The Future of Media on UserVoice

END MEGA-CORP OWNERSHIP OF MEDIA. [updated]

2012-05-11T17:39:09-04:00

A small handful of powerful corporations controls the majority of new media. This stifles the real business of news media which is investigating and reporting facts. It creates a biased stranglehold in which a powerful media owner, such as Murdock, has disproportionate control over the content and delivery of news.

Steven H said:

I agree, however I find it curious that you used Murdoch as an example. By far Mega-Media is controlled by the Liberal left. If Murdoch/Fox were removed from the equasion, how much further from rational would balance become?

End broadcast TV! Airwaves should be used for Nationalized neutral wireless broadband internet only. [updated]

2012-05-09T11:39:18-04:00

There is no real reason to continue broadcast TV as we know it, anolog or digital, and the broadband system should be built and maintained by and for the people, just like our highways. As it stands only a small percentage of the wealthy few have access to and control the media. The internet is the great equalizer, if Fox or NBC (General Electric) want to broadcast their media they can use their websites like everyone else. Any media you need (or want) can be offered online, and if you want your programing mixed and played for you (which is all that a broadcast TV station really does anymore) you can pay for a cable or satelitte service to provide it. This would immediately desolve a large portion of the influence and advantage corporate biased media now have and could garner in the future with the recent Supreme Court ruling.

Hal Hancock said:

The problem with removing broadcast TV is for instance several million older viewers that have old televisions and digital converter boxes, and rely on such services as local weather forecasts or news (including for instance the PBS Newshour). Many lower income people simply could not afford to get a $300 computer and pay a minimum of $20 or $25 a month for the internet access. Eliminating broadcast would simply cut these people off.

Disallow the cable company monopolies

2012-05-08T23:47:52-04:00

craig suggested:
Allow more than one cable company into a town or city. As it is, I only have 1 cable company I can use. They are terrible, I have no other options, I can't go to another cable company because the government has allowed monopolies for cable companies in cities and towns.

Here's a crazy idea tell the truth !!!

2012-05-07T12:46:24-04:00

Anonymous suggested:
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/murdoch_fcc/?rc=fb_share1

Keith Gilabert, "Media should post full disclosure of the government sources they site."

2012-05-04T14:21:37-04:00

Allow cable/satellite customers to pay for only the channels they want

2012-05-01T01:57:35-04:00

Rick Craft suggested:
Let customers choose the channels they want. Don't force customers to purchase bundles in which they don't care about half of the stations being offered but have to pay for them nonetheless.

Hold public hearings on Deliberate Disinformation and Propaganda [updated]

2012-04-19T19:12:24-04:00

Every day there are several documented new instances of deliberate disinformation, distortion and propaganda by media outlets. Just yesterday, for instance, KFI 640 AM radio's John & Ken Show regurgitated the Faux Nooze deliberate distortion and misrepresentation of Phil Jones' interview with the BBC on the subject of Global Climate Change. They -- both numerous individuals at Faux as well as the John & Ken radio personalities -- made numerous willful false statements about what this climate scientist said about the subject of global warming, and in doing so deliberately distort the issue for political purposes. Faux Nooze went to court and essentially won the right to lie in its programming -- about which the FCC did nothing at all, despite the obvious danger presented by a 'news' outlet declaring a right to falsify the news -- and the rest of the billionaire-funded Republican Noise Machine has followed Rupert Murdock's lead. The FCC has been allowing -- if not enabling -- this sort of propaganda war on the American People for well over a decade. Its high time that the FCC take its regulatory role seriously and open up a nationwide public discussion of propaganda and deliberate disinformation in the media. If this issue was confronted and examined honestly, openly, and thoroughly the FCC would learn that the vast majority of people in this country want a minimum standard of good faith honesty in broadcasting established and enforced. The current 'standard' of being able to lie with impunity because no citizen can challenge it -- and the government won't challenge it -- must end. There is no First Amendment right to broadcast. The airwaves are a finite resource, and access to them for broadcasting purposes is a privilege subject to whatever standards of conduct We the People say they are subject to. Hold Hearings on Propaganda and Deliberate Distortion.

