Monday, October 29, 2007

Communications Breakdown, It's Always the Same

Media Ownership: The Federal Communications Commission, supposedly an independent United States government agency, directly responsible to Congress, but actually appointed by the President, is once again insistent upon letting a smaller number of large corporations consolidate and control a larger number of markets in large areas of our country.

Even though they have been caught lying multiple times and have had their media ownership rulings overturned by Federal Courts, they continue to persist.

The latest attempt is by holding 'public hearings' all around the country, gathering 'public comments' and then doing exactly what their corporate masters wanted them to do in the first place. If you examine, (Science! I sampled 35% of the latest 300 comments going back 2 months, and only left out the responses from law firms. After all, these were public comments, not corporation comments), 100% of the public comments are against further consolidation.

Yet the FCC seems determined to relax the rules. It's so blatant that even Trent Lott(R- KKK) is determined to stop it:
Lawmakers Threaten Veto Of FCC Media Rule Changes

[...]
Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Trent Lott, R-Miss., said they would seek support from their fellow lawmakers for what is known as a resolution of disapproval, in effect a vote to overturn a rule passed by an executive agency like the FCC.

The senators are concerned over a plan circulated by Martin that would see him put forward proposals for reforming the media ownership rules in November and then hold a vote on those proposals only a month later.
[...]
The resolution of disapproval is so rare, it has only been attempted one time previously said the senators, and that was the last time the FCC attempted to overhaul the media ownership rules.
Well, good luck with that. Seriously, I wish them good luck with that.



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

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