Citizens opppose corporate media control

By Christine Anne Piesyk | December 12, 2006 |

“Give us back our airways!”

That was the message delivered by the majority of speakers at the Federal Communications Commission’s second public hearing on the impact of media consolidation in Nashville Monday. The event drew a crowd of over 500 people from six states and a panel of celebrities to Belmont University’s Massey Performing Arts Center. The hearing was the second of six to be held across the country.

“If anyone tries to tell you that Big Media’s push for more consolidation has gone away, don’t believe it,” said Commissioner Michael Copps. “They haven’t gone away, and their lawyers and lobbyists haven’t gone away either. So if we are going on to a broader dialogue on the future of media in our democracy, it will be because of citizen action from millions of Americans and testimony at hearings like this one.”

“The law tells us that we are supposed to promote the public interest,” said Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. “And I think you, the public, know best what’s in your interest and not the lobbyists that we hear so much from inside the beltway.” «Read the rest of this article»

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