it's to drive the situation would you have to look not at europe not of the u.s. but elsewhere to see any substantive at work to change the situation i mean the europeans love to say the united states and outlived the rest of it but when they click they use make which comes to show up now as coeditor of counterpunch as well as contributing writer to the nation magazine alexander colbert and that's going to do it for now for more on the stories we cover go to our team dot com slash usa check out our you tube page you tube dot com slash our to america i'm christine. it was pretty good to search public interests. and to entertain. these days there's nothing easier than opening a new media but there is nothing then resolving its license in case of the lucky.

ones. you can indulge in a community where you have one large corporation owning the building newspapers radio stations television stations cable outlets you tell me that that sounds like the marcy's of public opinion versus f.c.c. broadcast blues.

the official t. out location on the phone on called talk for me i should stop still. watch all she likes on the go. video. she's mine field goals and speeds now with the palm of your. question on the call to call. a telemarketer broadcasting live from washington d.c. coming up today on the big picture.

he. brooks jackson leads the fact check team for the anybody school of communications they revealed misleading political coming from republicans and democrats alike just let me show you a few examples of. well the obama ad. the fact is that corning quiet shut down because it made old fashioned cathode ray tube to be. two that are being replaced by flat screen technology not john mccain's for

. this mccain aide as part of a pattern. obama is actually proposing is a tax cut for most of us eighty percent probably and a tax increase only for families making over two hundred fifty thousand dollars a year. actually we call this a pattern of misrepresentation a pattern of deceit which is something we don't often say jackson says that checking by news organizations in two thousand and eight has been better than in previous years still t.v. stations are making a lot of money from these t.v. ads we're seeing just press a bit of amounts of cash thrown at political advertising in this election it's always seemed to me that a television station that's making so much money off of these things owes the audience the viewers a responsibility to channel

a little bit of that money back into check and whether or not what's being said in those ads is true and why can't we just ban all political television advertising because in one nine hundred seventy five the supreme court ruled that money equals speech. not when we caught up with congressman john two little outside his two thousand and six congressional debate the democratic challenger charlie brown what campaigns are just advertising driven advertising is horrendous very expensive certainly electronic media is ridiculously expensive and that the best way that everybody wants to use my point is to respect the first amendment says congress shall make no law bridgend freedom of speech and the fact of the matter is that part of that the meaning of that is that you can control the means of making a speech and you have to let people raise the money in order to be able to get their message out otherwise you would. actively denied them the freedom of speech

how much money will you be spending on electronic media in this campaign that is a trade secret it is an open secret that nearly three billion dollars were spent on campaign ads in the two thousand a lecturer and the candidates they spent seventy five percent of their time fund raising for most candidates spent most of the water race. and politics where's the money go right. to we can stop those practices by ensuring the candidates are given free airtime that's a very simple thing the gore compassion that was done back in one nine hundred ninety eight ninety nine there is a proposal that the networks provide. and their licensees provide five minutes of airtime to candidates that went nowhere any free airtime proposal means less profits for broadcasters profits that according to the f.c.c. top forty six percent. want to merge.

we've got an emergent devoted to real men we've got to. be real over. you know. we've got to have good material and i know it was six degrees below zero in my not north dakota january eighteenth two thousand to seven canadian pacific train cars derailed at one thirty am creating a worst and hydrous ammonia spill in history just outside the housing tract. a cloud of deadly gas was moving toward the town. my not police sergeant dave goodman heard the call to take a look it looked almost like. something out of the country or three old it was just a large ward and it just appeared to be a rolling. towards my no.

