Act Now – August 2004

from:
mediaforamerica.org

In the next meeting of your church group or citizen organization, start a letter writing campaign to President Bush and your congressional representatives urging the immediate reappointment of FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. Go here , here and here for reasons why.

We encourage you to take action. Contact the responsible parties below: Remember, the the already dangerous monopoly of TV and radio (and therefore of news, public thought and action) is being pushed forward with money and secrecy. The media giants have spent huge amounts to buy support in Congress and have cleansed their news of reporting the FCC push. They have also sidestepped any critical reporting on the Bush administration while they seek its favor.

Contact these and other members of the Senate Commerce Committee.

Senator Frtiz Hollings, Phone: (202) 224-6121; fax: 202.224.4293; http://hollings.senate.gov
Senator Barbara Boxer, Phone: (202) 224-3553 or (415) 403-0100; fax: 415.956.6701; boxer@senate.gov

Contact these FCC Commissioners:

Chairman Michael Powell, 202-418-1000, mpowell@fcc.gov
Commissioner Kevin J. Martin: 202-418-1003 kjmweb@fcc.gov
Commissioner Kathleen Q. Abernathy: 202-418-1002 kabernat@fcc.gov

Call or write network news bosses (see contacts below).

• Challenge them to report on their network's efforts to influence Congress and the FCC via campaign donations.
  
• Challenge them to stop protecting the Administration and report on lies about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction exposed in the print media, on its environmental record, on the huge cutbacks coming in education, social and health programs and veterans benefits as money is shifted to campaign contributors for work in Iraq or to the wealthy in forms of new tax deductions.

| Monday: ABC | Tuesday: MSNBC AND NBC | Wednesday: CBS |
| Thursday: CNN and PBS | Friday: Fox |

Besides the daily calls, WHENEVER YOU SEE OR HEAR BIASED COVERAGE, CALL THE NEWS CHIEFS AND/OR NEWSROOMS AND INSIST ON RESPONSIBLE, IN-DEPTH JOURNALISM. There is plenty every day to call about. Calls are best because they must halt misinforming the public while they deal with you. If you cannot reach policy makers, then fax or e-mail.

Work with Media Challenge! on Reclaiming Our Democracy
Media Challenge! is engaged in a longterm campaign to break the stranglehold five television companies have on what the public gets to know and therefore the hold they have on our democracy. 58% of the public relies on General Electric (MSNBC and NBC) News Corp. (Fox), Disney (ABC), AOL-Time Warner (CNN) and Viacom (CBS) for its information. This is far too much power in a democracy for a handful of profit driven companies whose "news" deceives more than it reveals.

Our "Call the Bosses" campaign is the first major action we have undertaken to force change in the system. Others we are now encouraging for those who have time and/or commitment are:

• Contact the FCC and your Congressperson and Senators to block the proposed "deregulation" of media which will permit even more monopoly consolidation of electronic media than we now have and further jeopardize our democracy. This is urgent as the FCC is expected to act before June. Contact info is below.

• Cancel your cable news stations and tell your cable operator you are doing so to protest their abuse of "news" coverage, particularly the one-sided drift of the networks to providing propaganda for those in power. Most local cable companies do not include the cable news networks (CNN, FOX and MSNBC) in their "basic" service. Most subscribers pay additional for them and they usually come "bundled" with several other networks in what the cable industry calls a "tier." You can cancel this tier if you are willing to forego the other networks bundled with the cable news networks. Encourage others to do the same.

• Sell stock you may hold in any of the five companies and encourage others to do the same. If you invest through a "screened fund," ask the fund to delist these companies on the grounds that they are socially irresponsible businesses.

For more information about Media Challenge! and what the news networks are not telling you go to projects4peace.org and click on Media.

NETWORK NEWS EXECUTIVES TO CALL

ABC News President: David Westin
212.456.6200
fax: 212.456.4292
e-mail address not available
77 W. 6th Street
New York, NY 10023

NBC News President: Neil Shapiro
212.664.4773
neal.shapiro@nbc.com
fax: 212.664.2264
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112

MSNBC V.P. Live News Programming: Mark Effron
201.583.5101
mark.effron@msnbc.com
fax: 201.583.5199
One MSNBC Plaza
Secaucus, NJ 07094

CBS News President: Andrew Hayward
212.975.7825
mg3@cbsnews.com (his assistant)
fax: 212.975.7429
524 W. 57th Street
New York, NY 10019

CNN News President: Walter Isaacson
404.827.5111
walter.isaacson@cnn.com
fax: 404.827.4215
1 CNN Center
Atlanta, GA 30303

FOX News Channel Sr. V.P. News Editorial: John Moody
212.301.8560
john.moody@foxnews.com
fax: 212.398.8726
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036

NETWORK SWITCHBOARDS

Call these numbers if the executives are busy and ask for the newsrooms - or, better yet call both.ÊAsk for the shift director and tell him or her your thoughts. If you can't get to them, tell whoever answers your thoughts.

