which means soon much brighter than if you knew the song from the phone stuporous its. stance on t.v. dot com. r t a large from moscow and these are the headlines on the fourth hole break up of a rally at arrests and don't stop at the wall street protest gathering steam of the u.s. people frustrated over the state of the economy and corporate influence in politics say it's time now for an american spring. disturbing reports from the two besieged gadhafi stronghold where witnesses say libya's revolution air forces are attacking civilian homes randomly in their bid to take the cities that. aid agencies say syria to everybody will be adopted plunging into

a humanitarian crisis. and greece admits it will deal with this stuff is it in times of need headlines said deadline set by e.u. creditors despite multiple rounds of a sturdy cuts already implemented by the government as well as mass layoffs announced on sunday. that russia's latest launch of a navigation satellite brings the number of its want us units in order to twenty four the system is that with full strength coverage be a target. and next we scrutinize the state of american broadcasting today our special report is coming your way next. brooks jackson leads the pack tech team for the anybody school of communications they revealed misleading political ads coming from republicans and democrats alike just let me show you a few examples. well the obama. the fact is that corning plant shut down because it made old fashioned cathode ray

tube t.v. two that are being replaced by flat screen technology not john mccain's for. this mccain it is part of a pattern. obama is actually proposing is a tax cut for most of us eighty percent probably in 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 fact 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 unprecedented 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 o.

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

message out otherwise be of affectively 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 and eight election and the candidates they spent seventy five percent of their time fund raising candidates spent most of their time to what race. and politics where's the money go right. now we can stop those practices by ensuring the candidates are given free airtime that's a very simple thing the gore commission that was done back in one thousand nine hundred ninety nine there is a proposal that the networks provide. and there 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. of my bad we've got an emergent devoted to real men we've got a. new railroad over. new york. we've got out of material and i don't know it was six degrees below zero in mind on earth january eighteenth two thousand and two seven canadian pacific train cars derailed at one thirty am creating the worst and high. anderson ammonia spill in history just outside the housing tract. a cloud of deadly gas was moving toward the town. why not police sergeant dave goodman heard the call to take a look it looked almost like. something out of the sheet for film it was just a large cloud and it just appeared to be rolling towards my no. thought

. on what your perfect but. i am going to. start goodman needed his gas mask but it was his home inside the poisonous cloud and home to my driveway on one emergency work they had my fourth year in the garage in utica getting my gas mask. and i got my family out of the the house now they were in extreme and. my kids. for six and eight years old at that time how old is your daughter twelve they are not my kid chances for you to be in the background so they were all concerned. and i know my wife for six or seven years she was scared there she was either going to sit there and watch our kids die she can bring all parents. i thought she was going to

die in front of our kids. were good try going to paper but going outside was the worst thing to do we are all of the players we don't know we were going to and mike johnson fled their home and got lost but they got lucky family rescued them is in our know is in our throats everything was a burning burning burning near is in years to see the so to be blown the windshield this is fine if i sit on the other enormous and tall tomlin dean guided the families in. his basement no lights no heat no information for you on the radio you're doing. music dispatchers were advising callers to listen to their emergency broadcast station or series on. t.v. did he revealed i can't put a four hour after the crash there was still nothing on q.c. j d ok or any other radio station. out over the radio which radio station had

a radio station there. ever. nothing on the radio or t.v. yet should be someone original what it really. here is actual footage from inside the patrol car that night listen carefully you hear the radio playing music. or. american or. ever there were eight commercial radio stations in my not six of them including k.c. g.b. had been bought by one company clear channel they were programmed from twelve hundred miles away the satellite i got the radio on. and just going through it toa problem case in g.b. who is the station for what at that time for emergency services or anything we heard on the radio was what time it was and the temperature what time it was and the temperature and that just gets old one forty one forty five to fifteen to

twenty oh it was awful 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 when one of your modem 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 that 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 that i want to work in

think there's a man down and you're right we have the benefit of meeting him one night when i was just brand spanking new when he was my first take and i have a rule to everything and good friends after that i want to share a conflict that we are thinking a person who's are accounted for and his name is john grady or no one has heard of him or seen. a good friend of mine died that morning. b. so what did the c.e.o. of clear channel have to say about all this and you're trying to compete to sell your customer 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 where 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 am and. 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 and intend to we play think some twenty people entered the contest and which one do you think you can you can hear it before you have to we. why are we being like that during the show any number of people were calling in and saying look this is a dangerous stunt so one could die of going to three hundred on that one can do you think one can retire for one time again can't get a are aware that they can be fairly soon responsible the staff will laugh this off the face carter if anybody is anybody dying in there. could be safe i really think that the answer. ultimately

a young woman mother of three children who she was twenty eight years old i'm not mistaken. consumed about two gallons of water. really come out of it you know for you ok you only down anywhere you want. to waste water and i had. a feeling. this is what it feels like when you're drowning. just hours later jennifer strange died. the family's attorney asked the f.c.c. to take the radio station's license away but 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 your entercom 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 why aren't we thinking about pulling some of these licenses away for . today most people don't even know we can challenge a station's license not one person in my not did you ever hear the instance of roots or. not that i'm aware of i'm not sure exactly what you mean by the. vice presidential candidate sarah palin was sure knows what it means come january twentieth when i am sworn in as vice president you guys have better knock it off otherwise we'll have to get in 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 stations license plaisance carolyn's that gets us nowhere great you can surf around the f.c.c.

