After writing "Now Big Media can hurt workers better" and spreading it as far across the net as I possibly could, I took further action via E-Activist
e-mail against the FCC's Dec 18th vote to overturn the 32 year-old
rule which declared that one entity cannot own both a print and
broadcast outlet in the same media market. It was the Free Press form
e-mail that can be found here,
please send it if you haven't already done so. Well I got a response
from my Congressman Vito J. Fossella (R-NY), I guess send a form e-mail
and get one back is to be expected. But I thought that maybe we can get him
to consider the consequences to the side to which he has chosen to
stand. Please understand I don't agree with everything he stands for, as with most if
not all politicians.



But
this is really important, what might get him to actually read my
e-mail, and think his position out further? Mr.Fossella has been
working hard in my hometown fighting to keep my closest emergency room
open. Why haven't you all heard about the public hospital in the New
York City's most populated county? I can't answer that, but I'm sure
most of America can tell you when American Idol is about to start. But
thats neither here nor there, I actually have wanted to get involved in
the hospital crisis, especially for the fact that I personally have
been treated there and have known local people who have worked there.
The next Emergency Room is miles away and in a city that timing can be
life or death. So I wrote an e-mail offering my help and begging him to
reconsider his stance on this media consolidation issue. Whatever the
outcome I would like to get involved



Well here goes, the response to my e-mail which I received from Congressman Fossella, which I'm sure is identical in every way to anyone else in my congressional area, but it needs addressing.

Thank you for Contacting Me
1/4/2008
Thank
you for contacting me with your thoughts on Federal Communications
Commission’s decision to ease regulations on media ownership. I
appreciate your taking the time to share your views on this important
issue with me.

On December 18, 2007, the FCC voted to loosen
restrictions on media ownership. The new rules will permit one entity
to own both a print and broadcast outlet in the same media market. This
policy change will only apply in the 20 largest media markets in the
country, and it requires that at least 8 independent, competing outlets
exist in that market after consolidation for the rule to apply. This
ruling will help salvage many of the nation’s failing newspapers which
have been unable to compete with new media. Should this rule change go
into effect, it will remove the heavy hand of government and allow
thriving broadcasters to support struggling newspapers while ensuring
that a diverse array of opinions remain available to the public.

Please
know that I will keep your views in mind while carefully following the
proceedings on the easing of media ownership rules and will keep your
views in mind should any relevant legislation come before me in
Congress.

Please feel free to visit my website, www.house.gov/fossella,
where you may find additional information on important issues. While
there, you may also sign up for my E-newsletter to receive regular
updates on what my office is doing in both the 13th Congressional
District and in Washington, D.C.

Once again, thank you for
contacting me with your thoughts on this issue. Please do not hesitate
to contact me again in the future.

That
to me just seemed empty, was that an interns ramblings, or did he
actually dictate that from the bottom of his heart, so in Joe638NYC
fashion and without hesitation, I decided to actually write a response, hopefully with this subject line it may get read:

Help in Victory battle and I ask that you reconsider your position on FCC rule overturning
1/6/08
Dear Congressman Fossella,

While I have the utmost respect for you in the fight for correct
identification for DMV licenses (I had to bring my mother with me when
I was younger because I didn't meet the point criteria to get a permit
when I was younger draft registration card, SS card, high school ID and
all), your fight for higher standards on food and other consumer goods
that may harm our families, your helping in getting our "first
responders" to get the help they need and I absolutely love your stance
in keeping MY emergency room opened here in Brooklyn at Victory
Memorial. You my friend are a very busy individual.

But on the point in which I am responding to you, I feel that maybe
with your busy schedule you did not have much time to think this matter
over. I beg of you to give some more consideration on the FCC's
overturning of the 32 year old rule of media consolidation. The bias in
the Main Stream Media effects the people you represent, unfortunately
much more than can be expressed here in this e-mail, take for instance
the absolute lack of media coverage in keeping our local emergency room
open and the lack of in depth coverage of the harmful products which
are spreading at a cancerous rate upon our merchants shelves. Without
your website your deeds in our community and state are hardly
recognized in the papers. Wouldn't it be nice if your constituents
could actually read about your hard work? As it stands we have to grab
a neighborhood paper to see your name and these issues. That is very
sad state of affairs, especially when you consider that the products
that hurt our families and the wholesale closing of public hospitals is
a national crisis. Now ponder this. What if our local community
newspapers were to be sucked into the mainstream conglomerates? I'd bet
that a lot really important issues, especially those which go against
large corporate entities, would be that much harder, if not impossible,
for us to find..