ABC
212.456.6813
FAX: 212.456.2795

NBC
212.664.4444
FAX: 201.583.5453

MSNBC
201.583.5000
FAX: 201.583.5590

CBS
212.975.4321
FAX: 212.975.1893

CNN
404.827.1500
cnnfutures@cnn.com

FOX
212.575.4670
FAX: 212.301.8274

PBS
212.708.3000

How to Contact the FCC To contact via phone (highly encouraged along with emails):

Chairman Powell (202) 418-1000

To have MediaTank.org send an email message to the FCC calling for a halt to media conglomeration and breakup of the media giants that are abetting this war, go to:

MediaTank.org

To Contact the Commissioners directly via E-mail

Chairman Michael K. Powell: mpowell@fcc.gov

Commissioner Kathleen Q. Abernathy: kabernat@fcc.gov

Commissioner Michael J. Copps: mcopps@fcc.gov

Commissioner Kevin J. Martin: kjmweb@fcc.gov

Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein: jadelste@fcc.gov

To Write letters to any or all commissioners:
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554

Links to Media Democracy Web Sites

Media Democracy Legal Project
http://www.medialegalproject.org

Media for America
http://www.mediaforamerica.org

MediaReform.org
http://www.mediareform.org

Reclaim the Media
http://www.reclaimthemedia.org

Center for Digital Democracy
http://www.democraticmedia.org

Media Alliance
http://www.media-alliance.org

Media Tank
http://www.mediatank.org

MediaChannel
http://www.mediachannel.org

Progressive internet radio
(best if you have high-speed access;
some also provide substantial text)

Democracy Now! is a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program airing on over 140 stations in North America. Pioneering the largest public media collaboration in the U.S., Democracy Now! is broadcast on Pacifica, community, and National Public Radio stations, public access cable television stations, satellite television (on Free Speech TV, channel 9415 of the DISH Network), shortwave radio and the internet.

The program is hosted by award-winning journalists Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez.

KPFK broadcasts Democracy Now! at 9:00 am weekdays in LA at 90.7 and in Santa Barbara at 98.7.

Other Pacifica affiliates are WBAI (99.1) in NYC, KPFT (90.1) in Houston and WPFW (89.3) in D.C. A full list is here http://www.pacifica.org/about/afsubs.html

Other Pacifica stations online here

KPFA (94.1) in Berkeley

KFCF (88.1) Fresno

Some other internet radio sources – Try these:

WBIX http://www.wbix.org

FSRN (Free Speech Radio Network) http://www.fsrn.org

Webactive http://www.webactive.com

and

Flashpoints.net http://www.flashpoints.net

More about the Media Initiative

We are experiencing an historic moment in which the daily under-informing and misinforming of America that characterizes corporate media consolidation, has reached a dramatic new level in the failure to report fully and accurately on the march to war with Iraq and on the accompanying efforts to shred civil liberties in the United States. Instead, the five companies that control what much of the public gets to know are literally herded the public into the war and are now herding thema way from its consequences, including vast cutbacks in human services, veterans benefits, tranportation, education and housing budgets in the U.S.

True democracy requires a highly informed public. Television and radio news has failed on a crucial and historical level at educating the public to vital developments and realities affecting our lives. They have thus become anti-democratic.

Accordingly, until and unless they undertake major reforms or are forced to change via legislation, we intend to make General Electric (NBC), NewCo (Fox) , Disney (ABC), AOL-Time-Warner (CNN), Viacom (ABC) and their counterparts in radio such as Clear Channel the "story" that needs to be told to the American public.

We the initiating peace and social justice groups are prepared to make every lawful effort that our imaginations can contrive to reform their current operations. We will mobilize citizens to protest their dangerous broadcasts every legal way they can. We will soon also begin lobbying Congress to withdraw their monopoly over precious corporate rights to public airspace and open both television, radio and cable spectrums to new voices and organizations.

The Case Against TV and Radio News - What every peace supporter should know and tell the executives.

In speaking to news chiefs, insist that information refuting administration statements be mentioned every time the administration claim is mentioned. Prominent should be these facts:

When a newscaster says the US says it is at war over Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, alongside it must be stated the essential role of key neo-conservatives in pushing a three-decade old agenda that predates Iraqi chemical/biological weaponry and which sees the U.S. first taking Iraq, then moving into Iran and Syria in order to control the Mideast and its oil power. That policy was openly codified in the formation in 1997 of a new and highly activist right-wing organization, The Project for a New American Century, which counts as key members most of the administration's top national security figures. Americans need to be reminded of this hourly.

Evidence of Administration lying to the public must be prominently and repeatedly mentioned. The evidence should include the following:

*     Knowing use by the Administration of a forged document alleged evidence of Iraqi attempts to acquire nuclear materials from Niger -- to obtain Congressional authority to go to war. Senator Jay Rockefeller (W. Va) has now demanded an FBI investigation of this deceit and Rep. Henry Waxman (LA) has written the President demanding an explanation of "this breach of the highest order."

