Saving the Educational Public Airwaves

Broadcasting Reform - by Darrell Udelhoven
Publisher of the Series - The Real Political Issues & People Empowerment 

FCC CLARIFIES RULES FOR NONCOMMERCIAL TELEVISION STATIONS’ USE OF DIGITAL TELEVISION CHANNEL CAPACITY

Washington, D.C. – The FCC ruled today that Noncommercial Educational (NCE) Television licensees are required to use their entire digital television (DTV) bitstream capacity primarily for nonprofit, noncommercial, educational broadcast services. 10/11/01 Important News Release
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A large percentage of America's problems have been due to the lack of transparency in government and corporate affairs, resulting in needless wars and economic inequities.



 Our government gave the big finance companies $750 billion without stipulations as to how it was to be used, now they have given broadcasters are public owned digital frequencies without stipulations or guidance in the way that they are to be used for the public interest, need and necessity.

Over the air television broadcasting is a virtual wasteland. There is little or no utility value content in broadcasting programs. The hierarchical intelligentsia's voice in broadcasting has failed the owners of the broadcast frequencies (We The People); broadcasting has also failed the global citizenry. This failure has cost our global community trillions of dollars of loss & untold suffering, it is time for the owners of the frequency resources to have unbridled access to broadcast over the new digital channels.

The over-the-air C-Span type & all utility value based public interest program broadcasting content should be carried on all cable & satellite systems across America & to the world. Cable & satellite systems have an abundance of channels that should be allocated for this purpose. Cable systems are a local utility monopoly with their rights granted by government & therefore subject to regulation concerning the use of their monopoly program delivery system.

The broadcast radio frequencies & television channels are owned by the public and government licensees' are commanded to serve the public interest, convenience and necessity. Public education up to the college level is free to every citizen being funded by property tax revenues. Both public & commercial broadcasting has an obligation to serve the public interest, convenience and necessity with high utility value programming content that is empowering to the audience receptors. With the addition of the new digital broadcast channels the new high utility programming content can be broadcast on local channels along with networking and the syndication of utility based content to the entire public citizenry. - 02/14/2009

Government of, by and for the people cannot function in the interests’ and needs of the people unless they have some control over the dissemination of content on their public owned broadcast frequency airwaves. We cannot permit these new government licensed digital frequencies to be used or squandered in non-essential unproductive content.

 The potential to change the course of our destinies and to allow a representative Republic to function for the benefit of the people will always depend on the people having a powerful voice in the content of the information that is disseminated to them through the frequencies that they own.

We need interactive programming content that involves telephone talk, the merging of radio, television and the Internet, in order to reduce the use of energy and toward rebuilding our economic communities from the ground up.

Here is a link to WPR The Ideas Network Audio Archive Stream; 02/06/09, 10am broadcast, "Born Again American," founded by Norman Lear
Go to http://www.wpr.org/ideas/programnotes.cfm then select & go to, 02/06/09 program notes. Have they yet corrected this misdeed? Support WPR - The Ideas Network!

Internet home of "Born Again American,"  Sign the Pledge & email your friends with these links. |
Internet Home of TV Producer,  Norman Lear's Website

We can begin to build radio & TV communication community networks along with syndicated programs to reach every community in America so that, "We the People can begin to speak to each other & participate in organizing toward empowering ourselves toward governing ourselves, as was intended.

Wall street & the finance sector would not have gotten out of hand if 9 years ago the truth had been disseminated to "We the People," & therefore we had forced our elected representatives to force the Security & Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate wall street & finance sector! Trillions of dollars could have been saved along with our economy; think about that reality. Support this broadcast communications by the people movement. I will post a lot more on this very soon.
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CONGRESS CONSIDERS SUPPORTING RELIGIOUS RIGHT PROGRAMMING ON EDUCATIONAL TV AND RADIO

People For the American Way Joins a Coalition in Calling on Congress to Preserve Educational Broadcasting

Congress is trying to rewrite the rules for noncommercial educational broadcasting in a way that would increase the saturation of taxpayer-supported public airwaves by religious programming that is often highly intolerant of other faiths and groups, as well as overtly partisan. The legislation that would accomplish this change has already passed the House (H.R. 4201) and has been placed on the Senate's calendar. This means that the Senate could act on it anytime after Labor Day when it resumes work. Enactment of this legislation would radically alter the face of public educational broadcasting, using these scarce resources and taxpayer dollars to promote ultra-right religious views, even those that denigrate followers of other faiths.

This bill would allow all nonprofit organizations, including religious nonprofits, to obtain publicly supported licenses that have traditionally been reserved for educational programming. Both acts would achieve this goal by limiting the Federal Communications Commission's ability to define noncommercial educational broadcasting.

