Stockton meeting prepares the way for ACLU chapter in Stanislaus

By FRED HERMAN

Whereas the second Bush regime's so-called October 2001 "Patriot Act" represents the greatest single threat to civil rights and liberties ever perpetrated onto people in this nation, and ...

Whereas the evils contained in a proposed "Patriot Act Two" would tend to blur any distinction between the United States and any dictatorship that ever existed on the face of this globe. and ...

Whereas the greater Stanislaus County area is not only subject to these problems on a national scale, but has its own problems, which include racist attitudes in schools, racial profiling by police, interference with reproductive, reading and free speech rights, and ...

Whereas a time-honored, distinguished national organization long defending our sacred freedoms is the American Civil Liberties Union...

Therefore be it resolved that the Stanislaus district needs its own ACLU chapter, noted that interest in its formation is high and urged that people get off their heinies now to get one moving.

This resolution signed by? One would hope civil libertarians everywhere, hopefully by nine Modestans interested enough to attend an exploratory May meeting for a Stockton ACLU chapter, and a score of others already ACLU members or people who would participate in and support such a group.

Surely by me, a card-carrying member since we gassed Caryl Chessman in 1963.

The nine attending a Sunday night gathering of about 70 at Stockton’s Unity Southern Baptist Church heard presentations by three ACLU staff members, including Sanjeev Bery, a San Francisco-based organizer who used to review video games for the Modesto Bee only a few years ago, and who has written me that he would like little more than to push a chapter in his home town.

Tommie Muhammad, Social Services Director of West Modesto's King-Kennedy Memorial Center attended as a Stocktonian and pledged facilities to any such group launched here.

Horror stories abounded in Stockton. I won't catalog them all here. (I may at 10:30 a.m. July 13, to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Stanislaus County, 2172 Kiernan Avenue, speaking on "Patriot Acts: Tempest in a Teapot or Handbasket to Hell?").

Potential abuses listed in Stockton include:

• That Attorney General John Ashcroft may, under PA2, prosecute you for giving money to a mideastern orphanage or to Greenpeace.

• That government officials perpetrating clearly unconstitutional acts are shielded if acting on behalf of higher-ups.

• That 15 new categories for capital crimes are established.

• That public libraries must give investigators records of who borrows what, and it is a crime to tell patrons their reading habits are now FBI property.

• That judges routinely approve wiretaps not knowing whose calls are bugged.

• That persons could arbitrarily be stripped of citizenship as secrecy goes up while accountability goes down.

And, of course, reports on abuses already prevalent.

•  "No-fly" lists, people peremptorily bumped from commercial aircraft as "security risks." These may be anyone who ever signed a political petition.

• Booksellers asked to report who bought, say, "The Hunt For Red October."

• Forty-one of 56 accused "terrorists" had no ties to terrorism, but went bankrupt in their own defense. Law-abiding citizens, Stockton speakers noted, are treated as criminals until they prove otherwise.

• One Stocktonian reported asking right-wing Republican Rep. Richard Pombo about some detail of Patriot Act 2, and receiving a reply from ... the FBI.

ACLU and Amnesty International spearhead resistance efforts, but have been joined by a vast array of organizations that include the superconservative (Phyllis Schlafly's) Eagle Forum.

ACLU membership is up 100,000 nationally in the wake of post-9/11 abuses. Stockton scheduled a second meeting for June 9, but Modestans preferred their own group, citing problems unique to each area and to travel distances.

ACTION: Interested in participating when the time comes? FORMATION MEETING: TIME & PLACE PENDING. To receive infromation, email: hermenz@ainet.com, jcostello@igc.org, KenPlayWrighter@aol.com, sbery@aclunc.org, sundog@webdeva.com. Or call me (209-522-1571) or Sanjeev (415-621-2493).

Let your lawmaker know you oppose abrogation of your rights in the name of any "war on terrorism." Many e-mails these days end with Ben Franklin's admonition that those who would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither.

