Confessions of a Mad Librarian

It's not every day I get to sit down with 30 other people and talk with an FCC Commissioner. Luckily, I was able to do just that with Michael Copps at NCMR2008. A loose transcript:

Roundtable - Michael Copps, FCC commissioner

What are the opportunities to move offensively - i.e. promote community interests rather than simply defend?

Now is the opportunity to go on the offensive ... not only can we, we MUST - we cannot have democracy without media democracy
We've had 25 years of deregulation
15 years of media consolidation
The public has not been well-served by the public airwaves
Poison for the civic dialogue - we have big media not reporting what's going on in the world, in the U.S. or in the localities in which we live
We've dumbed down news rooms, subsidized propaganda

Reason for optimism
A coming tide of change/reform
We need to be prepared on the media democracy

A downpayment on media democracy
* Some substantive, meaningful change immediately (Jan/Feb 2009)
* Old media: have an honest-to-God relicensing system that is guided by public interest guidelines -- end postcard renewals
* New media: A principle of non-discrimination on the Internet (i.e. Net Neutrality); let's make sure there's no gatekeepers for content; complex regarding the lines btw reasonable and unreasonable network management
We need to talk these things up with our neighbors and colleagues and representatives NOW
* Start working on more substantive, meaningful change

Citizen action still counts

The new president will get to name a new chairman

Municipal ownership of cable/Internet - how can we get away from duopoly?
We need to come up with more ideas, more experiments
Industry lobbyists are going to the FCC and crowing that muni broadband has failed completely - some even say that all muni broadband projects have failed (not true)
Public infrastructure issues and deregulation/market reliance

Net neutrality + broadband deployment to all? Are they related?
Universal service for Internet - truly extending solid, reasonably priced broadband for all
We need a broadband strategy in the U.S.

We lost our only progressive radio station in San Diego -- what can we do in terms of legal remedies to get it back?
Sounds more like a policy question/issue than a legal one
FCC doesn't attend to format, but ownership concern is a focus

What is the level of sophistication of Congress in dealing with these issues?
It is fairly sophisticated ... quite a few on Capitol Hill are well versed on telecom and other issues -- Dorgan and Markey are examples
Now 2-3 Cong. oversight hearings a year; previously very rare

My question - Is there common cause between FCC and FTC on new media policy?
Should be, once new administration is in, but not now
Brand X (basically held that Internet services are not like telephone or cable service and requirements for open access and universal service cannot be applied to it) - a horrid decision

We need a media literacy program that starts at kindergarten and goes through high school - not only how we use media, but how media uses us; but how to implement?

Why aren't PEG channels included in satellite?
Satellite doesn't go through franchising process, which is wearing PEG channels are negotiated

What is the role of traditional public television and public radio - is there positive reform in those areas?
Public TV is the crown jewel of our broadcast media, not that there aren't challenges and concerns
No silver bullet for the future of public TV
Commercial TV news has become a joke
What's the future of the evening news? Two execs of news divisions: Morning news make more money, but evening news make some money, so they aren't going anywhere.

"Media reform" is a cute way of saying "media crisis" -- are we at the end of an age of regulation, given the huge growth of Internet and the pressures towards convergence?
Probably, but we don't know when

As we move to Internet distribution/media, there is the possibility to leave certain populations behind, in particular deaf/hard of hearing communities, since closed captioning is standard for broadcasting, but is rare for Internet videos

People don't understand what their rights are - we need a governmental literacy program to explain how the gov. process works