one wants your murder. sergeant goodman needed his gas mask but it was at home inside the poisonous cloud hard cold wind of my driveway one emergency worker yeah i had my swat gear in the garage and it was up to me like yeah. i got my family out of there. now they were in extreme and. my kids were up for six and eight years old at the time your daughter twelve to town and my kids where you'd be in the background so they were all concerned. and i know my wife has said several times that she was so scared that she was either going to sit there and watch our kids die she can result there. or she was going to die in front of our kids. it's

a bad word. but going outside was the worst thing to do we're all over the place we don't know where we're going to and mike johnson fled their home and got lost but they got lucky lundeen family rescued them is in our know is in our throats everything was burning burning burning her nerves in happiness to see us so that. when she'll find a place to sit on my each other and all gets on top of tomlin dean guided the families into his basement no lights no heat no information for you on the radio you're in. music dispatchers were advising callers to listen to their emergency broadcast station or serious. kick the real nine can't be but a full hour after the crash there was still nothing on k c j b ok or any other radio station they play out over the radio. it's radio station had

a radio station there. never heard nothing on the radio or the t.v.'s could be someone original. here is actual footage from inside the patrol car that night listen carefully you hear the radio playing music. for. america or break it up here. there were eight commercial radio stations in my not six of them including q c j b had been bought by one company clear channel they were programming from twelve hundred miles away the satellites i got the radio on. just going through a toy k.c. g.b. who is the station for what at that time for emergency services only thing we heard on the radio was what time it was and the temperature what time it was and the temperature and that gets old one forty one forty five to fifteen to

twenty zero zero it was only the time in town that's all we heard over and over and over and over again. and country music they want what is your emergency why not police tested the emergency alert system the week before but it didn't work that night on one of your modem three and cops aren't allowed to interrupt regular programming when they need to interruptions cut into advertising revenue only the president can do that. if we if we could have had somebody on there would have said stay in your home we would have yes we would have our lives would be much much better we have lots of health issues now because we were out in there for twenty two minutes because we didn't know what it was no one could reach the emergency broadcaster by telephone clear channel was consolidating all six of its stations into one building and had cut the line. just one broken telephone line meant no one could reach anyone at six different local radio stations i don't want to run think

that there's a man down in his right way and i had to benefit of some of meeting him one night when i was just ran screaming from the room he was my first ticket i ever wrote to him and we became good friends after that time and when what is your emergency we are seeking a person who is unaccounted for and his name is john grady or no one has heard of him or seen him a good friend of mine died down morning. he so what the c.e.o. of clear tonight will have to say a model perhaps and you're trying to compete to sell your customers products which is our business we're in the business of selling our customers products and through our audience is the advertising that we sell we hope that we do accomplish it is our absolute commitment to be a public service conduit to every single market that we're in which we do achieve in every single market that we're in. broadcasters can

neglect the public in other ways take the case of intercoms radio station in sacramento k d n d who sponsored a water drinking contest hold your we to win a nintendo we think some twenty people and turn the contest obvious why you think you can you can hear it before you have to we. see why are we thing like. during the show any number of people were calling in and saying look this is a dangerous stunt someone could die and there are people that are doing it on that one thing do you think one can read i for one time became aware that there is a guy they say releases to marry till the staff laugh this off take orders anybody is anybody going in there. that. could make a fairly. silly. please ultimately a young woman mother of three children if she was twenty eight years old i'm not

mistaken. consume about two gallons of water. a lot of it get for you ok you will eat out anywhere you see here. too much water and i had. the feeling we have. no idea this is what it feels like when you're drunk. just hours later jennifer strange died. the family's attorney asked the f.c.c. to take the radio station's license away for two years later the f.c.c. has done nothing with that intercom station instead it has rewarded intercourse with fourteen additional station licenses let's look at it to which you are going to come doesn't have the chain of command in which case why are they giving licenses or they didn't have a chain of command and they approve this idea why are we giving these people or radio license which why aren't we thinking about pulling some of these licenses

