There’s going to be a public hearing on “saving the Internet” tonight. \u00a0It’ll be at the auditorium at South High (3131 19th Avenue South in Minneapolis).<\/p>\n
No, that’s really what they’re calling it; here’s the email:<\/p>\n
From:<\/strong> Josh Silver,\u00a0FreePress.net<\/a> [mailto:info@freepress.net]
\nSent:<\/strong> Wednesday, August 18, 2010 11:01 AM
\nTo:<\/strong> [redacted]
\nSubject:<\/strong> Why you should join me and Al Franken on Thursday<\/p>\nDear Friend,<\/p>\n
I know you\u2019re busy, but I can\u2019t tell you how important it is that you join me and Sen. Al Franken<\/strong> [tonight]at South High School in Minneapolis (yes, Sen. Franken is coming!)<\/p>\n
My warnings are no longer speculation. Google, Verizon, AT&T and Comcast are about to turn the Internet into cable TV — where their favored websites and content will move fast, and everyone else will be left without a voice. It’s time for all of us to stand up or get rolled.<\/p>\n
President Obama has said that protecting the open Internet was a top priority. But the FCC chairman remains silent. And too many in Congress have been bought by the phone and cable companies.<\/p>\n
Our last line of defense is you. We need more than 400 people to show up on Thursday night. If we don\u2019t tell Sen. Franken and Commissioners Copps and Clyburn (both will be there) that people like you are outraged about a corporate takeover of the Internet, we will lose. It\u2019s that simple.<\/p>\n
Please come with a friend or two to South High School Thursday night. The event begins at 6 p.m. You can go here to RSVP and learn more.<\/p>\n
If you have something to say, we\u2019ll make certain you have time at the microphone. We need to hear you. The commissioners need to hear you.<\/p>\n
I look forward to seeing you there.<\/p>\n
Josh Silver<\/p>\n
President & CEO<\/p>\n
Free Press<\/p>\n
www.freepress.net<\/p>\n
www.SavetheInternet.com<\/p>\n
P.S. For more on Thursday\u2019s hearing, read today\u2019s great MinnPost editorial by our allies at the Center for Media Justice and New America Foundation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Wow. \u00a0That sounds important.<\/p>\n
Rumors are bopping around that Secretary of State Ritchie is also \u00a0going to attend, although there’s some back-and-forth over whether the Senator Franken is supposed to be in town or not. \u00a0The group putting on the event, “Free Press<\/a>“, would seem to need some star power to draw people and attention to the event; last night’s Meet Emmer” event drew more people than either of the two previous attempts.<\/p>\n
Negligible as this event seems, though, it’s important for conservatives to try to turn out (I have a prior engagement, unfortunately). \u00a0Copps and Clyburn are both activists on the FCC, who are completely on board with Obama’s push to create a kinder, gentler, tamer (for Democrats) media landscape.<\/p>\n
“Oh, you’re just being paranoid, Berg”.<\/p>\n
Not if you dig into the pedigree of “Free Press”. \u00a0Behind the innocuous name is an organization with big, intrusive plans for even more “hope and change” in American society. \u00a0Their board <\/a>is a who’s who of behind-the-scenes media utopians – Josh Silver, Robert McChesney, people from The Nation<\/em> and the Norman Lear Foundation.<\/p>\n
And their track record?<\/p>\n
They don’t like capitalism or the free market<\/a> very much:<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no real answer [to the U.S. economic crisis] but to remove brick by brick the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles.\u201d (Robert W. McChesney and John Bellamy Foster, \u201cA New New Deal under Obama?,\u201d Monthly Review<\/em>,\u00a02\/2009)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
But that doesn’t mean that “Free Press” is about nationalizing the Internet, does it?<\/p>\n
Josh Silver on the case for nationalizing the internet<\/a>:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe agency needs to shut out the noise machine and do what it must to fulfill its mandate to \u2018serve the public interest, convenience and necessity.\u2019 Any other course would be disastrous\u2026. The United States is falling further behind our global competitors in high-speed Internet adoption, speed and price. The birthplace of the Internet now ranks at No. 22 globally in broadband speed and access, in part because the government lets the phone and cable companies dictate telecommunications policy.\u201d (Josh Silver, \u201cViewpoints: Broadband rules are crucial to expand access and protect users,\u201d Sacramento Bee<\/em>,\u00a07\/18\/10)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Ben Scott on the same subject<\/a>:’<\/p>\n
\u201cIncreasingly the Internet is no longer a commercial service, its an infrastructure\u2026What we\u2019re witnessing at the FCC now is the logical next step which is we are going to create a regulatory framework for the Internet which recognizes it is an infrastructure now and not a commercial service.\u201d (Ben Scott, C-SPAN: The Communicators, , 9\/25\/09)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
