Monday, March 9, 2009

Comment TODAY with the FCC to save Public Access!

Currently, Public Access TV is under threat from several fronts. One of these fronts is led by communications conglomerate, AT&T, who is attempting to circumvent federal laws and provide substandard broadcasting of Public Access nationwide. Their substandard broadcasting methods prevent schools from telecasting class materials, the deaf from viewing closed captioning, citizens from engaging in local city government, and the public from learning about local issues not addressed in mainstream media. Today is the last day to make a public comment to the FCC!

Start by going to the FCC's Electronic Filing website and file a comment as an individual with your home address.

In the form,
1. Under Proceeding #, enter: "09-13"
2. Click the "Name" button
7 - 10. fill in your personal information in the Required fields
12. Choose "Comment" from the drop down menu.

Then, go to "OR Send a brief comment to FCC (typed-in)" to enter a brief comment. Suggestions:
"Please grant all three Public, Educational and Government Access Petitions. We need easy access to important local information provided by our PEG access channels."

"PEG Channels deserve equitable treatment."

"The FCC needs to stand by the federal government's commitment to localism and diversity. Keep local channels with the broadcast channels where they are accessible to all."


To learn more about the issue, visit these links:
Annie Folger (ED) interviewed on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman (see below and jump forward to 40:19)
Realtime Demonstration of AT&T U-Verse (see below)
Petition Filed to the FCC (pdf)
Highlight video of Media Center's quality programming (see below)





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