Progess report from MoveOn

[mosc]

Looks like progress has been made on this issue. Here's a message just
in from MoveOn. Looks like when Congress heard that electro-music.com
wants to keep the media free, they responded.

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Because of public pressure, the U.S. House overwhelmingly approved an
appropriations bill that blocks one of the FCC's new rules. The bill
prohibits expanding the number of American TV viewers one media
company may reach to 45%. It holds the cap at 35%. This is great
news, but it's not over.

The national TV cap is the least substantive rule change. The rules
relaxing bans on newspaper/broadcast cross ownership and local TV
consolidation (duopolies) are what really hurt media diversity and
independence. The White House and the Republican majority in Congress
oppose repealing these rules. Nonetheless progressive Democrats made
a bold effort. A full roll back was included in the
Hinchey-Price-Inslee amendment that we petitioned on Tuesday after the
Republicans tried to derail support by calling a surprise vote.

Thanks to you, phones rang "off the hook" according to House staffers.
In the hours before the critical vote, voices from the public changed
minds in the Congress. Although the amendment lost, it received a
remarkable 174 votes, including 34 Republicans -- far more than
insiders thought possible. Getting a strong vote was the mission, and
we accomplished it. We needed to show legislators that there is strong
support in the House for the full FCC rollback.

The complex Congressional process now takes the FCC rollback on two
possible paths:

1) The strong showing in the House on appropriations gives
repeal-minded Senators exceptional leverage in the House/Senate
conference negotiations on this bill. One or more rules are likely to
be rolled back in this conference.

2) The Senate is pursuing a parallel strategy. A "Resolution of
Disapproval" that would repeal all of the FCC rules has strong support
in the Senate and has a good chance of passing in September. It would
then come to the House for another fight.

The House-Senate appropriations conference won't happen until
September. In the meantime, we are working tirelessly to ensure that
the Senate is skillfully coordinated and that the House Democrats are
unified when this comes back to the floor.

After years in which media companies have rolled their agenda over
Congress with few objections, Congressman Inslee said a "tsunami" of
public pressure was starting to change the course of Congress. He was
right. Growing numbers of Americans are realizing that real democracy
demands democratic media, and Congress is listening - thanks to you.

Go to http://www.mediareform.net for more information on the fight in
Congress and media reform efforts across the country.

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P.S. To see how your Representative voted on the important
Hinchey/Price/Inslee amendment, check out:
http://clerkweb.house.gov/cgi-bin/vote.exe?year=2003&rollnumber=407

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This is a message from MoveOn.org.