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From the diaries -- kos)
Breaking news this morning of the United Church of Christ's response to the rejection of its "God is Still Speaking" commercial.
According to this press release, the UCC is filing a petition to deny license renewals to two Miami-area television stations: WFOR-TV (owned by Viacom) and WJVT-TV (owned by General Electric).
Background and action steps below the fold.
The UCC
Office of Communications, a church-related but functionally separate media advocacy group, is organizing a drive to deny the license renewals to these two stations. You can read the filing itself
here. (Warning: pdf!)
The theory behind the filing is that the airwaves are held in trust for the public. In fact, this precedent was set by UCC-sponsored advocacy in the Civil Rights era (link provided by ihlin below). According to the briefing mentioned above, the US Supreme Court in a 1973 ruling "CBS v. Democratic National Committee" established a separate precedent: that networks are free to turn down issue-oriented advertisements, because the "fairness doctrine" ensures that the issues will be covered more or less objectively.
But, the filing argues, the FCC has essentially gutted the fairness doctrine, particularly in this age of media consolidation. Therefore, the appropriate remedy for the denial of the UCC ads is to challenge the license renewals. I don't understand all the ins-and-outs, but apparently, that's the FCC's own rule. This holds the networks accountable, particularly because they exercise direct ownership of these two stations.
Why should you care? First of all, because it's a chance to fight back: against exclusionary policies, against creeping self-censorship of the networks for political reasons, against the FCC that stands idly by while free and fair public debate is squeezed out of the airwaves.
Second--and more important to my mind--is that this helps to spread the UCC's message of "extravagant welcome". I have it from Bob Chase, the Executive Director of the Office of Communications, that this goes beyond "just" the issue of gays and lesbians' place in the church.
Chase spoke about exclusion on many levels: the poor being shut out of public assistance and housing, the public being shut out of control of the airwaves, religious minorities (including agnostics and atheists) being shut out of the public square in favor of religious conservatives. Extravagant welcome goes to the heart, I think, of the public debate that needs to happen in our country in these times: are we going to be a nation by and for the few, or by and for all people?
Action steps you can take:
- Go here to file an "informal petition" urging the FCC to hold NBC and CBS accountable for the public trust they have been given in the airwaves. These petitions are most effective if they are submitted before January 2, 2005, but they will be considered up through mid-February. Get 'em in. Get 'em in now.
- Go here to donate to this advocacy campaign. NB: this money is earmarked for the campaign, and will not go into the denomination's coffers. Click here to help fund continued broadcast of the ad itself. You can also donate to your local UCC conference, many of which are raising funds to get the ads aired on local affiliates.
- Go here to spread the word about the campaign.
Those are the steps the UCC suggests. I'd only add two others:
- The Office of Communications is asking for blogs to endorse the campaign. While I don't want to dictate to Kos, put your name below if you think we as a community ought to endorse.
- Keep an eye out. A second ad--accepted by the networks, no less--will be airing December 22nd. It's supposed to be "child-oriented," but it will carry the same message of "extravagant welcome" as the first one.
More will be happening in the next few weeks. We'll try to keep you posted!
Update [2004-12-9 14:48:12 by pastordan]: Various items: I should have made it clearer that the UCC action did not depend on the fairness doctrine (see comments below).
I also neglected to mention that the advocates don't expect the license renewals to be denied. This is the way to make a point, and make it they will.
To underscore the vision behind the action as well: it's time to take back our airwaves, our public policy, and our country for all people, not just those with political or economic influence (which are all too often the same thing these days). I've said it before, and I'll say it again: it's no accident that Howard "You Have the Power" Dean belongs to the UCC.
No more 666 words, though you might want to let your fundy relatives know! It'll help publicize what's going on.
Last but not least: my Christmas cookies will be on sale at the Emmanuel UCC Cookie Walk, this Saturday from 9-4 in Abbottstown, PA. Y'all come!
Oh, and take the poll.