Hold Big Media Accountable |
 | Groups Ask FTC to Look Facebook’s Proposed Privacy Changes And Impact On Teens by Joy Spencer, Center for Digital Democracy September 18th, 2013 Over 20 public health, media, youth, and consumer advocacy groups sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) today objecting to Facebook’s recent proposed changes to its privacy policy. The groups raised concerns about the potential negative impact of these changes on teens. |
 | May 2012 NSA Audit by National Security Agency, Washington Post August 19th, 2013 Here is the May 2012 NSA audit documenting 2,776 violations of the blanket surveillance regulatory codes in one year. |
 | Daniel Ellsberg at Restore The Fourth - San Francisco August 7th, 2013 Famed whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg was one of the featured speakers at the August 4th anti-spying protest. |
 | FCC Votes on 8/9 to Cap Interstate Prison Phone Call Rates to .25/minute by Gregg McDonald, Fairfax Times August 5th, 2013 Update: On August 9th, the FCC voted (2-1) to cap interstate prison phone rates to .25 minute. |
_3.jpg) | Verizon Abandons Fire Island: Not Yet Says The FCC Update 8-19: The FCC rejected Verizon's "fast track" request to not rebuild phone lines on Fire Island and forcibly transition residents to Voice-Link "wireless-only" service. |
_1.jpg) | Strange Bedfellows: Bush Security Apparatus Letter to Congress June 5th, 2013 This letter, signed by a who's who of Bush-era military politicos was sent to Congress before the Amash/Conyers vote. |
 | Statewide PUC Hearings on Wireless Lifeline Throughout May, June and July, the PUC will hold public hearings throughout California to gather public input on wireless lifeline. |
.jpg) | No Such Thing as an Obamaphone: Keeping Universal Service Real by The Utility Ratepayer Network/CMJ, http://www.turn.org Soup in every pot, a toilet in every house, America has made promises about what is available to all. One of those things is a phone connection to call for help when needed. |
| County Allows Outrageous Charges for Inmate Phone Calls by Tracy Rosenberg, Contra Costa Times/San Jose Mercury News Op-ed on the disparity between county and state facilities on prison phone calling rates |
.jpg) | Oakland Domain Awareness Center Up For A Vote on July 30th at City Council by Ali Winston, Center for Investigative Reporting In the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations, the City of Oakland plans to expand a port security program into a state-of-the-art citywide surveillance program providing law enforcement with "situational awareness". |
| FCC Starts Reviewing Prison Phone Costs Update 12/28: The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Prison Phone Kickbacks has been issued by the Federal Communications Commission |
_2.jpg) | Clear Channel Voter Fraud Billboards Coming Down by Lauren Fox, US News and World Report Bain Capital-owned Clear Channel Communications is removing anonymous billboards about voter fraud placed in low-income neighborhoods throughout swing states Ohio and Wisconsin |
 | The Mergers Don't Quit: T-Mobile Announces Plan to Buy Metro PCS by Hayley Tsukayama, Washington Post Tech On October 3rd, T-Mobile, the nation's 4th largest mobile phone service provider, announced plans to acquire Metro PCS, a smaller provider that also targets the lower income mobile phone user. |
 | Torching California's Broadband Future: Susan Crawford by Susan Crawford, Wired Magazine Susan Crawford of Harvard's Kennedy School breaks down the disaster of SB 1161 in Wired Magazine, which can only be stopped by a veto by Governor Jerry Brown. |
 | Former CNN Reporter Amber Lyon Quits Saying She Was Forced to Lie by Alex Jones, Infowars Interview with Lyon, a 3-time Emmy winner who says she inserted Bahrani government propaganda into her CNN stories. She quit. |
 | SB 1161 - Phone Deregulation Threatens Affordability, Reliability and Safety in CA Update 9/29. Sadly, Governor Brown signed SB 1161 into law on Friday September 28th despite the spirited opposition of almost every public interest advocacy group in California. |
 | Jose Luis Sin Censura: CANCELED! Two major media watchdog groups have joined to file a complaint of failure to enforce broadcast decency standards for an LA-produced Spanish language talk show with a heavy dose of homophobia, nudity and slurs. |
| Filmmaker Ava Duvernay on Prison Phone Kickbacks on CNN CNN Middle of Nowhere filmmaker Ava Duvernay on CNN discussing predatory jail telephone kickbacks. |
 | When Is A Phone Call Not a Phone Call? (When ALEC Says So) by Tracy Rosenberg, Huffington Post Huffington Post column on the threat posed by IP deregulation and SB 1161 |
 | MA and National Lawyers Guild CDC File Comments Opposing Wireless Shutdowns Media Alliance and the National Lawyers Guild CDC (joined by 10 other organizations including Color of Change, Sugar Law Center, The East Bay Social Forum, Alameda Green Party and NHMC), filed comments on April 30th opposing wireless shutdowns. |
 | Oaksterdam University Raided by the Feds Since MA's office is right across the street, it was hard to miss the massive federal raid on Oaksterdam a week ago. |
