Alan Korn spoke at Thursday's Clear Channel protest in San Francisco. Alan was Stephen Dunifer's counsel in the Free Radio Berkeley case (Decision, Amicus Brief) that went on from 1994-2000 here in California.
Alan's main point was that this fight will be far from over after Monday. Even if the vote takes place and we lose on its outcome, there are other actions we can take in the days and weeks and months to come to fight back against Clear Channel.
He also mentioned how contacting your representatives was still very important and that letters to Senator Barbara Boxer are particularly useful because she's on the Commerce Committee.
Alan likened this situation to the 1920's when people spoke out to protect the environment and brought the issue to the attention of the Federal Government. Cases where people had been arrested committing acts of civil disobedience had to work their way up through the courts before the First Amendment was actually recognized by the Supreme Court. (Can anyone help me find links on this?)
He also explained how citizens can file a "Petition to Deny" with the FCC against Clear Channel radio stations when their licenses are up for renewal. (KSJO in San Joses license is up this year, for example.)
Another thing that citizens can do at any Clear Channel station nationwide during 9-5 on any business day is to show up at their offices and demand to inspect their public files. Stations are supposed to keep certain records about meeting their public interest requirements. (More on this later!)
If stations are violating the rules by exceeding the number of stations allowed for a particular market, it's apparently up to us to collect the proper documentation and inform the FCC about it. Clear Channel, for instance, owns 9 radio stations in San Francisco (only 8 are allowed per market) and 10 radio stations in San Diego, because it keeps two of them across the border in Tijuana.
Alan Korn - Highlights (Small - 7 MB)
Alan Korn - Complete (Small - 13 MB)
No Hi-res yet, coming soon...email me if you need this NOW.
Audio - Alan Korn - Complete (MP3 - 5 MB)
This work is dedicated to the
Public Domain. (Take it and run, baby!)
Medea Benjamin, Founding Director of Global Exchange and co-founder of Code Pink, explained to the crowd how the United States probably have one of the most undemocratic media in the world right now.
Medea discussed how public support of the war in Iraq was largely caused by the steady stream of disinformation that was being broadcast over the popular media. How ironic, she said, that our troops are over on the other side of the world supposedly bringing democracy to another country while we are rapidly losing our own democratic freedoms here at home.
Benjamin goes on to explain that, according to an FCC commissioner that she heard on the radio program "Democracy Now" Thursday morning (May 29, 2003), the FCC has received over 428,000 (four hundred twenty-eight thousand) comments regarding this issue, and that 98% of those were against further relaxation of the FCC's media ownership rules.
Medea Benjamin - Highlights (Small - 6 MB)
Medea Benjamin - Near Complete (Small - 13 MB)
No Hi-res yet, coming soon...email me if you need this NOW.
Audio - Medea Benjamin - Near Complete (MP3 - 6 MB)
This work is dedicated to the
Public Domain. (Take it and run, baby!)
I've put together a montage of the different chants over the course of the evening.
Yeah, we're a bunch of hippies. A bunch of pissed off, angry hippies. (Wanna make something of it?)
But we also represent a lot of pissed off non-hippies all across the country. We're speaking out for "average citizens" across the U.S. everywhere.
Note that I've made an uncompressed AIFF file of this available for sampling purposes.
SF Chant Montage (Small - 5 MB)
SF Chant Montage (Hi-Res - 52 MB)
Audio - SF Chant Montage (MP3 - 2 MB)
Audio - SF Chant Montage (Uncompressed AIFF - 10 MB)
This work is dedicated to the
Public Domain. (Take it and run, baby!)
This is the first in a number of installments of the video and audio from yesterday's protest last night at 340 Townsend Street in front of the Clear Channel offices.
(Note: I've just added a montage of chants here.)
I'll be providing "highlight" versions of everything as well as complete versions of everything I post.
The one thing that stood out to me was the point people kept making that Clear Channel is already abusing existing regulations. Why on earth would the FCC ever relax them further when Clear Channel doesn't even respect them now?
So the problem is not only what could happen if these rules are further relaxed. The problem exists now, with the rules the way they are. Clear Channel owns nine stations in the SF Bay Area market, for example, while the legal limit is eight.
Note: As of 10 AM PST, the high resolution versions of this stuff were still uploading.
I'd give it another half hour or so at least.
Andrea Buffa, Global Exchange - Highlights Reel 1
Andrea Buffa - Highlights Reel 1 (Small - 8 MB)
Andrea Buffa - Highlights Reel 1 (Hi-Res - 64 MB)
Audio - Andrea Buffa - Highlights Reel 1 (MP3 - 2 MB)
Andrea Buffa, Global Exchange - Complete Part 1
Andrea Buffa - Part 1 (Small - 10 MB)
Andrea Buffa - Part 1 (Hi-Res - 125 MB)
Audio - Andrea Buffa - Part 1 (MP3 - 4 MB)
This work is dedicated to the
Public Domain. (Take it and run, baby!)