away from them. today most people don't even know we can challenge the stations license not one person in my not did. it hurts him. or her it is. not that i'm aware of i'm sure exactly what you mean by that. for vice presidential candidate sarah hale and sure knows what it means come january twentieth when i am sworn in as vice president you guys had better knock it off otherwise we'll have to get n.b.c.'s broadcast license revoked let's go to the f.c.c. is website to find out how one does channel or just basically license plaisance challenge that gets us nowhere great you can surf around the f.c.c. is website forever but if you don't know the secret word you're never going to find

it the secret word is titian so you just wait. jane a creep and steve wilson spent thousands of dollars on a washington law firm to challenge w t v p's license for violating the f.c.c. is news distortion policy so we filed a challenge to a license really based on the facts that came out in our case nothing new here we filed that january of two thousand and five and here we are. many years later the f.c.c. has not ever gotten back to us with anything have not responded they've not sent us our thanks for sending your complaint we're looking into it e-mail letter nothing zero absolutely nothing and you understand the whole premise that the airwaves are a precious commodity there are very few of them so to get these licenses broadcast licenses for free broadcasters are supposed to act in the public interest it's the

deal they make protecting their privilege that's their mandate and that's what the f.c.c. is supposed to be overseeing i haven't seen any evidence that. ok time for a little more information about the f.c.c. five commissioners had the f.c.c. the president chooses three from his own party and two from the opposing party it was president bush who set the agenda through two thousand and eight in two thousand and three bush appointee michael powell tried to consolidate the media even further and wrote rules that matched the times if they got away with what they wanted to do you can embark in a community where you have one large corporation controlling the building newspaper radio stations television stations a cable outlet. in one community their profits from go through the roof i mean this is stripped down to one newsroom without any competition so you tell me that that sounds like the market it didn't look good three of the five members there are

sincere republicans they were all pretty much on the record so you even before we consider any of us want to get rid of these rules if they go on their marching orders but the public round out and rose up against. him we got about three million people to weigh into the f.c.c. that's almost you know one in every hundred americans i don't even think that many people knew there was an f.c.c. law how to get their information to us but they did they were really concerned about this how was the f.c.c. approved consolidation anyway i believe we did our job and i believe we did it well but grassroots media reform activists had a surprise for him so when the f.c.c. clearly didn't listen to the american public we knew that it was our time to act and so with the media access project and many other plaintiffs who joined on to our place we told the f.c.c. that we would sue them and we took it all the way to the third district court of appeals in philadelphia the court of appeals in philadelphia reversed.

and directed to conduct a do over that duel for the f.c.c. had to hold more public hearings about consolidation they held six between october two thousand and six and november two thousand and seven it was artists people spoke about corporate media keeping the popular musicians off the air really is the travesty of it is all these fans and all these people that have grown up in these communities listening to those radio stations it's just gone to me that is just the most anti-american thing i've ever heard in my life i think it's. a serious all to do. business that if they don't do your europe. the treasures of not only. they don't treat you i don't or it is not about the demise of independent producers. what however the days of independent producer taking his or her created these men on a series or movie of the week to completion is a thing of the past but in this democrats and republicans joined in opposition to

more consolidated media but a competitor can start a local bank or a restaurant you just can't go in and start a radio or t.v. station. because the airwaves are finite and not only are they finite. there are no not by the seller but by the people put on december eighteenth two thousand and seven republican members of the f.c.c. often go to to allow broadcasters and newspapers in the same town to have the same owner allowing cross ownership may help to forestall the erosion and local news coverage by enabling companies to share these local news gathering costs across multiple media problems today's order amends the thirty two year old absolute ban on newspaper broadcast across ownership last time the commission went down this road the majority heard and felt the outrage of millions of citizens. and congress and the court and they're hearing from citizens once again there's

a new lawsuit from a media access project and a resolution to disapprove the f.c.c. vote by the u.s. senate we have visited this issue previously i think there is too much concentration in the media and the f.c.c. rule moves in exactly the wrong direction adding more concentration preventing more media consolidation is a bipartisan effort i look at this is not your solution we are going to post some post cites in the commerce committee when this was last discussed so there were people on the republican side on the democratic side that's not supportive of israel not so with the fairness doctrine republicans are trying to make sure the f.c.c. can never bring it back so what is your legislation to the broadcaster freedom act which i'm happy to report is now co-sponsored by every single republican member of the house of representatives and it is taking one democrat would simply do this it

