program
get involved
about
contact
links

"It is difficult to convince a man of something if his paycheck depends on his not understanding it."

-      Sinclair Lewis

Structural developments in commercial television news and the noticeable failure of the U.S. news media to adequately cover a number of serious issues facing the country such as the case for war in Iraq and public protest over media ownership have created an unprecedented opportunity to make media reform an election year issue with great implications for the revitalization of republican democracy.

Though media policy is usually an obscure issue prone to special interest manipulation, this unique opportunity for media reform exists because of three important developments:

  1. For the first time in the seventy-year history of the Federal Communications Commission, two extraordinary FCC Commissioners, Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein are taking a spirited stand for media rules and regulations in the public interest and are seeking greater public participation in determining media policy.

  2. More than 2 million citizens from a wide spectrum of political opinion expressed their opposition to the 3-2 ruling allowing greater concentration of big media to the FCC and Congress.

  3. Citizens in ever greater numbers are attending local meetings organized via the Internet and getting involved in grassroots political activities.

By stressing a few specific activities, Media For America is working to greatly expand the growing public lobby for media reform that is essencial to reducing the concentration of media ownership and developing enlightened media policies for the digital era that serve the public interest.

MFA is working closely with several national groups to

  1. convene local meetings with members of other church groups, citizen organizations, and media activists to get involved in the growing media reform movement, particularly the review of the 1996 Telecommunications Act

  2. form small working groups to visit their local broadcast TV stations and cable TV companies, find out what they claim to be doing to serve the public interest, and how much money they are making in a major political year on political advertising.

Involving a million new members in the growing media reform campaign in the months before the election will serve to educate ordinary citizens about the critical relationship between the media, elected officials and the unimaginable amounts of money spent on political advertising by powerful vested interests seeking government favors.