Yesterday, well over 100 concerned citizens came together at Occidental College in Los Angeles to talk with each other about how to improve the media's role in our democracy and communities.

Local Media for Social Change - a Southern California Regional Summit was a great success! Attendees heard a panel of distinguished speakers talk about how the media impacts local communities for good and bad and how to make things better. There were a dozen workshops on topics ranging from breaking the digital divide to creating your own media.

More photos, video and content will be available soon on the event website as well as the facebook page. Photos on Flickr will use the tag "localmediasocialchange" as people upload them.

One thing all attendees agreed upon - the media in America has a huge impact on our democracy and our communities, and we need to work together to improve it if we are to have a healthy society.

A huge thanks to all the great volunteers who made this event happen, and to all the co-sponsors.

This morning I attended the kickoff public hearing on the broadband initiatives included in the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 (aka, the Stimulus). It was held at the Commerce Department offices in DC, as the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is responsible for about $4.7 billion of the broadband funds. The Department of Agriculture's Rural Utilities Service (RUS) is administering the balance of the $7.2 billion for broadband development in the stimulus bill.

This meeting was the first step in establishing exactly how these agencies are going to disseminate these funds. They are collecting comments from the public (i.e. tons of industry lobbyists mostly, but also local governments, libraries, and yes, public interest groups) about what criteria should be used for deciding who gets the funds and what kind of accountability will be required. To file comments, please go to the NTIA's special website dedicated to this issue.

But what I was most pleased about at this meeting was the clear signal from the speakers, particular Acting Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Michael Copps, that this is just the beginning of the creation of a National Broadband Strategy and that President Obama is committed to the long term development of broadband as a vital part of our American infrastructure.

Copp's said in his comments, "... I am pleased that the recently-enacted and altogether historic Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 gives the FCC an important role to play in turning our new national commitment into a workable national strategy.  We are already hard at work on the job.  It is my intention that at our next full Commission meeting, on April 8, we will kick-off an open, participatory, public process with a far-reaching Notice of Inquiry to marshal the data and expertise we need to make sure we meet our legislatively-mandated date of one year for presenting Congress and the American people a national broadband strategy worthy of the name."

Well, it's about time.

...and why they should support Common Cause.

Ever since Barack Obama was elected President, it hasn't been clear who is leading the opposition.  As each week passes another name is thrown into the mix that seems to emerge as the leader of the Republican Party. 

In fact, with all these would be leaders, a spat has already erupted between RNC Chairman, Michael Steele and conservative radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh as to who is really the voice of the Republican Party.  No matter who that leader is, however, the Common Cause reform agenda speaks to many of the principles they all claim to endorse. 

I would like to appeal to all the would be Republican leaders out there and remind them of what their messages have been, what they claim to stand for, and how Common Cause welcomes some of their principles as our own.

Sometimes I really understand why people get frustrated with the political process in Washington.

Yesterday, the US Senate was debating amendments to the bill to allow the Member of Congress from Washington DC to have full voting rights in Congress. So why were they discussing things like gun rights and the Fairness Doctrine? The US Senate has no rules that require amendments to be germane to the bill. That in and of itself is frustrating. Some Senators used this opportunity to attach unrelated things to the bill to either try to kill it or to get their pet issue addressed.

While that is frustrating enough by itself, the rhetoric around the Fairness Doctrine is also something that is being spun all over the place.

Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) proposed an amendment to the DC Vote bill that was presented as outlawing the Fairness Doctrine. First, let's remember that there has been no Fairness Doctrine for about 20 years. So this was outlawing something that does not exist. The amendment went further, however, as it would have "prevented the FCC from passing any 'public interest' rules or programming quotas."

Ok, so the honorable Senator wanted to eliminate public interest rules? These have been part of broadcaster rules since the creation of broadcast licenses. As the Benton Foundation explains, "A key principle of federal communications law is that in exchange for free use of the public airwaves broadcasters agree to take actions to benefit the public. These principles are enshrined in the Radio Act of 1927 and the Communications Act of 1934 in the mandate that "broadcasting serve the public interest, convenience and necessity.""