ACLU urges CA Attorney General to stop state monitoring of war protesters and other political dissenters

From: the Northern California ACLU (edited)

The American Civil Liberties Union recently called on Attorney General Bill Lockyer to direct a state anti-terrorism intelligence agency to stop compiling dossiers on political activists and organizations, including anti-war, animal rights, and environmental groups.

A May 18 Oakland Tribune story revealed that the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center (CATIC), established after the 9/11 attacks, has from "Day One" been equating political dissent with terrorism.

"The revelations in the Oakland Tribune story confirm our worse fears: CATIC is not only being used to gather and disseminate information about non-violent protesters but equates peaceful protest with terrorism itself," said Mark Schlosberg, Police Practices Policy Director of the ACLU of Northern California.

According to the Tribune, an April 2 bulletin from CATIC "offered more innuendo than actual evidence" of violence at a planned anti-war protest at the Port of Oakland. Apparently acting on that information, police fired rubber bullets, wooden pellets, and tear gas at non-violent protesters and dockworkers in an incident that drew national attention and criticism.

In its letter, the ACLU called upon the Attorney General to:

• Immediately direct CATIC to cease collecting information on individuals and organizations engaging in non-violent protest activity and order CATIC systems to be purged of such information.

• Immediately develop guidelines to ensure that CATIC is used only for disseminating information on true terrorist activity.

• Immediately issue guidance to state and local law enforcement agencies (as has been requested on three previous occasions) stating clearly that, pursuant to California's constitutional right to privacy, law enforcement agents may not surveil or monitor individuals or organizations engaged in peaceful protest activity in the absence of reasonable suspicion.

In a series of letters to the Attorney General, the ACLU has been calling upon the state's top law enforcement officer to ensure that Californian's right to privacy is protected. More than 30 years ago, Californians explicitly adopted by referendum a constitutional right to privacy specifically to stop the "proliferation of government snooping and data collecting [that] is threatening to destroy our traditional freedoms." White v. Davis (1975) 13 Cal.3d 757, 774 (quoting the ballot argument in favor of the initiative).

The Oakland incident was highlighted in a recent ACLU report, "Freedom Under Fire: Dissent in Post-9/11 America," which describes how some government officials, including local police, have gone to extraordinary lengths to squelch dissent wherever it has sprung up.

The report is at www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=12583&c=206

The letter is online at www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=12678&c=206

Read the Oakland Tribune article at www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82%257E1865%257E1400012,00.html

Diversity and Human Rights Conference planned

By TIMOTHY DANIELS

Seeds of Wisdom, Ceres Unified School District and Modesto Junior College will co-sponsor a Diversity and Human Rights Conference on Friday, September 5 and Saturday, September 6 on MJC’s East Campus. The conference will bring together youth, parents and teachers, business leaders and community members to address cross-cultural conflicts and issues of sensitivity and diversity in Stanislaus County and throughout the greater Central Valley. Timothy Daniels and Greg Christian, founders of Seed of Wisdom, a non-profit organization with the mission of community improvement for the benefit of children, are coordinators.

“Modesto Junior College is pleased and honored to serve as the host and co-sponsor of this event,” stated Dr. James Williams, president of Modesto Junior College. “The Diversity and Human Rights Conference is consistent with the mission of the Yosemite Community College District’s nationally acclaimed Beyond Tolerance Initiative. I applaud the conference organizers and the Ceres Unified School District for their commitment to valuing and promoting diversity and human rights,” added Williams.

Friday night’s conference features Lee Mun Wah, author of the documentary “The Color of Fear.” Wah will premiere his latest documentary film, “Last Chance to Eden,” then facilitate a discussion.