The bill would effectively define educational broadcasting as we know it out of existence.
Because the legislation would make all nonprofit organizations eligible for these licenses and would define educational content very loosely, any group would be able to claim that their programming is educational and thus qualify for these tax-subsidized licenses. As a practical matter at this time, however, it is the religious broadcasters that are in a position to take advantage of this opportunity.

In fact, one Religious Right organization, the American Family Association (AFA), already owns 165 noncommercial educational licenses that are now operating under the FCC's looser post-Cornerstone (see below) rules and has 178 more applications pending. As a back-up strategy, AFA has also filed a federal lawsuit that, if successful, would forbid the FCC from giving any preference at all to traditional educational broadcasters in granting these tax-supported licenses.

People For the American Way, along with the other organizations that make up theCoalition To Defend Educational Broadcasting, opposes these bills and believes that the proposed change would greatly diminish educational television and radio by enabling broadcasters whose programs promote religious bigotry and intolerance to have the same tax-subsidized educational status as truly educational stations that air such programs as "Nature," "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," NPR's "Morning Edition," and "Sesame Street."

A videotape, which powerfully illustrates exactly what's wrong with the idea of forcing taxpayers to subsidize sectarian programming by giving it preferred educational status, can be viewed at PFAW's website. The tape includes clips of several programs that are aired over Cornerstone Television, Inc., a religious broadcaster that describes its missionas advancing "an overall educational program schedule to teach basic moral and ethical principles derived from Judeo-Christian ethics, as set forth in the Bible."

Cornerstone's attempt to acquire a noncommercial educational license to operate in Pittsburgh was the springboard from which Congress leapt into this current action. In late December 1999, the FCC had voted 3-2 to grant Cornerstone a noncommercial educational license. In doing so, however, the FCC stipulated that noncommercial educational broadcasters must provide at least half of their overall weekly programming for educational, instructional, or cultural purposes. The FCC ruling further stated that programming "primarily devoted to religious exhortation, proselytizing, or statements of personally held religious views and beliefs" could not be considered educational.

The FCC ruling set off a torrent of criticism from right-wing lawmakers, televangelists and nonprofit, religious-based organizations. Led by Rep. Michael G. Oxley (R-Ohio) a group of members of Congress accused the FCC of trying to suppress religious speech. Jerry Falwell used his January 21 "Old-Time Gospel Hour" broadcast to accuse the FCC of going to "great lengths to expunge Christian religious expression from the public space." Falwell told his viewers that "we have become Red China" and urged them to call Oxley and other representatives in support of their attempt to overturn the FCC rule.

In late January, the FCC vacated its December action. FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani criticized the commission for its reversal, saying, "this supposedly independent agency has capitulated to an organized campaign of distortion and demagoguery."

Not content with the FCC's reversal, the religious right embarked on an effort to give their victory the force of law, thus preventing any future FCC from reconsidering the question.

Oxley, and other far right politicians, such as Reps. Dick Armey ( R-Texas) and Steve Largent (R-Okla.) urged Congress to adopt legislation that would give religious right broadcasters free rein to saturate the noncommercial educational airwaves with their often vitriolic sectarian messages, as well as with blatantly partisan political messages. H.R. 4201, called the Noncommercial Broadcasting Freedom of Expression Act, passed the House on June 20 and is now on the Senate calendar.

It states that "religious programming contributes to serving the educational and cultural needs of the public, and should be treated by the Commission on a par with other educational and cultural programming."

The enclosed videotape shows just a few examples of the kinds of programming that would receive preferred taxpayer-supported status under this bill.

There is no question that Cornerstone and the other groups like it that espouse such views have a constitutional right to do so. Yet, these broadcasters do not have any automatic right to reap the financial windfall that unrestricted access to taxpayer-subsidized noncommercial educational licenses would confer. We hope you will agree with us that Congress should not pass any bill that uses taxpayer dollars to subsidize and therefore, in effect, to promote sectarian beliefs that denigrate and demean other groups of Americans.

The financial motivation is strong for religious broadcasters to pursue tax-subsidized noncommercial educational licenses. During congressional hearings over Cornerstone's acquisition of noncommercial educational station WQEX in Pittsburgh, the broadcaster's chief financial officer testified that the station would have reaped a financial benefit of $17.5 million by selling its commercial license and acquiring the noncommercial educational one.

If this legislation were to become law, it would fundamentally alter educational programming and leave the federal government in the position of supporting broadcasting whose sole purpose is to advance a sectarian and right-wing political mission. We hope you will agree with us that this is not an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars and that this proposal should be strongly repudiated by the Senate.

Watch the video that highlights Cornerstone's content.

View sample letters that you may use to compose your own letter to a local paper or your U.S. Senator.

 People For the American Way - News FCC Action

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