Hearing from the Silenced Majority

I've driven the 250-some mile stretch from Minneapolis to Madison a half dozen times since the war on Iraq started. This weekend, heading to the National Conference on Media Reform with Leif and Mike, I noticed a subtle change. On three or four overpasses just inside the Wisconsin border someone had stenciled in bold black letters "SUPPORT OUR TROOPS." Had the message been anti-war, you can bet it would've been painted over in a day. But the final version of the stencil had been changed, two letters painted over:

SUPPORT OUR OOPS

Maybe I'm reading too much into roadside graffiti, but I had to think, perhaps a real change is afoot. Perhaps the "silenced majority" (as Amy Goodman called opponents of Bush and proponents of democratic reform) is speaking up. The conference bore this suspicion out--with 1600 international attendees; brilliant keynotes by Studs Terkel, Al Franken, Bill Moyers, and others; plus encounters with the on-the-ground activists who are doing the heavy lifting in media reform. Media reform--and, more broadly, media justice--is a bona fide movement, and it's gaining momentum.

I'll be posting this week on issues raised in the conference. Before then, check in at Free Press to find clips from the conference.

Also: An action alert from Common Cause:

Today, the Senate is expected to begin debate on a spending bill that includes a provision that blocks the FCC from implementing a higher ownership cap – a "cap": that allows one company to own television stations reaching up to 45 percent of the national audience. The provision now in the spending bill (H.R. 2799) maintains the current 35 percent national cap. The House approved a similar measure, keeping the 35 percent limit, by a vote of 400-21.

Unfortunately, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is threatening to strip this language from the bill by offering an amendment to allow the higher 45 percent ownership cap.

On the up side, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) is expected to offer an amendment that would re-impose the newspaper-TV cross-ownership ban. Without such a ban, one media giant could own a local newspaper, up to three TV stations and up to eight radio stations in one media market.

These votes may be the Senate's last opportunity this year to address media ownership issues. This could be our last chance to tell Congress we oppose the FCC's outrageous and unpopular media ownership rules – rules that will increase media consolidation and decrease the diversity of voices that is so important to our democracy.

Please call your Senators today and ask them to vote:

1. AGAINST Sen. McCain's amendment allowing the higher 45 percent national ownership cap favored by the FCC

AND

2. FOR Sen. Hutchison's amendment re-imposing the newspaper-TV cross-ownership ban.

To find your Senators' contact info, click here.