Telecommunications Act of 1996 is going to be addressed by Congress

[liveoaktx]

again next year. More reason that ever to vote in the Dems.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30309-2004Sep17.html

Members of Congress and key committees are beginning to express interest in hearings and legislation to stop this dangerous consolidation. Next year the Commerce Committee is required to revisit the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This will be an important review, and a critical opportunity to set new public policy

[KharmaTrain]

1. This Is A Major Issue

For those who bitch about corporate media, this is one of the major culprits. It let Cheap Channel gobble up hundreds of stations that turned into hate radio bastions and cable giants like Comcast & Adelphia supercede local charter agreements and turn your cable dial into the cesspool it has become.

First, the FCC has to be re-directed...from government censor (that was never its design) to broadcast frequency arbeiter and honest broker. That'll take a lot of work.

Before revisiting DeReg '96, there's still the pending new wave of dereg the large corporations like Time/Warner, Tribune, News Corp. (Faux) and others want that would wipe away ownership rules on over-the-air TV signals and also allow Murdoch to dominate satellite television.

The question that is never answered when this dicussion comes up is what to replace DeReg with. How much ownership does a company get? How would companies with too many stations divest of their stations without financial ruin? Who would get those available stations? Would this lower broadcast property prices to allow more local ownership...or create doom & gloom that could ruin many companies (I personally would tap dance on a bunch of those graves...:evilgrin:).

But first, the FCC has to be re-asserted as a regulatory agency, not a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Association of Broadcasters.

[liveoaktx]

2. A model might be what happened with dereg of Bell to the *baby bells*

[antigop]

3. Cause for alarm?

http://www.carlylegroup.com/eng/news/l5-news2858.html

Look who bought Verizon Hawaii.

[KoKo]

4. Kick for all the DU'ers who worked so hard to defeat more "deregulation"

and got the FCC to back down and Congress to wake up!

[Karenina]

5. First in 10

DO IT AGAIN! :kick: