http://catalog.com/mrm/fcc/monterey.txt July 21, 2004 Monterey, California Executive Summary: A mindblowing, high-energy, spirit-lifting, democracy-in-practice moment happened at Monterey with the 3 FCC commissioners who cared to come, to get feedback on localism in the media. (Chairman Michael Powell had to vacation with family in Cape Cod, although he found time to meet with corporate types the week prior in California.) I have to believe it affected the commissioners just as it affected everyone in the audience - the positive energy and committment and passion of the speakers was transferred articulately and politely but with no holds barred. I'm glad I was there. I'll never forget it. 10-page-long blow-by-blow trip report: The FCC (Federal Communications Commission, http://www.fcc.gov/localism) held one of only six public hearings on the concept of localism in media. This is a broad concept, covering local content, local writing and production, serving the local community's needs, and local ownership. That last point is clearly the lightning rod. These localism hearings were set up by Chairman Powell in August, 2003 after the stunning defeat of the FCC's proposed rule changes. Some 2.3 million Americans weighed in last year with objections, and the force of those objections was too much for even the bureaucracy to ignore. But the issue of expanding media ownership didn't go away forever; it will rear its head again. Or, some people say, Chairman Powell is resurrecting those problematic regulation changes as we speak. He is also advocating this "powerline broadband" which some people in the audience claim is detrimental to ham radio. There are five members on the FCC, appointees. Chairman Michael Powell, son of Colin Powell, Republican - absent Kathleen Abernathy, Republican? Michael Copps, Democrat? - heart in right place! our hero! Kevin Martin, Republican? - absent Jonathan Adelstein, Democrat? - also ally of The Good :-) For local color, you might be interested to learn Adelstein spent two summers washing dishes at Esalen down at Big Sur. (http://www.esalen.org, and my personal pictures and essay about Esalen at http://www.troutlily.org, scroll down a bit to the July 2004 parts.) Congress establishes the size of the FCC. It used to have 7 members. Now it has 5. Congress could expand the size up to 100 commissioners, if it wanted. Something to think about. The six hearings are/were scheduled for: Charlotte, North Carolina (10/22/03); San Antonio, Texas (1/28/04); Rapid City, South Dakota (5/26/04); Monterey, California (7/21/04); Washington, D.C.; (don't know which city), Maine. The FCC is actively soliciting comments that you can file from the web page, http://www.fcc.gov/localism. The body receiving the comments is the Localism Task Force, (202) 418-7777. Copps, our hero, was firm in saying that the electronically filed comments would be read and considered. Be sure to include the following information in any electronically filed comment: 1. Full name 2. U.S. Postal Service address 3. RM-10803 If you want to submit by email directly to localism@fcc.gov, instead of via the web page, you can get instructions on how to do this by sending email to ecfs@fcc.gov. Include these words in the message body: "get form." Send written comments by ordinary mail to Marlene Dortch, Office of the Secretary Reference: RM-10803 FCC 445 12th St., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20554 If you send in paper comments, you must ALSO either 1. Send an email copy to fcc@bcpiweb.com OR 2. Send two paper copies to Best Copy and Printing, Portals II, 445 12th St. S.W., Washington, D.C. 20554 And you're not done. If you're sending in paper comments, in addition to sending them to BCPI, you must also send EITHER 1. One copy via email to Rebecca.Lockhart@fcc.gov OR 2. Two paper copies to Rebecca Lockhart, FCC, Media Bureau, Policy Division, 445 12th St. S.W., 4-A866, Washington, D.C. 20554 I guess I'd choose to file via the web page. Are we in Kafka land yet? There are further instructions for what to do if you're sending by Federal Express or hand-delivered or what not. See their web site for details. The format of the evening was straightforward, and promised a long, long evening. Indeed: the meeting ran from about 6:15 p.m. - 11:30 p.m., when they basically threw us out of the hall. More people were still lined up at either of the two mikes on either side of the hall. The format was: - Introductory remarks by Commissioners Abernathy, Adelstein and Copps - 5-minute comments by each of a dozen local media people on stage; break after first 6 speakers for questions to them by commissioners. Also, questions to second set of speakers at the end, by commissioners. - bathroom break - as many 2-minute speeches from the public as would fit in the remaining time, hosted by Belva Davis, Host, "This Week in Northern California", KQED, San Francisco, California The local media people on stage were: 1. Bianca Zarazua, Chair, Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Monterey County; Honorary Consul to Mexico for Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties, Salinas, California 2. Eduardo Dominquez, Vice President and General Manager, KSTS-TV (Telemundo), San Jose, California 3. Joseph W. Heston, President and General Manager, KSBW-TV (Hearst-Argyle Television), Salinas, California 4. Martin Kaplan, Associate Dean, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 5. Sean McLaughlin, President and CEO, Akaku: Maui Community Television, Kahului, Hawaii 6. Check Tweedle, Senior Regional Vice President, Bonneville International's San Francisco and St. Louis Divisions; General Manager, KOIT-AM/FM, San Francisco, California [San Francisco and St. Louis? Whatever. --ed.] 7. Harry Pappas, President and CEO, Pappas Telecasting Companies, Visalia, California 8. John Connolly, National President, American Federation of Radio and Television Artists, Los Angeles, California 9. Kathy Baker, Executive Vice President, Buckley Radio; General Manager, KWAV-FM and KIDD-AM, Monterey, California 10. Davey D, Disc Jockey, KPFA-FM, Berkeley, California 11. Delia Saldivar, Regional Manager, KHDC-FM (Radio Bilingue, Inc.), Salinas, California 12. Harry Robins, Emergency Services Manager, Monterey County 13. Warren Trumbly, President, Community Broadcasters Association, Zephyr Cove, Nevada; Vice President, Broadland Properties, KAXT-CA, San Jose, California. There were five TV vans parked out front, and the place was crawling with media for a little while, and the back of the auditorium, crammed with 500 citizens, was lined with those oversized cameras that a TV crew uses. (Well, perhaps some of the foreign-born participants are legal residents and not citizens. Thankfully, this is not something used to screen people.) Getting in was a royal nightmare. First, let's note that this meeting was not announced or advertised anywhere that most people would see. I only heard about it by an email from MoveOn.org. Second, who knew you had to have tickets? Turns out they were distributing them *in Monterey* a week or so prior - half of them - and then the remaining half at 7 a.m. on the day of the hearing. Oh. Well, in any case, the press release announcing this plan certainly can be found on the FCC web site, but not in many other places. When we arrived in Monterey, we saw a huge banner from Media Alliance in San Francisco, announcing the meeting and advertising the time. (http://www.media-alliance.org, info@media-alliance.org, (415) 546-6334, "Working for a more accountable, diverse and just media system.") It's a darn good thing they took it on themselves to advertise where the meeting was, since there sure wasn't any other indication, apart from the two dozen or so taser-toting policemen. There were two tables of books and pamphlets and bumper stickers and sign-up sheets; not too much activity. We headed to a nearby cafe for hotdogs, and then got in line by 4:45 for the 6 p.m. show. Waiting in line to get tickets just makes you nervous. You think: I'm not going to get in. Damn. I'm not going to get in. A nicely dressed and coiffed TV anchor-man-type person asked me for a one-word sound byte of why I was there. Exactly ONE WORD, he stressed. I grinned widely and said "Consolidation." I'm pretty sure I didn't end up on any broadcast; I got the impression the TV guys were working the crowd out of boredom, waiting for the show to start. The kid from Carmel ahead of us (works in coffeeshop; cool black jacket covered with skull and bones, the usual kind, not the Yale kind) was wearing a black t-shirt reading F C C vertically. Horizontally from the letters it read "Finish Clear Channel" or something. It wasn't "finish" but I forget the word. It wasn't the infamous, indecent F word you are all thinking. Really it wasn't. Due to this t-shirt, every TV crew filmed him and interviewed him. Plus he loooked the part of the angry youth. I looked the part of the middle aged white lady reading a novel. Around 6 the line started shuffling forward, and they gave us a yellow ticket for the overflow room. The overflow room had two big TV monitors up front, where we could watch the precedings once they got started. It was a big let down to be in the overflow room, and not be where the energy was. But it turns out this whole blue-ticket and yellow-ticket stuff was an unnecessary precaution. Everyone in the overflow room easily fit into the main room, and they transferred us over in blocks of 15 people, but after the hearing had started, leading to some confusion for the speakers, I'm sure. In fact, there were a few (not many) empty seats all evening long. The FCC staff gave each person filing in the doors a folder with copies of the now-irrelevant press releases announcing the meeting and how to get tickets, and some glossy pieces of paper telling us what they wanted to learn about. Sort of a group therapy checklist for a government bureaucracy. -- Their brochure: "Five Questions You Can Help The FCC Answer ..." 