rss
1

American Media Contract proposed by FCC Commissioner Copps

At the National Conference for Media Reform in January, FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps challenged the thousands of people attending to enact a new “American Media Contract.”  I think he did a good job of summing up the problems with big media. He proposed replacing the “bad old bargain that past FCCs struck with the media moguls” with the following:

We, the American people, have given broadcasters free use of the nation’s most valuable spectrum, and we expect something in return:

  • A right to media that strengthen our democracy.
  • A right to local stations that are actually local.
  • A right to media that looks and sounds like America.
  • A right to news that isn’t canned and radio playlists that aren’t for sale.
  • A right to programming that isn’t so damned bad so damned often.

Conference attendees were asked to share their pearls of wisdom in five words.  Here are some of my favorites (from the FreePress site):

  • Don’t Mess With the Internet
  • Real News Is Democracy’s Oxygen
  • Don’t let Big Media Supersize
  • Junk Media Rots Your Brain
  • Share/Bookmark
Related posts:
  1. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps rallies the troops on media reform
  2. Assembling democracy
  3. Media Reform Speech by FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein
  4. Recent articles on Media Reform, all in one convenient place!
  5. Tragedy and Farce: how the American media lost its way

About the Author

Erich Vieth is an iconoclastic attorney, musician and writer living in the Shaw neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. He and his wife Anne Jay have two daughters, aged 9 and 11.

Comments (1)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Ebonmuse says:

    Reforms like this are long overdue. The radio spectrum is a public trust, and we have a responsibility to see it used in a way that furthers the interests and viewpoints of every citizen of the country. As another contribution to a five-word slogan, how about “The Airwaves Are For Everyone”?

Leave a Reply




If you want a picture to show with your comment, go get a Gravatar.

*
To prove you're a person (not a spam script), type the security word shown in the picture. Click on the picture to hear an audio file of the word.
Click to hear an audio file of the anti-spam word