Media Carta: We, the undersigned...

[WilliamPitt]

http://mediacarta.org/

We, the undersigned, are troubled by the way information flows and the way meaning is produced in our society.

WE HAVE LOST CONFIDENCE in what we are seeing, hearing and reading: too much infotainment and not enough news; too many outlets telling the same stories; too much commercialism and too much hype. Every day, this commercial information system distorts our view of the world.

WE HAVE LOST FAITH in the institutions of the mass media. A handful of corporations now control more than half the information networks around the world. At a time when people worldwide face hunger, social disruption, war and ecological collapse, only those who know how to walk the walk, talk the talk or pay big bucks are getting their message across.

WE HAVE LOST HOPE that our national media regulators will act in the public interest. Essential rules limiting media ownership and concentration are being scrapped, while rules protecting local content and access are diluted.

WE HAVE LOST PATIENCE waiting for reform.

WE IMAGINE A DIFFERENT SYSTEM – a media democracy. We see great promise in the open communications of the internet and want that openness expanded into every form of media. We envision a global system of communications that has as its foundation the direct, democratic participation of citizens. To this end, we demand the timely transfer of key media sources back to the people.

As a start, we demand the right to buy radio and television airtime under the same rules and conditions as advertising agencies. We ask our media regulators to set aside two minutes of every broadcast hour for citizen-produced messages. We want the six largest media corporations in the world broken up into smaller units.

What we ultimately seek is a new human right for our information age, one that empowers freedom of speech with the right to access the media. This new human right is: The Right to Communicate.

WE HEREBY LAUNCH A MOVEMENT to enshrine The Right to Communicate in the constitutions of all free nations, and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Sign the Manifesto

---

Every age has its human-rights battle, and every social movement has to fight one. The civil rights movement, feminism, environmentalism, the global justice movement – each has reshaped the way we understand human freedom.

Media Carta is the human-rights battle of our information age. It is about us, the people, singing the songs and telling the stories and generating culture from the bottom up, instead of having it spoon-fed from the top down.

This is a fight that we cannot avoid. Without a media democracy – meaningful public access to the most powerful forms of communication – we cannot raise healthy children, create good public policy or hold elections that matter. We lose the power to shape our own consciousness, our own future. We lose even the power to imagine what that future may look like.

We need a total revolution in the way we relate to the media. We want access. We want public communications. We want a fair marketplace of ideas.

Media Carta is a great personal, intellectual, social, cultural and legal test. It is a freedom fight worth breaking unjust laws for. It’s worth street protests, all-out meme wars and international days of action. Media Carta will tip the balance of power from corporations toward civil society. It is the issue of issues, the jam of jams – the ultimate struggle for a genuine democracy.

A victory here will change everything.

http://mediacarta.org/endgame.html

[Mairead]

1. The helluvit is, Will, that I've (and probably you've) seen this at least

a half-dozen times already. Not this particular incarnation, of course, but the wrist-to-forehead-oh-woe-is-us-the-media-done-done-us-wrong-and-we-must-have-change panto.

But it never does seem to change, does it. Except possibly for the worse.

[WilliamPitt]

2. Repeated failure

is no reason to stop trying on matters such as this.

[Mairead]

12. Yes, I've always believed in 'fail better' too, but

it doesn't seem to me as though we're failing better each time. If anything, it seems as though we're failing less well.

I think we need some strategy that works within a single life-stage of an individual. If it takes longer, people lose focus.

[SeattleRob]

3. I'm signing...

I agree, we have to keep trying.

[library_max]

4. I signed it.

And I think it's a very important cause. It's going to be tough, though, to frame legislation in reasonably simple and legally precise terms that will do what you want to do without trashing the First Amendment.

IMO, we are between the rock and a hard place of Buckley v. Valeo and the Microphone Rule. Buckley v. Valeo says that campaign contributions are protected speech, on the grounds that they buy air time and so on. The Microphone Rule says that, while speech is free, a microphone is not. The newspaper does not have to print my letters, the radio or TV station does not have to air my editorial rebuttals, etc.

