[Boston-video] new federal bills imperil community cable access

[Gary S. Trujillo]

Greetings.

Though I've decided to no longer actively participate in the ongoing
work of the IMC video and audio groups, for a variety of reasons, I
do remain interested in issues concerning "alternative" media, and
intend to continue to be a "lurker" on the mailing lists.

I've just listened to this week's edition of FAIR's half hour program
"Counterspin," the latter part of which is given to an interview
described as follows ("http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2620"):

| ...if you're only looking at the country's major media, you likely know
| nothing at all about bills currently before Congress that would allow
| cable companies to offload those pesky public access requirements that
| are supposed to part of their lucrative franchise agreements. We'll hear
| more about this latest attempt by corporate media to profit from the
| public while shutting them out from Anthony Riddle, executive director
| of the Alliance for Community Media ("http://www.alliancecm.org").

(The feature starts at 18:30 in the 28:00 minute program, the MP3 of
which can be downloaded via a link the page whose URL on the FAIR site
is given above, or it can be listened to in streaming RealAudio via
another link on that same page.  The program should be the first one
aired on the "Truth and Justice Radio" program tomorrow (Sunday) at
6:00 A.M. (WZBC, Boston College radio, 90.3 mHz).)

This issue should be one of great interest/concern to those working
on community-access video productions.  It might be worth doing a
feature story on the issue on the SCAT and CCTV programs, and to find
what people and organizations might be working on it locally and
develop relationships with them (or else start a campaign if one does
not already exist).

Please see the "Call to Action" box on the ACM home page concerning
Senate Bill 1349 and House Bill H.R. 3146.  There are links in the
box to information about both, which seem to be attempts to make
life easier for telco and cable companies at the expense of important
community access to the media, which is presently mandated under law.

If there is an interest in doing programs on this subject, I might be
willing to help with the setup, including finding appropriate people
to interview and any video material that might be available that is
suitable for cablecast.

Gary