At 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, GregAlan Williams, author and Emmy Award winning actor, will present “Step Up and Speak Up – Building Respect and Tolerance.” Williams, known for his numerous television roles, wrote and performed in a public television special “1534 Cleveland,” a collection of essays about growing up African-American in the Midwest during the turbulent 60’s. In 1992 Williams rescued a brutally beaten Japanese-American motorist at a riot-torn intersection in Los Angeles. He received the Anne Frank Humanitarian Award and the Salem Award for Justice. He is the critically acclaimed author of two books, “A Gathering of Heroes” on tolerance and compassion and “Boys to Men – Maps for the Journey,” a guide to character development. Williams will also give a workshop during the Saturday conference.

The Saturday conference will offer 10-15 workshops including: Disability Issues; Sexual Harassment; Promoting Diversity, Reducing Racism, Homophobia and Intolerance; Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Youth: Breaking the Silence; Teaching the African American Male; Developing Family, School and Community Partnerships; Study Circles; Safe Schools – Safe Communities: Griffins With a Mission; Active Citizenship - Empowering America’s Youth; Parent, Child and School Character Connection, and Improving Learning as We Improve the World: Igniting Student Passion for Service Learning.

The advance $25 registration covers speakers, workshops, materials and lunch. Teachers may receive continuing education and professional growth credits. A special room rate has been arranged with Ramada Inn. Call (209) 521-9000 and request the Seeds of Wisdom conference rate. For more information or to receive a registration form call Tim Daniels, (209) 652-2109 or 345-8241.

“. . . In the three decades since Watergate, this is the first potential scandal I have seen that could make Watergate pale by comparison. . . .

“To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken Congress and the nation into war based on bogus information, he is cooked. Manipulation or deliberate misuse of national security intelligence data, if proven, could be "a high crime" under the Constitution's impeachment clause. It would also be a violation of federal criminal law, including the broad federal anti-conspiracy statute , which renders it a felony "to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose."

                                                                                                            — John Dean

John Dean was House Chief Minority Counsel to the Judiciary Committee, the associate director of a law reform commission, and an Associate Deputy US Attorney General. As Richard Nixon's White House lawyer, Dean was charged with obstruction of justice and spent four months in prison for his role in the Watergate cover-up. Widely viewed as a compassionate figure in the Watergate drama, Dean was the first to testify about the existence of the White House taping system which eventually led to President Nixon's demise.

George W. Bush must answer to the people

By RAMSEY CLARK

High Crimes and Misdemeanors: Impeachment is the direct constitutional means for removing a President, Vice President or other civil officers of the United States who has acted or threatened acts that are serious offenses against the Constitution, its system of government, or the rule of law, or that are conventional crimes of such a serious nature that they would injure the Presidency if there was no removal.

A Constitutional Imperative: Impeachment appears six times in the U.S. Constitution. The Founders weren't concerned with anything more than with impeachment because they had lived under King George III and had in 1776 accused the king of all the things that George W. Bush wants to do: Usurpation of the power of the people; Being above the law; Criminal abuse of authority.

Power Remains in the Hands of the People: Impeachment is the means by which We The People of the United States and our elected representatives in Congress can prevent further crimes by the President and the human catastrophe they threaten and force accountability for crimes committed.

Save the Constitution, the U.N., and Countless Human Lives. Congressional proceedings for impeachment can bring about open, fearless consideration of the most dangerous acts and threats ever committed by an American President. If courageously pursued, they can save our Constitution, the United Nations, the rule of law, the lives of countless people and leave open the possibility of peace on earth.

The Time for Action is Now: Each of us must take a stand on impeachment now, or bear the burden of having failed to speak in this hour of maximum peril.

ACTION: visit www.votetoimpeach.org/

—  adapted from Ramsey Clark's address, January 18th National March on Washington to Stop the War on Iraq organized by International A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism)

Impeach Bush: The Each One, Reach One Campaign

Ramsey Clark has appealed to the 250,000 VoteToImpeach members to help build the campaign to impeach George Bush. Now we are taking this campaign to the million vote mark.

