Turned off Olbermann & Turned on Bill Moyers talks with FCC

[slipslidingaway]

Commissioner Michael J. Copps

"The very important but little covered Federal Communications Commission is once again considering whether to revise media ownership rules … and there's pressure to let media conglomerates get even bigger. The next two months are the period of public comment during which you can let the commissioners know what you think about these rules.

One of those five FCC commissioners is my next guest. Michael Copps has been out at public hearings around the country listening to what citizens think and say about media ownership...


BILL MOYERS: You said in a recent speech that-- that America's playing Russian roulette with all of our media. Broadband, internet, television, radio, newspapers. How so?

MICHAEL COPPS: Well, we're going at it without a policy. We're going at it without a vision. We're going at it without realizing what these things mean to the future of our country. Whether it's broadcast or broadband.The public airwaves are to be used for serving the public interest. Expanding our cultural horizon, covering community news, enabling the democratic dialogue. Increasingly, we have moved away from that vision and they're being used for corporate profitability...

They got mad. So three million people, three million people contacted the FCC back in 2003.


Transcript
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/08242007/transcript1.html

Video...20 minutes
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/08242007/watch.html

[napi21]

1. That was on here this afternoon. GREAT program as usual! n/t

[slipslidingaway]

2. Yes and we need to keep this issue alive for the next two months.

"The next two months are the period of public comment during which you can let the commissioners know what you think about these rules...

Citizen action can still work. We all get kind of frustrated in the 21st century. And you know, the big guys rule everything. And to a large extent, they-- they have too much power. But concentrated citizen action can still work. When three million Americans speak up, Congress pays attention. The country pays attention. And things can happen. And they can still happen. And that's where my hope is right now.

I don't want to just defeat bad new rules at the Federal Communications Commission on media ownership. I want to get some positive rules for the new environment we live in that will reinvigorate our media with some sensibility, to the common interest of the public interest..."



Although I applaud many of Olbermann's comments there are big issues he does not address :(