Thus, the Microphone Rule says that there is a right to free speech and freedom of the press, but it doesn't guarantee the right to a forum or a medium. Buckley v. Valeo says that you do have a Constitutionally-protected right to a "microphone," if and only if you can pay for it. The net effect is that people with money have a Constitutionally-protected right categorically denied to people without money.

One or the other has got to give. It would be more practical to overturn Buckley v. Valeo - the Microphone Rule exists for mostly practical reasons. I'm not advocating that buying airtime for political purposes be illegal, but the point is that it shouldn't be a Constitutionally-protected and unlimitable right, because of the Microphone Rule.

[Hornito]

5. I support this 100%!

I, and several others, are in the process of trying to set up a foundation that will work to restore the Fairness Doctrine, either through congressional legislation, or baring that, by executive order.

As the make-up of Congress is currently dominated by a Republican majority, and that the 04' elections will probably not change that equation much, we will be seeking a commitment from Senator Kerry, that if elected, he will immediately, upon assuming the office of President of the United States, sign an executive order restoring the Fairness Doctrine.

Stay tuned. More to come on this.........

[VelmaD]

6. Done...

and done. :)

[goodhue]

7. signed

[CWebster]

8. Compartmentalize this

"Kerry was a strong supporter of the Telecommunications Competition and Deregulation Act of 1995 and the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which by some accounts was the most lobbied piece of legislation in history. The result of these laws was a massive consolidation of media companies, particularly in the radio industry, where over 4,000 radio stations have been sold since 1996. Clear Channel alone went from 40 stations to approximately 1,200 stations. The legislation also gave away the digital spectrum to the broadcasting companies free of charge (rather than having it auctioned off). The spectrum is valued at about $70 billion. Keep in mind, this is the same John Kerry who likes to brag about how he boldly shafted the poor by supporting welfare reform. Apparently, giving a $70 billion Christmas gift for the telecom industry is a more laudable goal than providing temporary subsistence living for America's poor.

Kerry's special relationship with the telecommunications industry is the focus of a devastating report by The Center for Public Integrity entitled "Kerry Carries Water for Top Donor." <2> According to the report, "Boston-based Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo P.C. has been the biggest financial backer of the Massachusetts Democrat's two decades-long political career in elected office, with its employees contributing nearly $187,000 to various Kerry races, including his current presidential campaign." Kerry's brother, Cameron, has been working for Mintz, Levin since 1983. The company lobbies on behalf of telecom organizations such as the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA)...

...Kerry and his wife also hold a considerable amount of stock in the industry. According to the report, "Kerry and his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry have substantial holdings in telecommunications companies; between $17.6 million and $47.1 million of their combined fortune is held in companies with a stake in the industry, the Center's analysis of his financial disclosure form revealed. That falls in a range of roughly 7 percent to 11 percent of the couple's combined $165 million to $626 million in assets. Most of the fortune, and the stocks, belong to Heinz Kerry. Some $3.9 million to $13.9 million of those holdings are in companies which are members of CTIA."

...Given all of these facts, it is no surprise that the media loves John Kerry. In 2002 the Massachusetts Telecommunications Council (a lobbying organization) named Kerry "Policy Maker of the Year." The UK Guardian reports that Kerry's campaign "is being bankrolled by key executives from News Corporation, MTV-owner Viacom and Sony . . . Mr Chernin, one of most trusted lieutenants, is among several media chiefs who have pledged to raise between $50,000 and $100,000 . . . "

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Feb04/Felux0212.htm

[raysr]

9. signed

[mcar]

10. Signed

Thanks.

[library_max]

11. kick

:kick:

[BootinUp]

13. This is a well written manifesto, I gladly signed it

thanks Will.

[never cry wolf]

14. Signed and kicked

:kick: