By Malkia Cyril and Craig Aaron (reposted from Huffington Post) Last week the public was dismayed and disgusted by news that FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker was leaving her government job to lobby on behalf of the Comcast-NBC colossus whose merger she had just approved.
By <a href="http://www.savetheinternet.com/user/52" title="View user
Reposted from: San Antonio Current By Deanne Cuellar and Leticia Medina
By Erick Boustead of Line Break Media Sometimes in life, you spend time with a group of people that you know you’ll be connected with for long into the future. My first National Conference on Media Reform experience would not have been so substantive had it not been for the Center for Media Justice and MAG-Net’s social justice delegation. The collective experience and span of backgrounds in the group allowed for much learning and knowledge sharing throughout the weekend.
By Aspen Baker, Exhale (part of MAG-Net's Social Justice Delegtion to the NCMR 2011) After an abortion, women who want to connect personally with others who share their experience face incredible social and political challenges, such as stigma, judgment and manipulation. They risk losing their job or straining relationships with friends and family. Yet, the desire to share stories and feel connected to others who understand is so strong that a woman will take great risks with the hope that her voice will be heard and that she will no longer feel alone.
By Jamilah King | Reposted from colorlines.com Over the weekend, thousands of media reform activists and journalists met in Boston (including the Colorlines.com crew). One key moment was when FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn told the audience that she would be “super-vigilant” of the wireless industry. That vigilance will be tested, given recent moves by House Republicans and two of the nation’s largest telecommunications companies to block the commission’s new open Web rules. And particularly so given that mobile broadband is a crucial way in which users of color are slowly bridging the digital divide. “In considering all of the factors relating to America’s minority and lower-income citizens, and realizing how hard people work to claw past their monthly bills only to immediately start fretting about next month, we must be vigilant—super-vigilant—about the direction the wireless industry is heading,” Clyburn told the crowd on Saturday. Clyburn’s remarks came within days of House Republicans making good on their promise to vote against the FCC’s open Web rules. The action is likely to get voted down in the Senate, and President Obama, who made net neutrality a key point in his 2008 campaign platform, has already vowed to veto any bill that seeks to overturn net neutrality regulations. Back in February, Clyburn re-iterated her support for open Web rules with testimony before the House Sub-committee on Communications and Technology. Calling the Internet the “great equalizer”, Clyburn went on to tell the Republican-led committee why she voted to support the rules last winter. “The current success of the Internet is largely due to its open architecture,” Clyburn testified. “It allows traditionally underrepresented groups to have an equal voice and equal opportunity.” Maintaining such openness, she continued, is crucial. Meanwhile, big moves are unfolding from telecom companies and federal courts alike to decide the future of the nation’s mobile broadband policy. First, AT&T announced its bid to buy T-Mobile, a move that couldrebuild the company into the monopoly the federal government dismantled back in the 80’s because it was “bad for business.” While consumer and some civil rights groups spoke out against the merger, others, including the Hispanic Federation and the National Black Chamber of Congress, applauded it. “There are two ways to keep costs low—competition and subsidies,” Malkia Cyril, executive director at the Center for Media Justice, told Colorlines. “While some groups might be willing to give away both in exchange for a piece of the AT&T pie, it seems clear that if you want affordable phone bills and consumer protections, you have to oppose the merger.” While AT&T plots to build the nation’s largest mobile company, two of its competitors vowed to continue their fight against the FCC’s authority to regulate broadband. A D.C. federal appeals court recently dismissed suits by Verizon and Metro PCS to challenge the commission’s recently passed net neutrality rules. The rules, passed in December to ensure that service providers don’t block online content, curiously left out any mention of regulating mobile carriers. Metro PCS became the first company to openly exploit this loophole, offering a new set of tiered data plans among its low-cost services.
By Betty Yu On Friday, March 25th 2011 I took a train to Philadelphia to show my support for MAG-Net acnhor member Media Mobilzing Project's (MMP) sustainer party and launch of their 6 computer centers through out the city through the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) grant.
By Betty Yu “Everything from revolutions to the environment and health is shaped by how we connect, document, and change our lives.” -Mission Statement of the New York Life Symposium on the New Media Era
“Who gets the risks? The risks are given to the consumer, the unsuspecting consumer and the poor work force. And who gets the benefits? The benefits are only for the corporations, for the money makers.” -Cesar Chavez