FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 23, 2008

KPFA Radio to Air New Weekend Programs on Current Affairs and Economics

(Berkeley, CA - January 23, 2008) On Saturday January 26th, KPFA Radio
will introduce to its airwaves two new programs from the Pacifica
Network. Behind the News is a radical program of economics and politics
hosted by Doug Henwood, acclaimed economic journalist and contributing
editor to The Nation magazine. Behind the News originates from Pacifica
Radio's WBAI in New York City. Uprising, the weekly digest of the daily
program on Pacifica Radio's KPFK in Los Angeles, is hosted by
award-winning broadcaster Sonali Kolhatkar, who is the Co-Director of
the Afghan Women's Mission. Uprising provides news and analysis from a
progressive, internationalist perspective and features regular
commentaries by journalist Rahul Mahajan and The Black Agenda Report.

"I'm honored and excited at the opportunity to join KPFA's programmers
in providing progressive journalism to Northern California listeners,"
says Kolhatkar.

Behind the News and Uprising will air at on Saturdays at 10am and 11am

LLFCC's regularly updated chart on the presidential candidates and their positions on FCC related issues is firming up. Some candidates, such as Kucinich, Clinton, Obama, and McCain, have a lot to say about these matters. It's harder to track the ex-governors (Huckabee, Romney) stands on various questions, such as net neutrality and media ownership. We'll add more data before the big state primaries in late January and early February.

LLFCC is dismayed and embarrassed to report that Nicole Sawaya has resigned, following a very brief tenure as Executive Director of the Pacifica radio network.

What happened? Without going into all the details, Sawaya found the level of internecine dysfunction at Pacifica overwhelming, and fled her job.

LLFCC will not conceal its chagrin at this development. The author of this blog had high hopes for Sawaya, but they were obviously too high. Her quick departure reminds us that there are no saviors, no simple solutions to complex problems. And Pacifica radio is always a complex problem.

LLFCC also regrets not acknowledging something important when Sawaya accepted the position: despite the unfortunate denouement, the Pacifica National Board (PNB) deserves great credit for having unanimously approved her hiring. Sawaya made it clear during her interviews that she wanted to do radio, not spend her days putting out office politics fires. That the board responded favorably to this stance gives LLFCC hope, even now.

Pacifica remains in a perilous situation, however. It is pursuing an ambitious experiment in media democracy in a hostile external environment, with inadequate resources, and without the help of significant forces that rhetorically supported the Pacifica Revolution of 2001 but are now nowhere to be found.

Lasar's Letter on the FCC (LLFCC) celebrated its second birthday this month. Yes, as of November 22nd, LLFCC was two years old, with over 500 blog entries under its belt.

I will not retell the story of the exotic and glamorous origins of this site, which can be thrilled to here. But I thought I might share some thoughts, conclusions, and uncertainties about blogging so far.

1. There's no point in trying to compete with the trade press for breaking stories. None of the big news aggregators, especially Google news, pick up this site. So it's better to write background pieces based on FCC filings than to ricochet the latest agency announcement. Breaking stuff will be up on major trade press sites way faster than I can get it out.

2. It's hard to find other people to blog with. Everybody wants their own blog with their own content management system, news aggregator, template, widgets, and archive calendar. I guess it's like having one's own private universe. Periodically somebody I know threatens to write for my site, but with the notable exception of my pal Bob Mason, they just don't seem to be able to get past the writing part, which is a formidable barrier if you want to be a writer.

LLFCC enjoyed this documentary on the Federal Communication Commission's media ownership rules. Aside from the many amusing pictures of cute cats towards the end of the piece, the youtube video mentions our interview with Adam Candeub, and describes LLFCC.net as a "policy wonk gold mine."

So thank you, , whoever you are. And keep up the great work!

A letter to the Federal Communications Commission from United States Senator Barack Obama

October 22, 2007 

Dear Chairman Martin:

I am writing regarding your proposal to move forward aggressively with modifications to existing media ownership rules. According to press accounts, you intend to present specific changes to existing rules in November with a Commission vote on that proposal – whatever it may be – on December 18, 2007. I believe both the proposed timeline and process are irresponsible.

Minority owned and operated newspapers and radio stations play a critical role in the African American and Latino communities and bring minority issues to the forefront of our national discussion. However, the Commission has failed to further the goals of diversity in the media and promote localism, and as a result, it is in no position to justify allowing for increased consolidation of the market. Moreover, 30 days of public review of a specific proposed change is insufficient to assess the effect that change would have on the media marketplace or the rationale on which any such proposal is based.

While the FCC did commission two studies on minority ownership in the round of 10 studies it ordered at the beginning of 2007, both suffered from the same problem – inadequate data from which to make determinations on the status of minority media ownership or the causes for that status and ways to increase representation.