*     Reports by the Philadelphia Inquirer and New York Times that intelligence analysts were under intense pressure by the Administration to "cook the books" on Iraq.

*     The resignations of State Dept. diplomat John Kiesling protesting that "we have not seen such systematic distortion of intelligence, such systematic manipulation of American opinion, since the war in Vietnam."

*     Newsweek's disclosure that the Administrations most oft-cited best source of intelligence about Iraq's pre-1991 weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein's late son-in-law, told UN inspectors and the CIA in 1995 that Iraq's biological and chemical weapons had been destroyed after the war information not reported to the American public by Bush, Cheney or Powell in public statements referring to the son-in-law.

*     The fact that virtually every statement Secretary of State Powell made to the UN in his famous "evidence" case against Iraq has now been refuted in the print media. British newspapers, for example, exposed that much of the information was not drawn from intelligence sources but from a years old doctoral study by a student who got most of his information from the Internet. The LA Times revealed that the alleged Al Qaeda base in Iraq was actually in territory not controlled by Iraq but overseen by US Kurdish allies and that the administration had refused to tell Congress why it had not "taken it out."

The Mid-East financial dealings of the Bush family, Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and the new no-bid contracts to rebuild Iraq being given to their business associates. Cheney flatly lied during the election when he said he had no business dealings with Iraq.

The price we pay for war and the military buildup must also daily be moved front and center. This includes major budget cuts in poverty, health, housing, transportation and other programs. Civil liberties and government spying must also be headlined regularly.

Currently, many stories crucial for the public to know are uncovered by independent and foreign journalists or by the print media and never see the light of day in TV newsrooms. This must change. For example, the networks have not informed the public in depth on the U.S. role in putting Saddam Hussein in power and on U.S. assistance in helping him acquire biological weapons and use chemical weapons. They have ignored the Mid-East financial dealings of the Bush family, Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. They avoid the Presidents personal religious beliefs and close ties to fundamentalists seeking apocalypse in the Mideast - in other words, the very real question of whether the President is a closet religious fanatic.

They have kept from the public how the U.S. government misled Saudi Arabia in 1991 on the threat to its borders from Iraq and then lied about babies being slaughtered by Iraq. These are clearly stories that, if referred to as regularly as TV cites Saddam Hussein's history, might shape public opinion in directions other than the war promoting in which TV engages.

Reforms are essential to reverse TV's abuse of its power with the public and its undermining of our democracy.

Arlene Stone
e-mail: decorator4day@joimail.com

Jose Rios
Vice President News Dept. KTTZ Fox 11
1999 S. Bundy Drive
Los Angeles CA 90025
(310) 584-2000 FAX: 310-584-2023

March 14, 2003

Dear Mr. Rios:

This letter protests the limited and biased coverage of the anti-war movement by Fox News both locally and nationwide. As a community resource, you have an obligation to present fair and balanced coverage of the news without serving as a mouthpiece for the White House and the Pentagon. The rush to war on Iraq with its threat of global destruction and massive loss of life is illegal, immoral, and mindless of the lies fed to the American public, doctored and plagiarized "evidence" fed to the United Nations by the United States government, and the drumbeats of the mediaÕs band of hurrahs led by Fox news channels. In what you select and in how that information is presented to the public, you have a sacred public trust. We urge you to reconsider your silence and/or unbalanced news coverage on an antiwar movement that in weeks has reached throughout the world further than a decade of similar demonstrations after a decade in the Vietnam War. Millions are demonstrating to protest a government out of control and reckless in its arrogant presumption of first-strike capacity and contempt of all who oppose its headlong plummet toward world holocaust. Those millions worldwide involved in protest include tens of thousands of war veterans, families with small children, and people of every faith. Participating members of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace include heads and members of congregations from diverse religious communities in the Los Angeles area that include Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh and unaffiliated. Our concern has led us to adopt this morning a boycott of Fox News to be announced at the huge march expected on March 15 to assemble in downtown Los Angeles at Olympic and Broadway to march to the Federal Building for a rally to feature such speakers as Jesse Jackson and Gore Vidal. This boycott will accelerate and continue until we have assurance that Fox News can behave independently and responsibly to get out the whole truth and not just government propaganda. A virtual march commences immediately, declaring Flood Fox on Fridays and will continue with visits to your offices.

Sincerely, Arlene Stone
Media Committee, ICUJP

Flood Fox!
Boycott FOX TV:
We Want Fair Balanced Coverage, Not Endless War Propaganda!

Call FOX every Friday:

Jose Rios
Vice President News Dept. KTTZ Fox 11
(310) 584-2000
fax: 310-584-2023

FOX News Channel Sr. V.P. News Editorial:
John Moody
(212) 301-8560
john.moody@foxnews.com
fax: (212) 398-8726
1211 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10036