Media Alliance was a sponsor and presented a workshop on net neutrality and digital inclusion at this 3/29 Pasadena conference put on by Common Cause. Joanna Lew put together this video clip of the day's events.

The FBI director and a Republican congressman sketched out a far-reaching plan this week for warrantless surveillance of the Internet. During a House of Representatives Judiciary Committee hearing, the FBI's Robert Mueller and Rep. Darrell Issa of California talked about what amounts to a two-step approach. Step 1 involves asking Internet service providers to open their networks to the FBI voluntarily; step 2 would be a federal law forcing companies to do just that.

What public interest obligations, you say? But they do exist and recently the FCC has gone as far as to suggest that they may be a bit more stringently enforced. Here is the updated and revised manual explaining the obligations of broadcasters.

DENVER -- Talk show host Rush Limbaugh is sparking controversy again after he made comments that appear to call for riots in Denver during the Democratic National Convention this summer.

I sat in a dark, foreboding hall at Stanford University listening to the words of resistance of Gloria Esteva (staff writer of POOR Magazine/PoorNewsNetwork and member of the Voces de Immigrantes en Resistencia at the Race, Poverty and Media Justice Institute at POOR). As I listened I felt truly inspired.

Comcast has just rolled out plans to draft a “bill of rights and responsibilities” for ISPs and Internet users. But the cable giant has forgotten one thing: to invite Internet users, policymakers and advocates to the table.

Thanks to Media Alliance members and our SavetheInternet allies, the FCC hearing at Stanford on April 17th was a stirring call for a free and open Internet, a strong condemnation of random telecom interference with data traveling over their networks, and a clear statement on media in the public interest. Pictures from the hearing: The Raging Grannies, commissioners and panelists , public testimony . 40 of the 75-person public comment participants were trainees from Media Alliance speaker workshops or passengers on the "FCC Bus" that traveled from the Bay Area to Stanford with folks from Poor News Network, KPFA First Voice, the Bayview Newspaper and Allen Temple Baptist Church. Video archive of the hearing and an audio mashup

The Oakland Digital Inclusion Summit on February 15th was a vital event for community sharing, networking, access to information and a framework for moving forward. Stay tuned for audio and video from the panels (to be posted here soon).

Click here for the summit reader, some of the best resources on community broadband implementation around.

The Media and Democracy Coalition (MA is a Steering Committee member) commissioned this survey to explore how Americans view the news and media ownership. Unsurprisingly (in our opinion), the poll found that Americans broadly support limits on cross-ownership of media outlets and view the trend toward ownership consolidation with alarm. Moreover, support for ownership limits and alarm over consolidation are shared by large swaths of the public, cutting across racial, generational and political divides. Read more here:

Comcast Corp. actively interferes with attempts by some of its high-speed Internet subscribers to share files online, a move that runs counter to the tradition of treating all types of net traffic equally. UPDATE: FCC accepting comments until February 28th! Comment now. Docket # 07-52