| LA Clearchannel Hosts Suspended After Advertiser Boycott Update 3/22/12 Los Angeles City Council passes a resolution denouncing hate speech and calling for more diversity on Los Angeles broadcast stations, and commends council member Jan Perry for penning the motion. The resolution passed with overwhelming support by a 13-2 margin. |
 | CA Disclose Act While the goal needs to be to get money OUT of politics, in the meantime we have the Disclose Act, which will at least tell us who pays for what. |
 | Occupy UStream Team Corralled by NYC Building Inspectors Global Revolution On January 3rd, 6 members of the Global Revolution streaming team in New York's Occupy protests were arrested for residing in a commercially zoned building. |
 | AT&T Drops Attempt to Buy T-Mobile. Merger Dead. by Media Action Grassroots Network, Pitchengine Update 12/19 AT&T has withdrawn the planned merger with T-Mobile USA. The merger that would have turned the cell phone market into a duopoly has died. |
 | Sandoval and Florio Confirmed to CA-PUC The CA State Senate unanimously confirmed the appointments of consumer advocates Sandoval and Florio to California's Public Utilities Commission. |
 | Deceptive Digital Marketing Claim Filed Against Pepsi Consumer groups filed a complaints against Pepsi for online marketing to teens that included immersive games and intrusive social media. |
 | 200+ Protest at Fox Shareholders Meeting in LA Change to Win, CWA, Media Alliance, Media Action Center, Free Press. Avaaz, Occupy LA and others joined to welcome Rupert Murdoch to Los Angeles on October 21st. |
 | Live From Occupy Wall Street Update 11/23 - November has been marked by a series of confrontations over city center encampments all over the country from the Bay's Davis, Berkeley and Oakland to Portland, Atlanta, Chicago and Zucotti Park. The month has also featured an action at the San Francisco Bank of America, a trek from OWS-New York to Occupy DC and many other actions. |
 | AT&T / T- Mobile Merger: Dept of Justice Files To Block Merger Update: Merger Flails Around After DOJ Files Suit |
 | Supreme Court Comes Down on the Side of Video Games in Brown vs. EMA In a decision that pitted anti-violence advocates against web content creators, the Supreme Court struck down a California law prohibiting the sale of violent video games to children under 18. |
 | Community Pushback on AT&T/T-Mobile Update: 6/28/2011 - CA PUC Public Participation Hearing on AT&T Merger: Thursday July 7th at 6:00pm at 505 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco, |
 | CDC Survey Confirms Arkansas and Mississippi Top in Cellphone-Only Households A survey by the National Center for Health Statistics identifies Arkansas and Mississippi as the two states with the highest number of cellphone-only households. |
 | Paperwork Reduction or Information Reduction? While as environmentally concerned as anyone, the latest idea to eliminate broadcast public files to save the trees, doesn't sound like a winner in the public interest department. |
 | AT&T / T-Mobile : Looking Like a Disaster by Tracy Rosenberg To this T-Mobile customer, last week's announcement of a proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile sent shivers up my spine. And not just because I anticipate a 25% increase in my monthly wireless bill. |
| New PEG Center Comes to Fresno by Todd R. Brown, The Fresno Business Journal As California reports the loss of 70 community TV channels due to the state's passage of state franchising legislation in 2006, one new center in the Central Valley is coming to life. |
| Text Message Petition: Take Action Update: T-Mobile censoring Weedmaps.com. When Verizon refused to recognize the Abortion Right Action League's short code back in 2007, a petition with filed with the FCC. It just happened again. |
 | Council Tree vs. FCC - To The Supreme Court Update: Council Tree vs. FCC has filed with the United States Supreme Court to overturn the results of flawed spectrum auctions by the Federal Communications Commission. |
 | Turning Fox News Into a Private Bad Habit: The Turn Off Fox Campaign New campaign by Color Of Change to turn public spaces into Fox-free zones |
| Saving Public Access: Washington On July 21st, CAP Act Sponsor Wisconsin Rep. Tammy Baldwin presented and withdrew an amendment to HR 3110 preventing channel-slamming and rearranging funding streams for public, educational and governmental channels. While she was forced to withdraw the amendment, Committee Chair Henry Waxman agreed to :llok more carefully at the issue and see what we can do". |
| California Assembly Passes Hate Speech Resolution On June 21, 2010, the California Assembly passed Senator Cedillo's bill condemning an increase in media hate speech, particularly against Latinos, and called for more accurate and fair reporting. Text of SCR 58 attached. |
 | The Media Attack Cluster The Left Tracking Library has identified 76 individuals/organizations who compose a cluster of undue influence. There we are: holding up the 7th row. |
 | Collateral Murder: Whistleblowing 2010 Wikileaks - the new whistleblower website - came into being with a bang when they released a classified military video showing US service members shooting 2 Reuters reporters (and six others). |
| Officially The Worst: Comcast Wins by Chris Morran, Consumerist After four rounds of bloody battle against some of the most publicly reviled businesses in America, Comcast can now run up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and hold its hands high in victory -- it has bested everyone else to earn the title of Worst Company In America for 2010. |
