E-mail from Freepress re: FCC hearing in Columbus

[ohtransplant]

Dear ohtransplant,


Local resident testified to FCC Commissioners in front of more than 500 people at the recent hearing in Nashville

Do you want the media to better cover the issues you care about? Do you want higher quality journalism? Do you think that the handful of giant media conglomerates sufficiently provide diverse and independent viewpoints?

Now is your chance to tell the FCC how well the media are serving your community. Please join FCC Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein, Michael Copps and Robert McDowell for a public hearing on the future of media.

Date: Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Time: 5:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Location: Broad Street Presbyterian Church
Address: 760 E. Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio 43205
(Directions and Map)

The hearing is free and open to the public and will feature a lengthy open microphone session for you to tell the FCC how the media are serving your community. Click here ( http://stopbigmedia.com/=columbus )for further details.

All public testimony will be recorded and officially submitted to the FCC for consideration. Come prepared to speak your mind -- click here (http://stopbigmedia.com/=columbus ) for fact sheets and fliers that will help you in preparing your remarks.

Next week's hearing is being sponsored by Free Press, Consumers Union, Common Cause Ohio, United Church of Christ Office of Communications, Inc., Columbus Metropolitan Area Church Council, Ohio PIRG, Ohio Citizen Action, and Media Bridges.

This is a rare chance to participate directly in creating media policies that serve the public interest. Now that the FCC is again considering sweeping changes to the nation's media ownership rules, your input is critical.

Make your voice heard -- Join us on Mar. 7.

This looks like a good opportunity toi be heard.

[geiger]

1. This seems like a legal issue to me; talking about social, rather than

financial and political impact, seems a futile exercise as well. The airwaves are supposed to be publicly owned, and shouldn't the arguments stem from that, in court? I haven't studied the history of this problem closely enough, but all this purchasing frenzy also seems ironic in an age of multiple information sources, including the internet and blogs, which are also "infiltrated." Newspapers are having to totally re-think the way they do business. And if you just look at the way Katie Couric is trying to compete for the evening news market, it is mind-boggling, from "First Look," "Notebook," the daily email on what's up, and finally, the broadcast, I don't know how they'll sustain the pace.