Hello, Federal Communications Commission, are you protecting the People? Or corporate interests?

This message is to encourage others to communicate with the FCC on this last day for testimony.

The voices of the American People must not be stifled! The only way that our voices can be heard is through Public Access availability and through Community, Local Government, state Government, and Local Origination programming, where information and ideas can truly be shared.

The ideal of Democracy, and the ideal of Freedom, so cherished in this country and which has served as a model over the past sixty years for newly emerging Nations, is being completely thwarted by corporate rule over Radio and Television. Except for C-Span, bless their hearts, which records gavel to gavel coverage of important meetings of Congress, the public is exposed to, not the entire discussions or arguments, but selected sound bites that fit into the corporate best-interest mold.

Those few reporters who deviate from this filtering of the “News” that will be presented to the American public, find themselves out of a job! Bill Moyers is one of my heroes; he shares my conviction that people are more important than profits! Look what happened to him! Too Lefty? Ha! Consider the great segment of the American Public who agree with his views? What happens to them? Who speaks for them? We need Public Access on Cable channels so we can speak to each other!

The Network pundits present a gamut of opinion from A-to-B, as the saying goes; we get a broad range of spokespersons from the ultra-right/war mongers to the right-right/corporate kissies, supposedly for the purpose of enlightening the American Public as to what is going on in the world. How will they learn what damage US foreign and domestic policies are doing watching/listening to lies? Goebbels was the first to use this technique; laxity of the FCC, has allowed the corporate media to perfect It!

The FCC, from 1934, that was supposed to be the watchdog protecting the “Airwaves that belong to the American People,” has become the lapdog of Corporate power. What did you guys do? We used to have equal access to rebut allegations made on Radio/TV. No more! There used to be requirements to prevent consolidation of media in a single market; now Newspaper/Radio/TV can speak with one voice in Cowpattie, PA, and the local folks don’t know the difference! What happened to divestiture?

Some of us watch foreign TV to get the REAL NEWS! The FCC has sold off the Birthright of the American Public to the HIGHEST BIDDERS! Of course, you are being pressured to release companies from any obligation to enter into contracts with local governments! They want access to the consumers without any obligation! They want to sell us their garbage, filled with “lowest common denominator” programming, riddled with unconscionable violence and inane titillation. They’ll make more profit!

This technology of Radio and TV has the potential, along with the potential of the Internet, to help the People of Earth recognize that they are more alike than they are different. With ETHICAL and HUMANISTIC programming that has intellectual content, and an anti-chauvinistic, truly ecumenical world view it can help to generate a Culture of Peace. If there were Peace in the world…the bomb builders and the bomb droppers and the planners of bomb targets would all have to get honest jobs and learn how to earn ethical livings, wouldn’t they? Perhaps this Anti-Corporate consideration is seen to be THE GREATEST THREAT TO THOSE WHO WANT YOU TO ELIMINATE PUBLIC ACCESS!
HELLO, FCC MEMBERS! PLEASE HELP?! SAVE PUBLIC ACCESS!

This appeal is from:
Beth K. Lamont, Humanist Celebrant, American Humanist Association, NGO Representative to the United Nations, and Producer of Manhattan Neighborhood Network Cable Access Program “Here & Now”, since 1984.