A Message From MoveOn.org
Dear MoveOn member,
This isn't an email asking you to sign a petition or give money.
It's simply a celebration of a victory.
75 television executives from network affiliates descended on Capitol
Hill yesterday to prevent the House appropriations committee from
voting for a partial rollback of the FCC rule changes.
Because of you and thousands of others, Congress did something
unprecedented yesterday. Republican committee member Frank Wolf urged
his colleagues to vote their conscience, and stand up to the
lobbyists. And they did just that, delivering a 40-25 vote against big
media.
Conservative columnist William Safire wrote in today?s New York Times:
"Here is what made this happen: Take the force of right-wingers
upholding community standards who are determined to defend local
control of the public airwaves; combine that with the force of lefties
eager to maintain diversity of opinion in local media; add in the
independent voters' mistrust of media manipulation; then let all these
people have access to their representatives by e-mail and fax, and
voilà! Congress awakens to slap down the power grab." (URL below)
The rollback still has a long way to go, but this is another big step
in our march to reverse the FCC and create a more diverse, independent
and skeptical media.
Your active participation is working. Congress is listening. There
will be more work in the weeks and months ahead. Stay tuned and stay
involved. For more information on media reform efforts, go to
http://www.mediareform.net or http://www.commoncause.org.
Sincerely,
--Eli Pariser
MoveOn.org
July 17th, 2003
12:36:55 PM
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