| 16 Million Dollar Verdict in Strange Wrongful Death Case by Sue Wilson Sue Wilson reports from Sacramento where the Entercom radio chain was assessed a 16 million dollar wrongful death verdict in the Jennifer Strange case, where the Sacramento mother of three died after participating in a water-drinking contest at Sacramento radio station KDND. |
 | Race In The Media - from Loop 21 The myth of 21st Century U.S. society being post-racial and colorblind is critiqued and analyzed by "theloop21.com, a LA-based African-American owned on-line publication. |
 | Anti-Hate Speech Resolution Passes SF Board of Supervisors Unanimously Update: On September 10th, Clearchannel station KNEW announced they were dropping Savage Nation from their SF schedule. On Tuesday August 11th, San Francisco became the first municipality in the country to support the National Hispanic Media Coalition's petition for an FCC docket and report on media hate speech and its possible impact on hate crimes. The vote was unanimous! |
 | Once More With Feeling: Media Must Report Gender Motivations for Mass Killings by Jennifer Pozner, WIMN's Voices A health club in Collier County, PA this week was the site of yet another horrific mass shooting by yet another disaffected man armed with ammo and a deep hatred of women. The shooter specifically targeted women, reportedly firing 52 shots, killing three women and injuring nine more before committing suicide. |
| Pictures from June 28th Picket: Stop Media Hate Speech On June 28th, before the Bay Area premiere of Broadcast Blues, community members gathered to advocate for an FCC docket and study of the impact of media hate speech. Click to see pictures! |
| Action Alert: Save San Francisco Public Access On Tuesday, May 19, 2009 the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved, on first reading, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi’s State Video Franchise Holder Ordinance. |
| Bailouts for the Media Moguls: Thinking Outside the Newspaper Box by DeeDee Halleck, www.deedeehalleck.blogspot.com John Nichols and Robert McChesney have written a widely posted Nation article searching for answers to the current emergencies in the newspaper business. ("The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers") They recognize the crisis as an opportunity to rethink public media in general and their suggestions for remedy are at least a provocative starter for the needed reassessment and creative activism. They suggest the government pump in $60 billion over the next three years, a pricetag that is similar to, though less than, the handouts to AIG and the US banks. |
| Independent Music on Radio: Future of Music Coalition Study on the Impact of Payola Policies on Playlists. http://www.futureofmusic.org/research/playlisttrackingstudy.cfm Artist education, research and advocacy organization Future of Music Coalition announces the release of a new report that analyzes radio playlists to determine whether the policy interventions resulting from 2003-2007 payola investigations have had any effect on the amount of independent music played on terrestrial radio. |
| SF Judge Questions Admin on Telecom Wiretapping A federal judge in San Francisco is raising questions about the constitutionality of a law designed to dismiss suits against telecommunications companies accused of cooperating with government wiretapping. |
| Man Shoots Television A Missouri man was charged with unlawful use of a firearm, after peppering his TV with bullets. The 70-year old homeowner was angry that he had lost his cable, and was unable to get his new D-TV converter box to work properly. |
| Commercial Broadcaster Public Interest Obligations 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. |
| How Much Does Consolidated Media Cost? Congressional filings reveal, per Inside Radio, that the National Association of Broadcasters spent 2.5 million in the first quarter of 2008. Clear Channel and CBS Broadcasting chipped in an additional 1.7 million between January and March of 2008. |
| Why Obama Should Ditch YouTube President-elect Barack Obama has now posted his second weekly address to YouTube, and it has already gotten more than 411,000 views. |
| Anti-Muslim Film Delivered to Newspaper Reader's Doorsteps In the midst of remarkably cynical election-time mud-slinging, the Obsession campaign is truly in a class of its own. |
| Comrade, Can You Spare a Dime? In a piece of election time silliness, Russia Today has revealed that the Russian mission to the United Nations received a nine page appeal for donations from the McCain/Palin campaign. Which is just a bit illegal. The McCain/Palin campaign said "oops - a computer error". |
 | Chicago Comcast-NBC Hearing Thanks to our friends at Chicago Media Action, audio is available from the Chicago hearing on the Comcast-NBC merger. Listen here. |
| Request for Hate Speech Inquiry Launched by Gautham Nagesh, The Hill A coalition of more than 30 organizations argue in a letter to the FCC that the Internet has made it harder for the public to separate the facts from bigotry masquerading as news. |
| Fox News is No News Outlet MA Op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle November 13, 2009 |