PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Call to Action: Stop the Media Monopoly
by David Meieran Thursday, May. 22, 2003 at 11:08 PM
dm@heartofdarkness.org 412-421-7716

Protest Clear Channel Radio and the Media Monopoly on Thursday, May 29

INITIAL CALL TO ACTION

posted 5/22/03

NO MORE CLEAR CHANNELS!
STOP THE FCC MEDIA GIVEAWAY!
STOP THE MASS DECEPTION!

Protest Clear Channel Radio and the Media Monopoly on Thursday, May 29

WHAT: National day of protest to stop the media monopoly.

WHEN: 5:00pm, May 29, the Thursday before the FCC votes to dramatically deregulate the media

WHERE: Clear Channel Communications, 200 Fleet St., Pittsburgh, PA 15220

[NOTE: final details, including time, place, directions, and tactics will follow in a later call to action; check http://www.heartofdarkness.org/stopthefcc/ for updates and more info]

WHO: The national day of protest is sponsored by Global Exchange, Media Alliance, CodePink, United for Peace and Justice NY, Citizen Works, CodePink, Democracy Rising, Free Press, Youth Media Council, and many others. Local support for the action includes the Rosenberg Institute, members of the Thomas Merton Centerm, and others t.b.a. As of 5/21/03, seven cities are participating in the action.

WHY: We need to “expose the corporate media for the boardroom bulletin that it really is,” as Arundhati Roy recently pleaded.

The corporate media have implicitly conspired with the Bush administration to rally uncritical support behind an unjust war and to silence the voice of dissent. They have done so with such art and stagecraft that would have made Leni Riefenstahl proud. And now the administration is about to the reward the media conglomerates who served as the megaphones for its official view.

The FCC is poised to approve the most dramatic changes to media ownership regulations in decades. Leading the charge is FCC Chairman Michael Powell, Colin Powell's son, who essentially declared war on diversity in the media at the same time that his father was spearheading the war against Iraq. If the FCC goes ahead with its plan, there will be nothing standing in the way of media companies' drive for profits at the expense of truth and democracy.

Clear Channel Communications is the poster child of everything that's wrong with media deregulation. After the media deregulation of 1996, Clear Channel gobbled up hundreds of radio stations throughout the country and now owns more than 1200 stations nationwide, dominating the audience share in 100 of 112 major markets. Not only is the company the world's largest radio broadcaster, it's also the world largest concert promoter and billboard advertising firm. Here in Pittsburgh, Clear Channel owns at least six stations: WDVE-FM, KISS-FM, WWSW-FM, WXDX-FM and WBGG-AM.

Clear Channel’s monopolistic practices have accelerated the homogenization of our airwaves. The company promotes cookie-cutter style radio that has urban stations throughout the country seemingly playing the same seven songs. Clear Channel also uses its stations to promote its right-wing political agenda. After September 11, the company circulated a list of blacklisted songs including John Lennon's Imagine and Cat Stevens' Peace Train. This year Clear Channel sponsored pro-war rallies in cities around the country before and during the war on Iraq. That isn’t surprising, since Clear Channel has ties to Bush.

If the FCC passes Powell's proposed new media rules, companies like Clear Channel will be given even more control over the public airwaves than they already have. We are likely to see in television the same type of feeding frenzy we saw in the radio industry after the 1996 media deregulation. And we are likely to see even more patriotic orgies and mass deception that manufacture consent to the United State’s militarist and imperialist agenda.

Lobbying alone will not stop the ongoing anti-democratic stranglehold on the news: to slay the corporate media beast we must take to the streets.

www.heartofdarkness.org/stopthefcc/

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