Recently I met a man (Bill) who teaches in a ROTC high school in CT.,
one of the things he had his students do is to take a current event
main stream story and through independent sources find an alternate or
opposing view. The students tried, and a lot complained that there was
nothing on either the TV or in the papers that countered main stream
reporting, so the students turned to the internet. While Bill admitted
some of what they found was a bit outlandish, there ware quite a few
alternate sources that were factually based and substantiated. He
expressed to me how those same students had initially viewed everything
from TV and the newspapers as absolute fact. This exercise showed how
our country needs more facets of information so we can develop a free
thinking, unbiased and intelligent future generation.

I just don't buy the argument that consolidation could in any way help
flailing independent newspapers, all I can imagine is more articles on
Britiney Spears and other dumbed down reporting that further drops down
the average IQ of the American people. Our countries innovation has
always thrived when competition existed. With this new FCC overturn and
the recent postal service policy changes that were proposed by the
publishing giant Time Warner, which favors large publications while
hitting small and mid-size publications with huge cost increases, when
do we say enough is enough? Remember when the Rite Aid's and
Blockbuster's knocked out the "Mom and Pop" stores? They did it with
cornering the market on cheaper costs of merchandise, the locally owned
businesses simply couldn't compete. What did our community gain from
that? No ones saving any money anymore. Bringing up the "Mom and Pop's"
might seem a bit like apples and oranges, but it begs us to ask one
question: How can the small guy ever compete in that type of climate?

I look forward to your response, if you have a moment please take a
look at my blog post at Freepress and see how my writings there explain
my point of view of how your areas workers, all workers for that
matter, can be affected by this FCC ruling. Also, if you have a chance,
take a look at my retort of the NY Posts editorial (and I use that term
loosely) of those "greedy" Stagehands who single handedly shut down
Broadway during Thanksgiving Week. I never sent the retort to the Post
because of an incident in the past in which they completely edited,
without my knowledge, my letter and fastened my name to it when
published. That in itself is a disgrace.

Please note that the American public was asked about this consolidation
issue beforehand 99% agreed that it was bad for our country. 99% of
Americans agreeing on anything doesn't happen too often. Please
remember that when it comes to FCC governance in matters such as media
consolidation it isn't viewed as heavy handed, it is viewed more as a
guarantee of our freedom of information. And as Mr.Heffner at the Dyker
Heights Junior High School taught us, that the aforementioned freedom
of information and the responsibility of news to give equal time to
opposing view when reporting in a biased fashion is the basis of our
Liberty .Which after a refresher of that meaning from The Free
Dictionary website:

Liberty

a. The condition of being free from restriction or control.

b. The right and power to act, believe, or express oneself in a manner of one's own choosing.

c. The condition of being physically and legally free from confinement, servitude, or forced labor.

Please feel free to contact me if you need any help in trying to keep
Victory Memorial open, I can do whatever it takes, it would be easier
for me to get the message out if I can get information on any union
involvement(or lack of for that matter) in this campaign, potential job
loss and the effect on the working families in our community, as I also
co-administer an independent labor website. It would be much easier for
me to write a story which could get global attention if it involves
working people . Regardless of that point, I am finding it hard to find
information about Victory online, maybe you can shoot me some links to
pertinent info as it's hard for me to put exactly what the important
facts are for me to develop a substantiated story. To explain it
better, I need to know exactly what and how the fight can be won, what
is the opposition and how I can get people involved. Please, like I
mentioned, if I can help in any way, and time permits it, consider
myself at your disposal.

Please note that I carbon copied this message to my Co-Administrators at www.unionreview.com.

Again, thanks for your consideration,
Joe Wxxxx
(all sorts of other titles and stuff)

Hopefully it will get read, the issues addressed will be
thought over and I will wind up with a truly great story about the
congressman who reconsidered his stance against the FCC ruling and the
tools I need to help in the mission to rescue our local hospital's ER.
Am I an optimist, you betcha. On the day after the New Hampshire
Republican Party announced Saturday that it was withdrawing
as a partner of Sunday’s primary debate on FOX because of the exclusion
of Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter, thus solidifying that everyone is
agreeing that Big Media is overstepping it's boundaries. I am energized
that we have found a common ground and believe this to be a stepping
stone for all American's to grow on. Go hit that link people and tell
them how important a message that sends. Not to mention yesterdays
announcement by the Screen Actors Guild of the "unanimous agreement" to
not cross the striking writers picket lines at the Golden Globe Awards
in a tremendous show of solidarity, I feel we the people can reverse
the medias separation of our people and together we can change the
world.

Anyone else get any responses out there? please let me
know we sent an awful lot of e-mails, I'm interested in hearing from
some of you.