1. How do your broadcasters use radio and television to respond to the community's needs and interests? What are they doing well? Are there certain kinds of local programming that you believe should be available but that are not being provided by local broadcasters? If so, what are they? Are broadcasters well informed about important issues and events in the community? [Sticklers among us might note that is already 5 questions. --ed.] 4. Are there any segments of the local community that you believe are not being adequately served? How could broadcasters meet the needs of such groups? What, if anything, should the FCC do to promote more localism in broadcasting? -- Yes, it is sort of funny they have 8 questions, labeled as Five Questions, and grouped into "Question 1" and "Question 4", but probably they don't have editors. Cutbacks. I wish I had a video of the entire night's procedings so I could spin through it now and pull out summaries of each media person, and also highlight the best comments from the citizenry. One local TV station was indeed broadcasting the entire event. I don't know if any radio station carried it. It was webcast on the fcc.gov website, but I don't see today any streaming video link to watch the whole shebang again. Oops! I take it back. On http://www.fcc.gov/localism/hearing-monterey072104.html, there is this message: * Webcast of Public Hearing: A streaming video recording of the event is now being created, and will be available for playback here when completed. (July 22, 2004) Commissioner Abernathy started it off, and she came off as someone straining for that middle-of-the-road superficially-acceptable-to-all sort of position. In other words, it was hard to tell where she stood on the matter of Murdoch vs. People of the Earth, but she did lecture people who hissed that we should all be respectful and hear each other out because that is what America is all about. Fair enough. Her scolding was probably necessary, since you could already feel the palpable, harnessed energy of the crowd, straining to break loose. It was therefore a relief to hear from Adelstein and Copps, who were forthright in declaring their support for true local control and ownership. Plus they didn't speak in that mumble-jumble double-meaning-laden inside-the-beltway buzzword kind of way. They just said what they meant (either that, or they're great at PR. But I feel both were authentic and sincere.) The 5-minute speeches from (admittedly local) owners of (admittedly local) media was a bit dizzying. Each person crammed as many words into the 5 minutes as he could, proving that although they may own media, they don't necessarily understand how to use it. The more populist and the more genuine the speaker, the wilder the crowd's reactions. Pretty much each of the 13 speakers was given a hearty and heart-felt round of applause. Most were interrupted multiple times by enthusiastic applause from the audience, causing the speakers to look at Moderator Abernathy and plaintively ask if they could get those few seconds added back on to the tail end of their five minutes. Everyone, absolutely everyone, in the room was bursting with how much they wanted to say. This sensation carried through the night. Martin Kaplan (Associate Dean, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California, Los Angeles) was a show-stealer with his stunning analysis of coverage of political speech on local broadcast outlets. You can find this online at http://www.learcenter.org/images/event_uploads/FCCTestimony.pdf. Since this is so important, I am going to take the liberty of quoting at length from his testimony. You can find all of his group's research reports at http://www.localnewsarchive.org. Kaplan writes: "In our most recent study, we collected top-rated early- and late-evening half-hours of news from a scientific sample of 122 stations in the top 50 U.S. markets. We analyzed more than 10,000 news broadcasts that aired during the last seven weeks of the 2002 campaign. "Here is some of what we found: * Only 44 percent of those broadcasts contained any campaign coverage at all. In other words, almost six out of ten top-rated news broadcasts contained *no campaign coverage whatsoever.* * Most of the campaign stories that did air were broadcast during the last two weeks of the campaign. * Nearly half of the stories were about horserace or strategy, and not about issues. * The average campaign story lasted less than 90 seconds. * Fewer than three out of ten campaign stories that aired included candidates speaking, and when they did speak, the average candidate sound bite was 12 seconds long. * Campaign ads outnumbered campaign stories by nearly four to one." Kaplan's entire 3-page testimony is found at http://www.learcenter.org/images/event_uploads/FCCTestimony.pdf. The conclusion is breathtaking: there is effectively NO real reporting of politics going on anymore. All we get is ads. No wonder people tune out - if our leaders are just a bunch of ads, the message is clear: he who can buy the most ads is probably likely to win. The Commissioners really lapped up any and all numbers, Abernathy especially. (There is a similar project going on at Stanford: Grade The News, found at http://www.stanford.edu/group/gradethenews/. The director attended as a member of the audience and made a statement. Read their 1-page summary at http://www.stanford.edu/group/gradethenews/pages2/citizenaudit.htm.) Another media speaker was the President and CEO of the Maui TV station. His remarks reminded me that Hawaii is really the progressive and populist part of this country, not California. Recall that Maui went for