The framework of this initiative is simple: Each One, Reach One. We ask all VoteToImpeach members to get just one additional person to vote to impeach online. If each of us got one person to vote this month, we would pass the half a million mark, and if we do the same in the following months, we will have reached the million mark.

These million votes will be taken to the House Judiciary Committee. Twenty-nine years ago the House Judiciary Committee, with sharp division, voted for Articles of Impeachment for Richard M. Nixon. Within a month, on August 9, 1974 Richard Nixon resigned a year and a half after he won one of the biggest landslide elections in U.S. history.

Among the Articles of Impeachment, Nixon was charged with "making or causing to be made false or misleading statements for the purpose of deceiving the people of the United States…." The relevance his impeachment proceedings with the case against George W. Bush et al., was noted recently by John Dean, the former counsel to President Nixon in a June 11, 2003 article titled "The Case for Impeachment."

Responding to the growing public outcry regarding Bush's lies and deceptions that were used as the rationale for the invasion of Iraq, Dean wrote, "To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken Congress and the nation into war based on bogus information, he is cooked. Manipulation or deliberate misuse of national security intelligence data, if proven, could be a 'high crime' under the Constitution's impeachment clause. It would be also be a violation of federal criminal law, including the broad federal anti-conspiracy statute, which renders it a felony 'to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner for any purpose.'  

When George W. Bush announced on March 17, 2003 that war against Iraq had become inevitable and imminent, he stated, "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."

Bush administration officials systematically lied to the people of the United States, to Congress and to the United Nations. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been killed and maimed. Iraq society has been plunged into chaos and misery.  Hundreds of US GI's have been killed and wounded. While waging an illegal war against the people of Iraq, the administration has carried out a war at home — an attack on the civil rights and liberties of the people of the United States and on the Bill of Rights itself.   The administration's crimes are becoming increasingly exposed in the public discourse and media. Pressure is growing for Congressional hearings on the Administration's lies and deliberate manipulation of "intelligence data" related to the much ballyhooed connection between Iraq and Al' Qaeda and the patently false claim about the "grave and imminent threat" posed by Iraq's alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction. Under these circumstances it is all the more important to expand the grassroots VoteToImpeach campaign.

Participate in the Each One, Reach One initiative! Visit www.votetoimpeach.org/eachone.htm

Let's keep the pressure on!

Modestan gets a peek inside Castro’s Cuba

By LEE RYAN MILLER

This year I traveled around the world, blessed with the opportunity to teach political science on Semester at Sea, a program of the University of Pittsburgh with 650 students.

I boarded the SS Universe Explorer in Miami on January 17 and disembarked in Seattle on May 6. Over the course of this fantastic voyage, I learned a great deal about how people live in nine foreign countries.

In a series of articles, I will share excerpts from my journal and take you with me on a visit to the Amazon rainforest, an impoverished township in South Africa, a housing project in India, and other fascinating places, all the while trying to avoid terrorism, war, pirates, and a deadly epidemic. Our first stop will be Cuba, one of the last remaining Communist states.

Before I departed, my friend Dean had given me the e-mail address of his friend whom I’ll call José, a resident of Havana, Cuba’s capital and principal city. José and I exchanged several e-mails before my departure. José was fluent in English, which was fortunate, because my knowledge of Spanish is fairly limited.

Dean explained to me that hunger and malnutrition are problems Cuba, and urged me to bring food and vitamins as well as luxuries like razor blades and cosmetics for José’s family.

1/25/03

I met José on the street outside the Sierra Maestra terminal in Havana at 11 a.m. I had loaded all the stuff I’d brought for him and his wife into an old suitcase: 25 pounds of rice, 14 pounds of black beans, a case of tomato paste, 30 disposable razors, shaving cream, and assorted toiletries and cosmetics for José’s wife.

I recognized José immediately from the photo he had e-mailed. He was a stocky man, Caucasian, dark complexion, brown eyes, short black hair, two-day-old beard. He greeted me warmly.

We made our way through the rows of “cocotaxis” (cute round yellow vehicles smaller and taller than VW bugs) to a cobblestone-paved plaza with a an old stone church and a Benneton store. There were horse-drawn carriages parked there. I presented José with my gifts and asked if he lived far away. He said that he did. I asked if we could take a taxi. He said no, that we should walk. I couldn’t quite understand why.

We walked through Habana Vieja, the old part of the city by our terminal. It is full of lovely stone buildings from centuries ago. Many have been renovated recently, and many more are in the midst of renovation. The area was packed with tourists. As we walked, José explained that could not afford to go to restaurants and bars and so forth. He seemed very embarrassed. I later learned that he earns about $13 per month. Even at the cheap bars far from the tourist district, a couple of beers cost about $1.50.

The further we walked from the terminal, the more decrepit the buildings looked. Outside the tourist district, hardly any of the buildings in Havana have been renovated since the revolution, half a century ago.

I marveled at the cars. There were large numbers of vintage 1950s American cars. I told José that Cuba must have the best mechanics in the world. I could not believe that these cars were still running. This is all the more remarkable, given that Cuba has not been able to import spare parts for theses vehicles for over forty years, due to the U.S. trade embargo. In addition to the classic American cars, there were many boxy Soviet era cars.

José explained that the government tries very hard to keep locals separated from foreigners. Locals are not allowed to use the tourist taxis, and foreigners are not allowed to take the public transportation. Goods and services meant for locals are cheap and scarce. Goods and services meant for tourists are plentiful and expensive. The whole point of the tourist industry, José explained, is for the government to collect as many dollars as possible.

José cautioned that we needed to be discrete. The government does not permit social interaction between locals and foreigners. At any point, he said, the police might stop us and arrest him. I started glancing worriedly around for police officers.

José laughed. “Don’t worry. They probably won’t bother us, as long as we are not too obvious.” He explained that the rule tends to be enforced only sporadically, and that they mostly go after locals who try to take advantage of tourists, like con artists and prostitutes.

We walked until we reached the Capitola, a building apparently modeled after the US Capitol in Washington, DC. In front of it were statues of various historic figures from Cuban history. In a park across the street were statues of various foreign historic figures, including, to my surprise, Abraham Lincoln.

At this point José asked me to put my camera away and to keep quiet, so that people would not know I was a foreigner. I complied and he hailed a cab. This was one of the old, beat-up cabs that the locals use. We both sat in the front seat. I sat silently as we drove quite a distance into central Havana. The cab stopped a couple of times to take on additional passengers. José later explained to me that such cabs follow a prescribed route, taking on and letting off passengers along the way.

The architecture was breathtaking. There were buildings with wrought iron balconies like in the French Quarter of New Orleans. There were neo-classical buildings with columns in front. There were art deco buildings. A few were painted bright colors. Most look like they once had been painted as such, but now only a bit of peeling paint clung to them. Most buildings, in fact, appeared to be crumbling. It was quite sad.

The people were dressed like Americans of modest means. They wore casual clothing for the most part – jeans or slacks or skirts, with collared short-sleeve shirts or t-shirts. No one was barefoot; everyone wore sneakers or shoes. The faces were of many shades, from what appeared to be Mediterranean features to African ones. Quite a few dogs roamed the streets.

Half an hour later we got out of the cab, and José led me into one of the many quaint but decaying buildings. He led me up three or four flights of stairs and into a three-bedroom apartment. The walls were cracked and peeling, and the flooring worn. The only thing new was José’s laptop. He explained that it belongs to his employer. He said that he was officially unemployed and worked under the table as a computer programmer. He wife had an official job as a network administrator. That’s how the couple had access to e-mail, unlike most Cubans.

