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Public Televison on the Auction Block: KCSM-TV Sale Postponed San Mateo College District Trustees voted on 10/24 to reject all bids for the 5th largest public television signal in California. Media Alliance, whose public records request for information on the details of the bids, has been stalled by the District since April of 2012, will receive the information this week. A new RFP opens the possibility of new bidders for the venerable signal which reaches 10 Bay Area counties and is broadcast on 60 cable systems. Bain Capital-Owned Clear Channel Communications Removes Threatening Voter Fraud Billboards from Low-Income Neighborhoods in the Mid-West After an advocacy campaign led by Common Cause and Color of Change, Clear Channel Outdoors plans to remove voter fraud billboard ads blanketing low-income neighborhoods in Ohio and Wisconsin paid for by an "anonymous" family foundation. The billboards were perceived by many as an attempt to intimidate neighborhood residents from voting or registering to vote in the upcoming elections. AT&T Plans "Six-Strikes" Anti-Piracy Initiative: Users Face Blocked Websites A planned ISP-driven anti-piracy effort will track IP addresses and put broadband users through a series of warnings and on-line tutorials after blocking website access for individuals whose IP addresses are suspected of contraband activities. If this sounds a little invasive to you, here's a petition to sign. Upcoming Workshops Spokesperson Training - starts January 3rd This class will cover the basics of framing an issue and developing talking points, give you lots of practive in role playing friendly and not-so-friendly interview secnarios, discuss the art of the soundbite, cover the basics of public speaking, and put you through the necessary friendly fire of evaluating your own on-air performance Publicist and Former CW-Bay Area Public Affairs Director Jackie Wright Thanks Independent Media for Positive African-American Coverage After Ambassador Andrew Young spoke to a crowd of more than a thousand people at the Oakland Marriott on 10/20, local publicist Jackie Wright noted the failure of the legacy print and broadcast media (only the Oakland Trib covered the event), and thanked the independent press for compensating for the dearth of positive coverage of African-Americans and other ethnic minorities that reinforces negative stereotypes. Smiley/West Show Removed from Chicago PBS Station WBEZ-FM For Being Unbalanced Prominent African-American broadcaster Tavis Smiley and Princeton professor Cornel West had their broadcast collaboration Smiley/West removed from the air at WBEZ, the large Chicago PBS station. CEO Torey Malatia said the show was unbalanced. Many feel the real reason was criticism of President Obama in his hometown. This removes two of the most credible and distinguished African-American voices from a city with a huge non-white population and further reduces liberal and leftwing discourse in the legacy media. Click here for a web form and suggested text to help turn this bad decision around. Chi-area folks should try to attend Friday's board meeting at 848 E. Grand at the bracing hour of 8:00am. 2012-2013 Northern California Press List Now Available! Pick up a press list and a how-to guide today for everything you need to get your message out with minimal time and money. The Media How-To Guide tells you how and the Northern California press list gives you contact info for print, radio, and television throughout the region - for a pittance. Join us - Become a Media Alliance Member We're not threatening you. We'll keep sending the newsletter whether you become a member or not (unless you think that *is* a threat), because we want to get the information out there and show up when fair communications are threatened every time. But our ability to keep doing it depends on you. I know times are tough, but please consider joining up if you're one of our silent readers. Standard membership is $50, low-income is $35 and 52 weeks of the Jobfile Bulletin is $95. Towards peace and justice, Tracy Need a job? Thinking about a career transition in this difficult economy? Join Media Alliance! Professional members get 52 weeks of media-related job listings in print, broadcast, digital, film, video, communications and advocacy e-mailed to them weekly. Let us do the hunting for you. Less than $2 a week. Sign up now. Donate to keep regional media activism strong in the Bay Area. We can't do it without you. For more on the struggle to save KUSF For more on KPFA and Pacifica. To buy a copy of Censored 2013 from the Media Freedom Foundation For more on Alameda Community Radio The Internet You Need - Original Animated Short on Net Neutrality. Great for Teachers! Media Alliance is a member of a national coalition working for a better communications system and a more just world.
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This weekend, Media Alliance will be celebrating. We just found out the sale of the 5th largest public television signal in all of California, KCSM-TV, has been postponed. Instead of an auction to an out-of-state bidder, a brand-new process may allow this 48-year old signal, which reaches 10 Bay Area counties and broadcasts on 60 different municipal cable systems, to stay local and not get disposed of like a junked car past its prime. This follows many months of trekking down to San Mateo as a lonely advocate, filing a public records request that was denied for more than six months, but never giving up on the idea that a better outcome was achievable - and important. And now it is possible. That is nothing new for Media Alliance. 16 months ago, we sat in a CA Public Utilities Commisson meeting, listening to 29 consecutive speakers sing the praises of the AT&T/T-mobile merger and were the 30th and only speaker to say it wasn't necessarily so. 30-1. Those are the odds we face, every time. But we show up, we speak truth to power about the right to communicate, we work in coalition with allies locally, regionally and nationally and sometimes, every once in a while, we get the last laugh in the end. The public interest in democratic communications is present in the room. But here's the rub. This is all uncompensated work. Every last bit of it. This showing up, when so many struggling to survive just can't, isn't paid for by anyone. And it's getting harder and harder to scrape together the resources to continue, crucial as it is. So while I'd like to entice you to become a 2013 Media Alliance member with goodies and prizes, I can't. All I can do is tell you that while we're happy to provide press lists and media guides, teach classes as we can, and send the best, most informative and fun-to-read newsletters we can come up with, the real reason I do this work is to push back against the forces that would lock down the internet, the broadcast infrastructure and the press against the voices of the people and their organizing for equity and justice. When the phone rings and it's another request to testify at a hearing, file a comment, lobby a politician, launch a campaign, do an interview, teach a class, I always say yes. Even when I don't really know how I'm going to put food on the table or pay my rent. Because I know this work is essential and so very few are doing it. It's the season to give, so please join me in standing up for people's media and the importance of keeping communications on all platforms accessible, affordable, free of obtrusive surveillance, and corporate manipulation. A better world is impossible if we cannot talk to each other, and the forces of control and domination know that. So we must battle them on one front after another: in the hearings, the court rooms, the offices and on the streets. Your membership money isn't wasted on glitzy headquarters, administrative overhead, fancy brochures. We don't have any of that. It goes straight to answering that next phone call and being able to say "how can we help?" and "where do we need to be?". This weekend's celebration will be much sweeter with your membership for 2013. Standard memberships are $50, low-income memberships are $35, and a $95 professional membership includes 52 weeks of the Jobfile Bulletin, a weekly email with 30+ opportunities in communications, media, and advocacy. Donations of larger amounts are sorely needed and much-welcomed. Please support this work and tell us you recognize it needs to be done. I can't tell you how frightening it is to be, so often, the only one in the room when so much is at stake. Towards peace and justice, Tracy |
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