Kucinich. Each of the 13 media reps deserves a summary here, but I just don't have the notes or the memory. I pledge to do a simple summary once the fcc.gov streaming video is up, and place that summary next to this trip report on my web site (http://catalog.com/mrm). John Connolly spoke on behalf of millions of broadcast workers. The people on the ground doing journalism don't like the consolidation and anti-local flavor of the media transformation any more than the general public does. The biggest outpouring of applause, whistles, feet stamping and so on was saved for Davey D, Disc Jockey from our beloved KPFA-FM, Pacifica anchor station in Berkeley. (http://www.daveyd.com) Davey D pointedly didn't take part in all the clapping that everyone bestowed on everyone else. He stoically looked down the line of 16 people sitting on the stage, arms in a triangle, chin resting on hands. Rather noticeably, he was the only African-American. (There were several Hispanic people on stage.) Davey D described how censorship works in the radio world as controlled by Clear Channel. It is chilling. If you're an artist and you don't go along with Clear Channel's ideas on what concerts to take part in or how to promote yourself, well, they just might blacklist you from all of their 1,200+ radio stations nationwide. Davey D was eloquent and fired up, and he was the only person all night long to get a standing ovation. Harry Robins, Emergency Service Manager for Monterey County, made the rather startling confession (or plea) that he doesn't have anyone on staff who speaks Spanish. This for a tri-county area that is about 40% Spanish-speaking (I think that's the right number.) He didn't know what to do about it. A helpful person in the audience called out: "Hire a Spanish speaker." -- After a short break came the marathon of 2-minute public comments. Almost no one had a question, and I guess this was expected or anticipated by all. I thought it was going to be Q&A, but actually, everyone just wanted to have their say, and have it go right into the eardrums of the three commissioners who did show up. I can't begin to summarize now the many fantastic speeches. The cumulative effect is that we were on a groundswell. Everyone in the audience was of a common mind: No to consolidated ownership. No to canned programming. No to all this excessive profit-grubbing commercialism that ignores the fact the airwaves belong to the people. It was thrilling, exciting, enervating. It was encouraging. I have never felt so good about American democracy. Every person in that audience was aware, dedicated, hard-working and not about to give up, no way. I felt proud again to be part of this breed of people, Americans. Some people did take a few seconds of their precious two minutes to stray off topic. A young man from Oakland warned us that the election was stolen in 2000, and with the electronic machines in place now, we better be prepared for serious trouble in November. Much hearty applause. People know this. And they're not going to stand for it. I got up to the mike and said: "I'm not a high school AP teacher in Communication Studies, but if I were, I put this essay question to my students: 'Murdoch and localism: is there a connection? And does the FCC care?' " Silence. Eventually Copps leaned to the microphone and said "This commissioner cares." One passionate woman held up a cassette recorder demonstrating indecent (and vulgar and insulting and demeaning) speech by a famous shock jock (I forget the name), and Abernathy actually pledged to look into it as a case of indecency. This is something people in the Santa Cruz area have been trying to get taken care of for years. The FCC in the past (I believe) has more or less ignored this guy. He might be on Clear Channel; certainly on some programming that goes all over the country. -- What to do? Media Alliance passed out a sheet: "Continue the Momentum" 1. Tell Chairman Powell what he missed in Monterey, and cc Senator Boxer, who has oversight of the FCC as Senate Commerce Committee member Michael.Powell@fcc.gov http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/webform.cfm 2. File your comments online with the FCC, http://www.fcc.gov/localism 3. Got election news? Join with Media Alliance, Common Cause and others to get committments from your stations to air several hours of quality reporting on local races, and, balanced, substantive coverage of the Presidential election. info@media-alliance.org 4. Hold Califoria Radio & TV stations accountable All CA radio and TV license will be up for renewal in the next two years. Media Allicance wants to work with you and members of your community to ensure broadcasters are meeting your community's needs. We need your participation to conduct media monitoring projects, public hearings, and when appropriate, challenge the license of stations that are not fulfilling the public interest. In CA, radio licenses expire December 1, 2005 and TV licenses expire a year later, on December 1, 2006. 5. Stay tuned for additional steps & events http://www.media-alliance.org -- Important footnote. Copps strongly encouraged people to organize their own public hearings, and that he would attend as many as he could.