would take the power away from the federal communications commission and to restore the fairness doctrine without an act of congress but there are new battles yet to be waged time after time and hearing after hearing people complain about licensing there must require at least half of all broadcast licenses in every market to go to a local or first local control doing otherwise violates the public trust you bell and i like to say that broadcasting is a lot like driving it's not a right it's a privilege and if i get caught driving recklessly endangering the public and my license doesn't matter if i own twelve hundred cars. they don't have the right to do this on the public airwaves take their licenses it's can't even for you right now how many people here would like to see. clear channel lose six licenses for this kind of broadcasting.

cheney returned her turn at the mike at the f.c.c. hearing in tampa t.v. t. was licensed in january of two thousand and five my husband and i challenge the operating license of the thoughts and station right here in tampa we had proven in court the top ranks of management engaged in news distortion resisting had caused this our jobs more than two years later we have yet to receive any response from the f.c.c. on the status of that complaint so why is the f.c.c. ignoring license challenges it's the only tool the public has to hold stations accountable i called the f.c.c. to learn how many petitions to deny licenses they have and also the last time they revoked any stations license i have been told it since one thousand nine hundred six and virtually no licenses have been revoked at all and i'm trying to confirm or deny that the. primary it will send broadcast clear that are you i'm

fine thank you i'm following up on our conversation i don't know when it wasn't a week or so ago in terms of the numbers of contentions to deny. somebody is going to have it mary i mean but with all due respect the only people who would have it would be the f.c.c. . but it seems to me that they're not taking petitions to deny her seriously if they don't even know how many they're getting very good banks. oh she is not a happy with me at all. but she just keeps saying i've asked the question and we don't have that information and that is. they are having who would as she said if you want to file a freedom of information act request to go right ahead so that's going to be the next step boys and girls the press and public can use freedom of information act requests to demand information from the government they had twenty prisoners days

to respond. in the meantime jane a grief finally got her response from the f.c.c. as media bureau remembering how for a queen to win her case the judge told the jury she'd have to prove the station deliberately tried to distort the news. and then w t v t said goods i think we are indicated on the finding of this theory the f.c.c. said they were confused whether w t v t distorted the news and in any case they would not be bound by some state court's decision perpetration to deny had been denied any case stand t.v.'s c c. the. commissioner's final broadcast journalist of twenty years during a film about media issues broadcast lives on july sixteenth of this year i think while the freedom of information act request with your media hero to find out how

many petitions to deny broadcasting licenses are currently pending in front of the f.c.c. i also asked what is the last time any station ever had a license taken away. by law the f.c.c. is to respond to me within twenty two days it has been four months i have heard nothing. the petition is to deny the licenses are the only means that we the people have to hold station accountable to the public interest. if you will not stand up for we the people then i have news for you we the people are standing up for ourselves as are you and we are. gonna take it back. first we're taking it back in our school system resonating with a young kid just to listen to the incense and all of. this in the last

scenes in the sleeves we're taking it back for reporters if there's nothing he wrote to those thursday was good or government this morning newspaper there were a t.v. series for the called by the from concord. you're fighting for the internet before big media her school where. we're putting up our own low power radio towers. remember the airwaves belong to us if we the people don't take the media back no one will. come. back and really. a stupid. thing.

to. say. that. if you just. assume. everyone and. most people. seem to. know you got even one good friend of the samaritans. those. responses.

in most. long. says you know i'm right but if you don't want. to make. it. so you must. culture is the same i'm going to say you should be an issue mind as a friend is it all about libya now when understanding the ongoing changes often violent in the arab middle east what makes yemen and syria different from what's going on in.