Author: Paul
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Not dead, maybe sleeping
Has nearly a month gone by since my last post? Wow. I guess it’s time for the customary tardy blogger’s excuse/apology. For me it was the Thanksgiving holiday combined with having a cough (probably whooping) and cold that lasted about 6 weeks. Not a great excuse, I know. But, hey, at least the radioshow didn’t…
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Revving up the Dirty War in Oaxaca
George Salzman has sent another update from the situation in Oaxaca, Mexico, which he has posted in full at his own website: Oaxaca, Saturday 11 Nov 2006 Friends, The Oaxaca State and Mexican federal governments are unleashing a dirty war against the widespread social rebellion in Oaxaca, in the hope of smashing it as clandestinely…
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Pacifica and Uneasy Listening
This year historian Matthew Lasar published a recounting of what he calls the civil war inside of the Pacifica Foundation, where community radio began at KPFA in Berkeley, CA, titled Uneasy Listening. I haven’t yeat read the book, but it’s on my list. I very much enjoyed Lasar’s first book on Pacifica, Pacifica Radio: The…
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Is Tribune Not Optimistic about the Demise of the Cross-Ownership Ban?
Reports today say that the Tribune company is starting to shop around its top TV station properties, including WGN in Chicago, KTLA-TV in Los Angeles and WPIX-TV in New York. Although the company will reap pretty good money from the sale, it’s an interesting move that contradicts the company’s position so far. Up to now…
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On the next radioshow: Update from Oaxaca
This evening I spoke again with Nancy Davies and George Salzman, two Americans living in Oaxaca, Mexico. They updated me on the situation there and I’ll play that interview on tomorrow’s radioshow, live on WEFT 90.1 FM in Champaign, IL. That program will be available for download by Sunday at midnight. George has been sending…
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Sad News from Oaxaca
I’ve been mostly offline (from the web, at least) for days now, so I apologize for not posting this earlier. Many readers well-plugged-in to the Indymedia scene will likely know already, but I must note the murder of NYC Indymedia journalist Brad Will by Mexican military forces in Oaxaca last Friday. This happened as mexican…
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The Comments Pour In, Under the Wire
Television Week has a brief roundup of the comments on the media ownership proceeding from both the industry and its critics. How many of the companies quoted own radio or TV stations in your community? How much more consolidation do you want to see on your TV and radio dials?
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Who Are These Studies For? Maybe not the FCC.
I finished up Benton and SSRC’s phone press conference a few minutes ago. There weren’t many questions from the press, which makes me think that there wasn’t much press there. Though, I’m certain there will be obligatory stories in the industry press, probably culled from the press release and a quick phone interview. While it’s…
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Benton & SSRC Reports: Concentrated Ownership Does Not Correlate with Better, Diverse Media
Benton Foundation and the Social Science Research Council released their four reports on media ownership and concentration today. Without a doubt these reports explode the lies that the FCC majority, National Asociation of Broadcasters and major newspaper owners have been trying to push. The big media contentions, that more concentrated ownership results in more variety…
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Reports, Reports Everywhere, but Not One from the FCC
On Wednesday the Media and Democracy Coalitionreleased a series of reports focusing on the economic effects of industry consolidation in twelve states. Not surprisingly they find that media consolidation is bad: The research finds that in every one of those states, most citizens already live in highly concentrated media markets with few choices for news…