to the community. If the FCC won’t deny a license renewal for one of
the worst television stations, and worst broadcasting companies in the
United States, perhaps there ought to be a congressional hearing on the
FCC’s performance as well.”
Iowans for Better Local TV -
IBLTV.Org
Thank you, Iowa!
10 more signatures needed
to reach 500 by Thursday noon!!
Click here: There is still time to
sign
our petition to the
FCC
Monday, December 19
This Week in Media
by
Arron Wings
on Mon 19 Dec 2005 11:00 AM CST
This Week in Media
I couldn’t have said it better myself. Here are the lede paragraphs of the key stories this week in media.
“Kids TV
advocates and representatives and media companies, including the Big
Four Networks, have agreed on changes to the FCC’s digital kids TV
rules that would allow more promos in kids shows, host selling, and
preemptions for sports and other programming.” Broadcasting
& Cable
“A
senior scholar at the Cato Institute, the respected libertarian
research organization, has resigned after revelations that he took
payments from the lobbyist Jack Abramoff in exchange for writing
columns favorable to his clients.” New York Times
“AT&T
Inc. and BellSouth Corp. are lobbying Capitol Hill for the right to
create a two-tiered Internet, where the telecom carriers’ own Internet
services would be transmitted faster and more efficiently than those of
their competitors.” Boston Globe
“Critics
and ethicists have long denounced “happy talk” morning shows for
blurring the line between news, entertainment, and commerce. Now, the
“infomercial” has hatched offspring — advertainment.”
Minnesota Public Radio Related story in Star Tribune
“It's
been done with stadiums, pools and concert halls. Now, in an unusual
move, Madison's WIBA radio station has sold the naming rights to its
newsroom. Beginning Jan. 1, the WIBA newsroom will be called the
Amcore Bank News Center.” Wisconsin State Journal
Click here to listen to Media Minutes from Free Press
Saturday, December 17
Moyers has his say
by
Trish Nelson
on Sat 17 Dec 2005 11:00 AM CST
 Moyers Has His Say
FreePress
Bill Moyers became the central figure
in absentia in the controversy surrounding former Corporation for
Public Broadcasting (CPB) Chairman Kenneth Tomlinson. It was Tomlinson
who pointed to Moyers’ Now newscast on PBS as a chief reason for his
efforts to bring “balance” to public broadcasting by adding
conservative shows. Moyers has since left Now and is currently
president of the Schumann Center for Media & Democracy.
He spoke with B&C's John Eggerton in the wake of a CPB Inspector
General report concluding Tomlinson had violated the law by dealing
directly with a programmer during the creation of a show to balance
Moyers' programht-wing partisans like Tomlinson have always attacked aggressive reporting as liberal.
You are the exemplar of liberal PBS bias, according to Ken Tomlinson. Was your show liberally biased?
We were
biased, all right—in favor of uncovering the news that powerful people
wanted to keep hidden: conflicts of interest at the Department of
Interior, secret meetings between Vice President Cheney and the oil
industry, backdoor shenanigans by lobbyists at the FCC, corruption in
Congress, neglect of wounded veterans returning from Iraq, Pentagon
cost overruns, the manipulation of intelligence leading to the invasion
of Iraq.
We were way ahead of the news curve on these stories, and the administration turned its hit men loose on us.
If
reporting on what’s happening to ordinary people thrown overboard by
circumstances beyond their control and betrayed by Washington officials
is liberalism, I stand convicted.
(click here to read the entire article)
(source)
Iowans for Better Local TV - IBLTV.Org
There is still time to sign our petition to the FCC
Monday, December 12
This Week in Media
by
Arron Wings
on Mon 12 Dec 2005 11:00 AM CST
This Week in Media
The
“must read” of the week is “When Message and Medium Look to Fool” by
Leonard Pitts Jr. It takes on the Bush administration's abuse of the media both here and in Iraq.
“...while political
manipulation of the news is hardly new, Team Bush has a long and
singularly sordid record of trying to turn the media into a wholly
owned public relations subsidiary. Now they’re taking their act
on the road. And get this: They’re doing it under the guise of building
democracy. Which is rather like stealing from the collection plate
under the guise of giving to the needy."
Click here for the full
story.
Indecency
is back to center stage as Federal Communications Commission Chairman
Kevin J. Martin pressures the industry to clean up offerings and the
Congressional Research Service Study says proposed indecency rules
likely violate First Amendment.
John
Nichols and Robert McChesney, founders of FreePress have a new book
out. “Tragedy and Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin
Elections, and Destroy Democracy.” Associated Press article is
here, and Buzzflash review is here.
A
transcript of “Town Hall Meeting on the Future of Media” held October
5, 2005 in Iowa City is now available here. Audio is available
here.
Free Press Media Minutes are here.
Monday, December 5
This Week in Media - Free Press Campaign
by
Arron Wings
on Mon 05 Dec 2005 11:00 AM CST
This Week in Media
Free Press.net
Free Press Campaign
America’s
leadership is waging a war against the journalistic standards and
practices that underpin not only a free press but our democracy. The
Fourth Estate is withering under an unprecedented White House assault
designed to intimidate, smear and discredit investigative journalism —
and allow the president and his political cronies to lie with impunity.
If left unchecked, this and future administrations will continue to:
* manipulate the media "message" by producing propaganda, putting
journalists on the government payroll and tightly scripting all public
events;
* dismiss all dissenting views in the media as biased and politically motivated;
* undermine public trust in journalism using the right-wing “echo
chamber” to sow hostility toward reporters who challenge the official
line; and
* eliminate access to information making it nearly impossible for
journalists to investigate vast swathes of the federal government.
(click here to read the entire article)
Listen to this week's Media Minutes
Help keep Iowa's press free and independent
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