They lived with his wife’s mother and grandmother. José explained that such arrangements were the norm. No one can afford to buy a house in Cuba – which would be impossible anyway, since virtually no new houses are constructed. He said that some people subdivide their apartments and rent out rooms to very poor families. But that is illegal.

José’s mother-in-law made us lunch. We had beans and rice and salad. Afterwards, we each drank a small cup of very strong, sweet coffee. Afterwards, we returned to Habana Vieja and had a couple of beers in a bar.

José was not very political, but he did express a dislike for Castro, and for the sham elections that were going on that very day. But José’s main reason for wanting to leave was economic. He explained that unless you have someone sending you dollars, it’s almost impossible to survive in Cuba. Not much food is available via their ration books or for purchase in pesos. If a doctor gives you a prescription, it is of no use, since the pharmacies don’t have most of the drugs prescribed. (If you’re sick enough to go to the hospital, though, they usually can find the drugs you need.)

I returned to the ship before 5:00 p.m. to attend a briefing by U.S. diplomats. Although the U.S. refuses to open diplomatic relations with Cuba, we maintain a de-facto embassy called the U.S. Interest Section.

The students, faculty, and staff were respectful, but most were opposed to the U.S. trade embargo and travel restrictions to Cuba. The American diplomats defended those policies, claiming that the U.S. was trying to install democracy, the free market, and respect for human rights. Many people, including myself, suggested to them that this was hypocritical, given that we have good relations with China (not a democracy), Vietnam (which has a communist economic system), and human rights abusers like Saudi Arabia and Burma.

The next day I led a field trip to a local hospital and Havana’s main children’s hospital. Basic health statistics in Cuba for life expectancy and infant mortality are roughly equivalent to those of the U.S. and other rich countries – and miles ahead of virtually every other county in Latin America and the Caribbean.

However, the hospital facilities were really run-down and dreary. In one room we watched personnel wrap in brown paper towels syringes that had been sterilized. In the U.S., syringes are never re-used for fear of causing infection.

Health care in Cuba is a public good, not a commodity. All Cuban doctors – whether GPs or specialists – earn the same salary. The health care system focuses on primary care. There is a doctor’s office every 100-150 meters in Havana, meaning that all families have a doctor within walking distance of where they live. The doctor lives above his/her office, and therefore is readily available in the event of an emergency.

That evening Fidel Castro invited Semester at Sea participants to hear him speak at Havana University. He spoke eloquently and passionately. We were provided earphones for simultaneous translation. I was amazed by the wide scope of Castro’s knowledge. He touched on everything from evolutionary biology to globalization to US relations. Interestingly, he didn’t say anything that sounded Marxist. His discussions of economics and politics – even that of international finance – were fairly accurate, and not that much different from what you’d expect from an American liberal.

Castro was riveting. But after two hours straight, my attention waned, and I hoped that the Cuban president was near the end. In fact, he went on for more than four hours, standing the whole time, speaking without notes. I don’t know how he did it. He did not seem the least bit fatigued. I think he’d have gone on for another four hours, had his aide not interrupted and thanked us for attending.

Everyone gave Castro a standing ovation, and while we were still standing, he spoke for another fifteen minutes or so. I was extremely relieved when he finally let us escape. After we were given several books of propaganda, we traveled to a reception hall for a banquet. By the time I got to the tables of food, the Cuban students had devoured nearly everything. Many of them stuffed bags full of food, presumably to take home to their hungry families.

I left Cuba today. I feel that the Cuban government has done a good job managing some things – notably health care and education – while doing a very bad job at others, such as human rights and economic policy. But most of all I am disappointed that the U.S. government continues to severely restrict the right of American companies to do business in Cuba and for American citizens to travel to Cuba. I believe that increased contact between our two countries will help to put an end to the hostility that has characterized U.S.-Cuban relations for the past half-century. 

Note: In June 2003, José and his wife were granted Canadian visas. They are applying for permission from the Cuban government to emigrate.

