MaineToday.com, June 25, 2007

A broad coalition of local and national groups is urging the public to attend the Federal Communications Commission's next official localism hearing - an opportunity for residents of New England to weigh in on how responsive local radio and television broadcasters are to the needs of their local community.

The FCC public hearing will take place:

Thursday, June 28th
4 p.m. — 11 p.m.
Portland High School
284 Cumberland Ave
Portland, Maine

All five FCC Commissioners are expected to attend the hearing. The event will feature an "open microphone" session for the public to offer testimony on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information about the hearing and details on free public workshops, visit http://www.stopbigmedia.com/=portland or http://www.commoncause.org/portlandhearing.

The following people are available to comment on the event:

Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., Founder, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
"Minority participation in America media today is grim. Nationally, people of color make up 33 percent of the U.S. population but own only 3.3 percent of all television stations and 7.7 percent of all radio stations. In short, too few, own too much, at the expense of too many."

Jon Bartholomew, National Media and Democracy Organizer, Common Cause Maine
"If Mainers lose access to views and news, media moguls may grow richer but our democracy will be poorer. America's democracy works best when citizens have access to a wide diversity of views and plenty of local news. These are two of our nation's most important media policy goals."

Linda K. Foley, President, The Newspaper Guild — Communications Workers of America
"Anyone who's spent any time in New England knows that its strong democratic traditions are rooted in its numerous towns and cities. Reliance on diverse sources of local news and information is critical to this region's ability to preserve the democratic values that are the fabric of daily life."

Gene Kimmelman, Vice President of Federal and International Affairs, Consumers Union
"If you already worry that local newspapers and TV news provide inadequate depth or detail in their local coverage, just imagine how much worse things will get if the government lets national or global media giants buy your local newspaper and largest TV stations."

Yolanda Hippensteele, Outreach Director, Free Press
"Consolidation has already led to the loss of local media ownership in Portland, with the majority of the most influential local broadcast owners selling to out-of-state Big Media owners in the past decade. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and the other commissioners need to hear how these Big Media companies are serving — or failing to serve — local communities in Maine."

Brian Hiatt, Director of Communications and Online Organizing, League of Young Voters, Portland Chapter
"With ownership from away come agendas from away. Local ownership is the best way to ensure that broadcasters serve the public interest, just like engagement in local politics safeguards against interests from away."

Matt Power, Producer, Liberty News TV
"Without local access to the airwaves, all hope of reclaiming our democracy is lost. That may sound a bit melodramatic, but it's the simple truth. We're approaching the point where a tiny group of media corporations tell the public what to think. The inevitable results: bad political choices, bad environmental choices, bad parenting choices, bad choices about how we live our lives and treat others. You name it—without local media control, almost nothing we get from the television, the radio, the newspaper or the Internet will show us how to improve the public good."

Craig Saddlemire, Professional Media Maker
"This is a critical time for the FCC to implement regulations that encourage local access to and local control of media. These are important features that must be returned to our media system in order for it be a useful tool for the public good.

Jim Haigh, Mid-Atlantic Community Papers Association
"Our nation's airwaves are a public trust. Maintaining a license for broadcast spectrum is a privilege, not a right. Community interests take precedent over pure profit. Monopolistic media concentration will further transform our airwaves from a vital public resource into an exclusive tool for a handful of corporations. This hammer will smash competition and muzzle local voices."

Tony Vigue, Community Television Association of Maine
"Community television is the essence of Media Localism. Maine is fortunate to have over 90 community television stations that together deliver more than 15,000 hours of local television programming per week. This is far more than all the commercial stations combined. Our ability to do this is a direct result of countless volunteer hours and direct financial support from locally negotiated franchise agreements with the video service providers, who use the public right-of-way for commercial profit. Recent FCC rulings have put this established framework in jeopardy and we will be present at these hearings to voice our concerns for the future of community television".

For more information, visit http://www.stopbigmedia.com/=portland or http://www.commoncause.org/portlandhearing

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