News

Not found on the Main Stream Media Outlets including local print, radio, or commercial cable

Very little of false arrest made at both the DNC and the RNC was reported on main stream media. I heard very little about how candidates and their running mates will treat matters and issues concerning the general public. You rarely hear about certain legislation that is snuck past us that results in diminishing your voices, or special interest politics that threaten public access both locally and nationally. WCCA TV at least provides something through your community productions, and programs presented such as Free Speech TV and Democracy Now to look at what the commercial media industry has chosen to leave out. Things that really matter to all of us. Localism. Thanks to those Worcester citizens for co-presenting the Democracy Now program on WCCA TV 13, "The People's Channel". That is what public access is all about. The people utilizing a channel. Using it to distribute their own self produced shows or to present meaningful programs that matter. There is NO television as relevant anywhere else because YOU, the people, make this happen.
Please remember to stand with us to protect and continue this community resource.
Give us more ideas about what you want to watch or produce on this channel. We welcome your participation.
Thanks for your continued support.

Mauro DePasquale, WCCA TV 13

Kiss net neutrality goodbye: AT&T is a major presence at the Democratic Convention

Esme Vos MuniWireless writes:

"The conventional wisdom among my friends who are Net Neutrality fanatics is that a change of regime will finally bring about tough net neutrality legislation, ushering in a Golden Age of cutthroat competition in the US market for broadband services, leading to faster speeds, lower monthly costs for Internet access, no throttling, no deep packet inspection, no blocking of applications and so on...."

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No matter party is "in" , it seems there is little really done to end the buying and selling of legislation.

New Louisiana State Franchising Law On Hold. Groups Say Consumer Choice for Television Act Violates State Constitution

New Louisiana State Franchising Law On Hold
Groups Say Consumer Choice for Television Act Violates State Constitution
Louisiana:
Allegations claim the new law, dubbed Consumer Choice for Television Act, violates the state's constitution.
link

Doug Grindle is back in action here is his first report of this season

Bad News For Afghanistan
by Doug Grindle
August 24, 2008

Kabul, Afghanistan - The war in Afghanistan forges ahead. But a new reality is setting in. Unfortunately, it looks like things are likely to get worse before the situation can get better.
How much worse? Attacks by insurgents are up by 40-percent over a year earlier in many areas.
NATO commanders are calling for more NATO troops. Forces are stretched thin in the farthest reaches of the Pakistan border areas.
Better equipment is needed. More mine-resistant vehicles are being deployed (though that’s not a miracle cure, as the high center of gravity on the vehicles on mountain roads can lead to roll-over problems).
More Afghan troops are needed. The Afghan National Army, with its 70,000 man force, is fighting the Taliban and a half-dozen or so other insurgent groups, including al Qaeda. This year the US has finally agreed to pony up billions more dollars to expand the army by another 50,000 men. By contrast, the police force for New York City is 48,000 officers.
But the biggest and most important change of all is one you won't see mentioned too often: suddenly Pakistan matters.
Up until now, the official line went roughly that the border was unsealable, and the war needed to be won inside Afghanistan instead. The strategy was to win the war by enticing Afghan villagers to reject insurgents after they crossed the porous border and arrived in the villages.
The army's plan is to offer better security, better local Aghan government and a heap of local aid projects (schools, roads and power plants) to persuade the villagers to side with the Kabul government. The war would be won despite the border areas over in Pakistan continuing to host terrorist sanctuaries.
Now Army officers say that strategy is probably not going to be enough.
"I don't think there will be a successful conclusion to the war in Afghanistan until there is a successful conclusion to the issues along the Pakistan frontier," said Brigadier General Mark Milley, the deputy commander of the 101st Airborne Division at Bagram, the unit in charge of many of the border areas.
That assessment bodes especially ill because Pakistan is, frankly, a mess.
Now that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has resigned, a weak government rules Pakistan.
The Pakistan military consistently loses its battles with terrorist in the tribal areas.
Al Qaeda and other militants are becoming more entrenched in the border regions.
The ISI, Pakistan's intelligence agency, helped blow up the Indian embassy in Kabul last month, according to US intelligence. Hardline ISI officers continue to help the terrorists, as long as they focus on destabilizing Afghanistan.
In short, the situation on the Pakistan side of the frontier is bad and likely to get worse.
Change in Afghanistan is slow, but its remorseless.
The US Army's strategy is an awfully slow one, because it takes literally years to build the roads, schools and hydro-electric plants that are the key to the plan.
Opposing the US, Al Qaeda is slowly putting more effort into Afghanistan, even as it scales back in Iraq. Terrorists are slowly but steadily getting better at killing western soldiers, by using roadside bombs and improving their ambush techniques. Casualties among western soldiers are set to be the highest ever this year.
Something needs to be done. Something is being done. But that something is likely to be dependent more than ever on what happens in Pakistan - where the American military is banned from operating.
So the latest news from Afghanistan is not good.

DG

Broadband: In 100 years the US may catch up with Japan

Thanks to Chuck Sherwood for this:

You've
helped highlight just how little progress the U.S. is making in
high-speed Internet, and you can help push lawmakers to start turning
the situation around.

More than 230,000 of you took the speedmatters.org Speed Test over the
past twelve months. Today we released the second annual state-by-state
report on Internet speeds.

http://www.speedmatters.org/pages/state.html

The Speed Test, which measures the last-mile speed of your Internet
connection, shows that the 2008 median real-time download speed in the
U.S. is a mere 2.3 megabits per second (mbps). This represents a gain of
only 0.4 mbps over last year's median download speed. It compares to an
average download speed in Japan of 63 mbps. At this rate of progress, it
will take the U.S. more than 100 years to catch up with current Inernet
speeds in Japan. This is unacceptable for the country that invented the
Internet.

http://www.speedmatters.org/pages/state.html

The test results demonstrate the critical need for the U.S. to adopt a
comprehensive national broadband policy. As a first step, the Senate
should pass the Broadband Data Improvement Act (S.1492), a crucial piece
of legislation that will help our nation determine which parts of the
country have high-speed access and which do not. The bill would also
provide funding to states to increase broadband deployment and adoption.

Write your Senators and tell them you strongly support this bill:

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/s1492/iw3e3ux2a75n78t6?

The House of Representatives passed similar legislation last fall. It's
long past time for the Senate to act. The Broadband Data Improvement Act
will provide the research and the funding to help make sure every
American has affordable, high-speed Internet access. With an already
struggling economy, we can't afford to continue falling behind in high
speed broadband.

We need your help in the critical effort. Write a note to your Senators now:

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/s1492/iw3e3ux2a75n78t6?

Thank you for all your help in the fight for affordable high speed
Internet for all.

Sincerely,

Beth Allen
speedmatters.org Online Mobilization Coordinator

Telegram writes about the city's delayed descision about Public Access support

Telegram's Nick Kotsopoulos writes about contract delays affecting WCCA TV.

The city's re-review of data that really has been done has taken exceptionally too long. The ascertainment window, the time to assess community opened in 2004 and ended when the city entered formal negotiations with Charter Communications. Whatever the city was able to negotiated for is now available within the franchise license to meet the community needs. The city council asked, through the form of a motion, for the City Manager to have a contract signed with WCCA by the end of June. Is there no teeth or follow up to such motions ?

We are not sure what parameters the consulting attorney Jim Baller, was told to work on, we are sure, however, that there are many cities that have apparently acquired better franchise conditions to support their Public Access channel and PEG Channels. Especially when looking at cities as large or larger than Worcester.

Given our experience of this so called process and holding on to good faith, even as we try to set aside the fears of many concerned that there may be a possible pre determined agenda, we hope the Manager will give due consideration to the community needs assessment which provided a quantified demonstration highlighting a community need to support for WCCA without any decrease in funding or capital.

Either this city, the City Manager and the City Council wants the people's channel, an important and empowering community resource that fosters a free flow on information and free speech, to continue to flourish or it doesn't.

Thank you Nick for fair and informational piece.

Durham, N.C urges city to support Public Access

Here are some good folks working hard to build what Worcester has had for the past 22 years and 20 months in WCCA TV 13, "The People's Channel".

Consider what they are saying in N.C. as you reflect on Worcester's great community media resources.

"Public-access television was developed to provide local and diverse content to programming on cable systems."

"For the last decade, Durham Public Access has been managed by Time Warner Cable because previous laws required them to do so. The result was that the channel did not meet the needs of the community or fulfill its potential as a true accountable, community-driven operation.Functioning like a soapbox for communities, programming ranges from local news, events and entertainment, to inspirational, youth-oriented, and educational shows. The need today is even greater with the loss of locally owned and operated television, radio and newspapers due to media conglomeration."

"There is no one model for a Public-Access Television and Community Media Center; each reflects the needs of that particular community. However, one thing is consistent - they advocate for and maintain tools for creating media, provide media services and create venues for sharing community voices and showcasing creativity. Through technology, they provide a space to communicate in ways that are not available through traditional outlets."

This sounds awfully familiar does it not? So when I speak up in support of WCCA TV I am sure our city leaders know and understand where I am coming from.

