FCC Topics

Democracy Now! stories, posts and pages that relate to FCC

Ex-Commissioner Michael Copps on the FCC's Unrelenting Anti-Diversity Push for Media Consolidation

Former Federal Communications Commission Chair Michael Copps joins to discuss the growing opposition to the FCC’s effort to weaken media ownership rules and clear the way for greater media consolidation. Last month, Federal Communications Commission Chair Julius Genachowski circulated a plan to relax a longstanding ban that prevents the owner of a television broadcast station from also owning a newspaper in the same town or city. The move...
Dec 14, 2012 | Story
The Real Mad Men: Following the Money Behind TV Political Ads

By Amy Goodman with Denis Moynihan

May Day, Murdoch and the murder of Milly Dowler. What do they have to do with the 2012 U.S. general election?
May 03, 2012 | Columns & Articles
Ex-FCC Commissioner Michael Copps on Media Consolidation, Broadband Expansion, Threats to Journalism

Michael Copps served two terms with the Federal Communications Commission. Now the staunch supporter of an open internet and opponent of media consolidation has retired. In a wide-ranging discussion, he examines the FCC’s key accomplishments and failures of the past decade. Copps argues broadband is "the most opportunity-creating technology perhaps in the history of humankind," and laments that the United States still lacks a national...
Jan 12, 2012 | Story
"San Francisco Bay Area’s BART Pulls a Mubarak." By Amy Goodman

What does the police killing of a homeless man in San Francisco have to do with the Arab Spring uprisings from Tunisia to Syria? The attempt to suppress the protests that followed. In our digitally networked world, the ability to communicate is increasingly viewed as a basic right. Open communication fuels revolutions — it can take down dictators. When governments fear the power of their people, they repress, intimidate and try to silence them,...
Aug 17, 2011 | Columns & Articles
Bay Area Rapid Transit Accused of Censorship for Blocking Wireless Services to Foil Protests

The operators of the San Francisco area subway system are facing intense criticism for temporarily cutting off underground cell phone and mobile-internet service at four stations in an attempt to foil a protest. On Thursday, authorities with the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) removed power to underground cell phone towers at four stations to disrupt a protest against the recent death of Charles Hill, a homeless man who was shot dead on a train...
Aug 16, 2011 | Story