ACTION: For information on Semester at Sea, visit www.semesteratsea.com or call 800/854-0195. You can read more stories by Lee Ryan Miller at: www.LeeRyanMiller.com

Roll back the FCC's rule changes

Over the protests of hundreds of thousands of Americans, public interest groups and two dissenting Democratic commissioners, the FCC on June 2 voted to repeal or weaken some of the few remaining checks on the dominance of big media companies. Attention now moves to Congress, as a number of lawmakers attempt to roll back at least some of the changes, some of which now appear to be more drastic than previously reported.

For instance, most media outlets have reported that under the FCC's new rules, a single company can now own TV stations that reach 45 percent of U.S. households, up from 35 percent. Because of a little-reported loophole, however, a single company could actually reach far more people— in theory, as much as 90 percent of U.S. viewers (New York Times, 5/13/03).

The loophole, known as the "UHF discount," exists because of a 1980s regulation that requires the FCC to count every two viewers of a UHF station (TV channels 14 and above) as one viewer. As explained by the Times' Stephen Labaton (5/13/03), one of the few journalists to report on the "discount," the provision was passed at a time when people relied on broadcast TV "and had to use special equipment like antennas that resembled rabbit ears to pick up UHF stations. Today, about 85 percent of viewers use paid services from cable and satellite providers, rendering the distinction between VHF and UHF largely a relic."

The commission also eliminated, in all but the smallest markets, the ban on cross-ownership of newspapers and broadcast outlets, meaning that communities that are already "one-paper towns" (and that's most communities in the country) could now see one company own that paper plus the top TV station, too. Local TV ownership rules were weakened as well, so that one company may own as many as three stations in the largest markets, and two in many smaller markets.

Critics— including FAIR (Fairnes and Accuracy in Reporting)— contended that the changes will decrease diversity and localism in media, but the FCC's Republican majority made little effort to address such concerns. FCC chair Michael Powell dismissed as "garbage" the idea that the public was insufficiently informed about the decisions, despite the fact that a February poll showed that some 70 percent of the public knew "nothing at all" about them.

The FCC received an estimated 750,000 comments from the public, which, according to Commissioner Michael Copps, ran "99.9 percent" opposed. Yet Powell claims that a "silent majority" of Americans support the deregulation that, in the words of Sen. Ron Wyden (D.-Ore.), "rings the dinner bell for conglomerates to make a meal out of media outlets."

The FCC's actions also met criticism from both parties in Congress. Senators Ernest Hollings (D.-S.C.) and Ted Stevens (R.-Alaska) are cosponsoring a bill (S.1046) to return the TV ownership cap to 35 percent, and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D.-N.D.) hopes to add an amendment that would undo the new rules on cross-ownership of newspapers and broadcast outlets.

In the House, Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has gone further, proposing the "Protect Diversity in Media Act" (H.R. 2462), which would rescind all of the new rules made by the FCC, and prohibit the Commission from conducting any more of the biennial reviews of broadcast media ownership rules that were mandated under the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Corporate broadcast media outlets lobbied hard for the recent deregulation, but did a poor job of informing the public about it. Research by FAIR showed only a tiny handful of TV stories, most of them in the week preceding the FCC's vote (Media Advisory, 5/30/03). As the battle moves to Congress, media will have another chance to cover these issues so vital to democracy.

ACTION: Contact media outlets to encourage them to cover the ongoing efforts to reverse the FCC's rule changes.

ABC World News Tonight
212-456-4040
PeterJennings@abcnews.com

CBS Evening News
212-975-3691
evening@cbsnews.com

NBC Nightly News
212-664-4971
nightly@nbc.com

Write to your representatives in support of the Hollings-Stevens bill and Sanders' "Protect Diversity in Media Act." Use Common Cause’s web form to make the process easier: http://causenet.commoncause.org/afr/issues/alert/?alertid=2555996&type=CO

Edited from FAIR: www.fair.org