Sign Durham's petition by linking to it here: Durham
Read more here: link

T&G leaves out an important fact

The T&G ran this story in today's paper titled Cable nudity sparks debate written by Linda Bock TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF.

The show in question has never on played on WCCA TV 13, the local cable public access channel in Worcester.

The T&G did not specify which of the two Worcester cable channels the show was presented on.

Competition equals lower prices? Think again.

link

Cable Franchising Bills No Help To Consumers: Survey
66% Of Respondents Say Cable Rates Are Up Despite Competition
by Linda Haugsted
Multichannel News
07/07/08

State cable franchising bills have not led to lower cable rates, and support for
public access channels has eroded in those states with such schemes, according to a
survey conducted by the Alliance for Community Media and the National Association of
Telecommunications Officers and Advisors.

The survey, which included 140 public access center officials from 18 states where
cable is no longer locally regulated, showed that 66% of the respondents said basic
cable rates have increased in their communities, even after the arrival of
competition.

In testimony in support of many of these bills, supporters asserted that the quick
arrival of competition, enabled by such bills, would lower consumer rates. Only 1%
of survey respondents said rates decreased after the bills were passed.

Competitors have taken advantage of the new regulatory regime: 68% of respondents
said competitors, including AT&T and Verizon, have applied for state franchises.
However, incumbents are taking advantage of the regulatory change, too. Fifty-two
percent of respondents said legacy operators have applied to be regulated by the
state.

The ACM is most interested in the impact to its members, and the rest of the survey
had to do with the current state of financial and other support for local cable
production. Twenty percent of the respondents, from communities in California,
Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and
Wisconsin said their funding had decreased since the passage of state regulatory
bills.

Twenty-six percent of those polled said they've lost free cable service to
libraries, school and other public buildings; and 41% said they've lost or had a
reduction in benefits for the operation of local institutional networks.

The ACM said it would use the survey information to seek legislative or regulatory
action that will preserve localism provided by PEG channels.

~~~

Rob McCausland
Director of Information & Organizing Services
Alliance for Community Media
202-393-2650

State Cable Franchises BAD for Cities, BAD for Public Access, BAD for the People

( NOTE: Elected public officials, and municipal and state administrators have a responsibility to know about this. MD)
Barbara Popovic , Chicago Public Access ( WCCA's counterpart in the windy city) writes :
Preliminary findings from the survey on the Harm to Public, Educational and Government (PEG) Access from State Video Franchising Laws were presented at a meeting with FCC Commissioners Copps and Adelstein at the National Conference for Media Reform (NCRM) in Minneapolis on Friday, June 6. The survey was circulated and results compiled by Michael Eisenmenger on behalf of the ACM's Public Policy Work Group. That report will be expanded and presented soon to the ACM membership and will be available for visits to legislators.

PEG folks who attended the meeting at NCRM shared experiences with the Commissioners regarding what has happened since the advent of statewide franchises. California, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois were among the states that reported. PEG reps from Vermont, New York, Minnesota and the DC area also reported on issues of concern. The testimonials were powerful and gave the Commissioners a snapshot of issues occuring around the country.

There are reports of loss of funding, loss of channels, facility closures, channel slamming, franchise fees, reduced quality and functionality of PEG channels compared to commercial channels, PEG fees being redirected to local gov, and in the case of Illinois where PEG language is the strongest, lack of compliance by AT&T on PEG carriage.

We discussed with the Commissioners ways that the FCC can address the problems that are multiplying. Commissioner Copps reinforced the importance of continuing to collect the data and said that the preliminary report was very helpful. Commissioner Adelstein said that PEG Access is fundamental to our democracy, especially when commercial media is moving away from local coverage and should not be sacrificed in the name of competition. He wants to see regulations get back to what Congrss intended with PEG available in basic service tier at the lowest reasonable rate.

On Saturday at Future of Media Policy panel the day after the PEG meeting, both Commissioners referenced concerns about the attacks on PEG. Commissioner Adelstein said in regards to PEG, "the one media that is trying to be local is being decimated and its just not right." Commissioner Copps mentioned PEG access as one of the remedies for getting more noncommercial media on the air - content the markets won't produce but society requires. (Thanks Lauren-Glenn for those notes.)

I want to extend my thanks to those able to attend this meeting and my apologies if you were at the conference and didn't get word about this. I'm sure there will be future opportunities as we need to continue to shine the light on these critical issues for PEG and our local communities that depend on it.

Barbara Popovic
Executive Director
Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV)
322 S. Green St.
Chicago, Illinois 60607

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