is website forever but if you don't know the secret words you're never going to find it the secret word is that titian you didn't marry. jane a creep and steve wilson spent thousands of dollars on a washington law firm to challenge w t v t'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 of 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 they've 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 providing that privilege that's their mandate and that's what the f.c.c. is supposed to be overseeing i haven't seen any evidence about. 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 set the agenda through two thousand and eight in two thousand and three bush appointee michael powell tried to find somebody in 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 bill the newspaper radio stations television stations the cable outlet. community their profits would go through the roof i mean they could strip down to one newsroom

a letter nico petition or you tell me that that sounds like the more i didn't look good three of the five members this is the republicans they were all pretty much on the record so you can before we consider any others want to get rid of these rules or they go on their marching orders but the public found out and rose up against its leader said we got about three million people to weigh in to the f.c.c. that's almost you know one of every one hundred americans i 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 pauwels 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 claims have some joined on to our case 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 the

decision and directed it 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 artists people spoke about corporate media keeping 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 him out life thank you. it's all to do. to europe europe. or the treasures of man only. they don't treat you like your lord is what about the demise of independent producers. well he would however the days of independent producing taking his or her created vision on

a series or movie of the b. to completion is a thing of the past 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. their own not by the seller but by the people but on december eighteenth two thousand and seven dogs republican members of the f.c.c. voted 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 forms today's order amends the thirty two year old absolute ban on newspaper broadcast cross 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 the media's radio and 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 a partisan issue we had multiple votes on post sides in the commerce committee when this was last discussed so there were people on the republican side on the democratic side it's not support of the miserable. not so with the fairness doctrine republicans are trying to make sure the f.c.c. can never bring it back so what does registration do to the broadcaster freedom act which i'm happy to report is now co-sponsored by every single republican member of

the house and propose senators and this taping one democrat would simply do this 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 in 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 i lose 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 legal for you right now how many people here would like to see. here

channel lose six licenses for this kind of broadcasting. cheney take her turn at the mike at the f.c.c. hearing in tampa w t v t in january of two thousand and five my husband and i challenge the operating license of the thoughts on station right here in tampa we had proven in court the top ranks of management engaged in news distortion resisting had cause to search 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 why it's the last time they revoked any stations license i have been told it since one thousand nine hundred six virtually no licenses have been revoked at all and i'm trying to

confirm or deny that. primary it sue wilson broadcast lewis. 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 petitions to deny. somebody is going to have it mary i mean 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 patients to deny very seriously a test if they don't even know how many they are getting very crowded thanks. oh she is not a happy with me at all. but she just keeps saying i've asked the question you really 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 directly to the next step was a girl's the press and public can use freedom of information act requests to demand

information from the government they have twenty business days to respond. in the meantime janie finally got her response from the f.c.c. as media bureau remember how for a creative win her case the judge told the jury she'd have to prove the station deliberately tried from the stores the news the beauty ricci's and then w t v t said goods i think we are integrated on the vine you're disappearing the f.c.c. said they were confused whether w.t.v. t. distort of the news and in any case they would not be bound by some state court's decision or petition to deny had been denied any case stand to the c.d.c. . the. commissioners final broadcast journalist of twenty year is currently in a film about media issues broadcast lives on july sixteenth of this year i piled

the freedom of information act request with your media hero just 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 night any station ever had a license taken away. by law the f.c.c. is to sponsor me within twenty two days it has been four months i have heard nothing. if it tish's to deny licenses are the only means that we the people have to hold stations accountable to the public interest. if you will not stand up for read the people and i have this for you with the people are standing up for ourselves as are you and we are. gonna take it back. we're taking it back in our school system resonating with a kid just to please please send. me an am original letter

seems a little sleeves we're taking it for reporters in person or through the rule to goes through single was better government is more newspaper and it were a t.v. series for the whole regard the green carpet and. they were fighting for the internet before big media for the whole lot. were putting up our own low power radio towers. remember that the airwaves belong to us and we the people don't take the media back no one will. come. back and really. is the people.

that. if you just. make. sure the rights of everyone is and. most people. seem to. go with me getting in front of the samaritan. dollars. these yellow legal. go on the god.

those little. long respond manage leave. in most countries they have a long. disease you have no rights but if you don't want them to eat you may have to put up with. so you must love the japanese. give you.