A Statement from Colorado Common Cause:

"Denver--It's a sad day in Colorado.  Over the last 150 years, the Rocky Mountain News has established a strong tradition of reporting on the local issues that matter to Coloradans. From award-winning investigative reporting to their distinctive political perspective on the editorial pages, the Rocky has been a consistent voice on the issues of the day.

While we will mourn the loss of the Rocky, we are troubled by what this loss means for the future of journalism in Colorado and beyond.  The Rocky Mountain News is not the first newspaper to announce plans to close in recent months, and unfortunately, it won't be the last.  The Rocky's closure is more than the loss of a single newspaper, it's just one example of a failing model for the news industry.  Although print media has become less popular, the desire--and need--for diverse and independent journalism has not.

An informed citizenry requires a diverse and independent media.  Newspapers have long been the medium to connect neighbors, inform communities, and give us the information necessary to hold government leaders accountable.  As more Coloradans choose to get their news online, we must ensure that the news they get continues to meet the standards set by the Rocky Mountain News and other print media."

Last Tuesday, hundreds of TV stations across the country switched from analog signals to digital signals, even though Congress passed an extension to the DTV transition to be done by June 12th.

Except for a man shooting his TV set, the transition of the existing stations has gone pretty smoothly so far. Since the public was not completely prepared for the transition thanks to the converter box coupon program running out of money, the extension was passed, and the FCC very wisely required at least one station in every market must stay on analog transmission until June 12th. That way, the people still waiting for coupons will still be able to access emergency information on their old analog sets until they can get a converter box, a new TV or get cable or satellite service.

But this transition to Digital broadcasting has a broader implication on our democracy. As Brandon L Campos from the Center for Media Justice writes in his article, It's not about Ugly Betty: the DTV transition and why it matters, "The right to information is a fundamental human right. More than 80% of American households still receive the majority of their news about the issues that impact them through their local television broadcasts. Anything that threatens easy and bountiful access to timely and accurate news and information has very real impacts on the lives of American people. The Digital Television Transition, ill-conceived and corporate focused, is poised to strip millions of Americans of their ability to receive the information they need to make decisions about their lives"

Common Cause has been supporting Net Neutrality for some time, and we hope to see some resolution of this issue this year. The power of the Internet to connect people with their government, allow people an open forum for their opinions, and to hold power accountable is a wonderful thing and we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg of its capacity. But we could lose much of this potential if we lose Net Neutrality.

However, as we have seen, since Net Neutrality currently isn't actually law (it had been FCC rule, now there are weak FCC principles only) companies like Comcast have been pushing the envelope on what is acceptable to do in the name of "network management."

So how do YOU know if your ISP or one of the companies that is controlling the backbone of the Internet is throttling your connection?

Well, yesterday saw the launch of a tool (or series of tools) that can help you figure that out. Google, the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, the PlanetLab Consortium, and academic researchers have launched Measurement Lab (M-Lab), an open platform that researchers can use to deploy Internet measurement tools.

Last night, the US Senate voted to delay the Digital TV transition for 4 months from February 17th to June 12th. The news is that the House is expected to vote on this action today.

It appears that this is a necessary step to take that we never should have had to. However, many of us in the media reform community have been noting problems for some time now. We didn't have to be at a point where the DTV converter box program ran out of money. There never should have been expiration dates on the coupons. This was a failure of the administration to get this program right.

The goal now is to fix a lot of the problems with the program in the 4 month extension. The biggest goal of the bill is to get converter box coupons into the hands of everyone who needs one. That may still be close to 6.5 million households in America!

Television can act as a lifeline in an emergency, notifying citizens about oncoming tornadoes, flood waters rising, poisonous gas clouds, and the like - and then telling people what to do.

TV is also still the single most used source Americans have for getting information about elections and current events. We want to be sure that everyone in America can still retain access to that information. Granted, there is legitimate debate on the quality of that information, which is why we are working for tougher, more meaningful public interest obligations for broadcasters.

OK, so now we're here. The broadcasters have done a lot to educate the public about February 17th, and it looks like they will have to change and extend their ad campaigns. However, if they are looking for someone to blame, it's not the people who voted for the extension. It's the people who created the need for the extension.