“Infrastructure”. \u00a0Like the Interstate system. \u00a0Or public toilets.<\/p>\n
No, really<\/a>:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to stop thinking of media as a business pure and simple\u2026The way we should understand journalism is as a public good.\u201d (Robert McChesney, \u201cJournalism should be subsidized by government, professor says,\u201d\u00a02\/2\/10)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I mean, it’s not that they mind <\/em>free speech. \u00a0Just the <\/a>right kind<\/a><\/em> of free speech<\/a>. \u00a0McChesney:<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the extent commercial activities are given First Amendment protection, it makes the rule of capital increasingly off-limits to political debate and government regulation\u2026In my view, progressives need to stake out a democratic interpretation of the First Amendment and do direct battle with the Orwellian implications of the ACLU\u2019s commercialized First Amendment<\/span>.\u201d (Robert McChesney, \u201cThe New Theology of the First Amendment,\u201d Monthly Review<\/em>, 3\/1998)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In fact, “Free Speech’s” McChesney wants the <\/a>government <\/a><\/em>to pay<\/a> for more of the right kind <\/em>of speech:<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at our founders, they did not only condone government subsidies of journalism, they demanded it.\u201d (Robert McChesney, \u201cJournalism should be subsidized by government, professor says,\u201d\u00a02\/2\/10)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
No, not being paranoid: \u00a0the government<\/em>. \u00a0With taxpayer dollars<\/a>!:<\/p>\n
$200 Tax Credit Proposal for Newspapers in Free Press Report:<\/strong> \u201cMcChesney and Nichols have drawn from this proposal to advocate that taxpayers receive $200 in annual tax credits to spend on daily newspapers, as long as the newspapers publish at least five times per week and maintain a substantial news hole of at least 24 broad pages each day with less than 50 percent advertising.148 Another proposal would allow people to write off their subscriptions to newspapers and magazines as a tax deduction, as they do with their college tuition.\u201d (Victor Pickard, Josh Stearns and Craig Aaron, \u201cSaving the News: Toward a National Journalism Strategy,\u201d Free Press,\u00a0p. 36)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Because “the market” is allowing dissenting opinions <\/a>waaaaay <\/a><\/em>too much sway<\/a>:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ultimate irony of Beck, Dobbs and Limbaugh is that they couch in populist rhetoric a message that, in its very essence, is anti-populist \u2013 designed to protect the swindle at the core of our media system\u2019s failure. And that is why the media\u2019s old guard is targeting the idea that this system needs to change.\u201d (Tim Karr, \u201cWhat Beck, Dobbs and Limbaugh are really afraid of,\u201d Huffington Post<\/em>,9\/16\/09)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
…and those dissenters have not only scary opinions, but sometimes (says Josh Silver) disrupt the chosen and preferred narrative<\/a>!:<\/p>\n
\u201cFox News continues to amaze us and propagandize many, labeling as fringe-left anyone who disagrees with the president, takes issue with tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, says that Iraq is a quagmire, or dares to declare that all Americans deserve a living wage and guaranteed health care. The narrow, corporate-driven rhetoric that passes as reasonable political debate on Fox and most of the mainstream American media has become a laughing stock \u2013 if only to keep us from crying.\u201d (Josh Silver, \u201cThe decline of US media: Fox News leads race to the bottom,\u201d Huffington Post<\/em>, \u00a02\/22\/07)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And those “right wing” peasants must be suppressed! \u00a0For the good of The People<\/a>!<\/p>\n
\u201cNo wonder our political system can\u2019t solve big problems. Ruthless opposition and dingbat delusions are the currency of right-wing success, and sand in the gears of democracy. Whether they\u2019re cynical postures or sincere beliefs doesn\u2019t matter. The grand national conversation that was intended to enable citizens and their representatives to find common ground for conflicting values has<\/span> b<\/strong>ecome a grand national midway of carny-barkers and rodeo clowns.<\/strong>\u201d<\/strong> (Marty Kaplan, former Air America rodeo clown, \u201cHow would the Right know it\u2019s wrong?\u201d Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles<\/em>, Huffington Post<\/em>,10\/5\/09)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n