zoe said:

What about the Trayvon NBC creative editing of a 911 call played on national TV? "The edit made it appear as though Zimmerman told police that Martin was black without being prompted, when, in fact, the full tape reveals that the neighborhood watch captain only did so when responding to a question asked by the dispatcher." At least NBC fired the producer responsible, but this story wasn't even released until another network (Fox) exposed it. News should be required to air a disclaimer, and not in tiny print and flashed for a millisecond either- that the "names and events have been changed for dramatic purposes and may not reflect the actual event". In other words, the "news" should alert the viewers that what they are watching is not necessarily a true story. Another instance, I was listening to BBC World via XM satellite radio and they were doing an on-air interview with a "local man" off the street during the Arab Spring. He was supposed to be a regular nobody, just some random Libyan man that luckily had a satellite phone to contact the media and let them know what's going on in Libya during some conflict there. It was quite obvious to me this man was NOT Libyan, nor even a genuine Arabic speaker, as his accent was so blatantly fake and amateur at best. I recognized this man's voice as one of the phony "translators" hired by another network years ago, that was exposed as a non-Arab speaker but someone put in place for dramatic effect (the story had already been translated, he was hired as a voice over as the real translator didn't have a 'TV pretty' voice). For one, they could have at LEAST found ONE guy with a bonafide accent. Two, there must be a dearth of Arabic sounding voice-over actors if different networks have to resort to using the same guy. I am also surprised that (I am guessing but probably not far off!) 99.8% of viewers have no idea that actors are hired for this shenanigans.

Stupid MORONS

2012-04-19T14:20:27-04:00

Fuck FCC suggested:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NDPT0Ph5rA

News Vs Opinion must be clearly and frequently labeled as such. Facts should be clearly referenced. [updated]

2012-04-19T12:42:27-04:00

There needs to be accountability for any NEWS Identifying distribution. Reported News needs to clearly reference sources. Corrections are manditory and get same time - time/slot.

Anonymous said:

The news is extremely biased in most cases and should be required to provide their sources of where they get their information. It's a shock that they don't have to already.

FCC would regulate that with which it did not agree. [updated]

2012-04-19T12:37:49-04:00

The idea of the government controlling news and information delivery, or policy making to change the nature of the information reminds me of what propogandist Dr. Goebels did in Nazi germany. This control will never fly with the American People. Unconstitutional.

Anonymous said:

Although I do not believe our news in this country to be as controlled as that of the Nazi Germany media coverage. I do believe it is far too liberal with the news it tells and must be evened out to better support both political parties.

Report of a recent event

2012-04-12T12:54:44-04:00

R Kraft suggested:
Per dictionary.com, the definition of news is a "Report of a recent event. That to me means a plane crash in Virginia, a tornado in Texas, or an earthquake in Japan. Opinions are not news, they are the beliefs of an individual or group. The networks have confused the two. I have no problem with either one but they must be defined and controlled separately by stating what it is up front as news or opinion.

San Francisco, CA [updated]

2012-04-07T22:44:55-04:00

We need to get the Rush Limbaugh show off the air, or at least into "Safe Harbor". Clear Channel is filing the Rush Limbaugh show with local ads where the advertisers don't even know what his content is. After insulting Sandra Fluke he called Alexandra Petri from the Washington Post a bitch. He called the women from the National Organization for Womens NAGS or as he said National Associtation of Gals.

jimmy aceves said:

We need to get the Rush Limbaugh show off the air, or at least into "Safe Harbor". Clear Channel is filing the Rush Limbaugh show with local ads where the advertisers don't even know what his content is.After insulting Sandra Fluke he called Alexandra Petri from the Washington Post a bitch. He called the women from the National Organization for Womens NAGS or as he said National Associtation of Gals.

There should be consequences for media companies who purposely misrepresent information.

2012-04-04T18:02:54-04:00

Deborah suggested:
NBC recently portrayed a totally different situtation on a 911 call by simply putting two seperate parts together and leaving out others. How can this be go unanswered by NBC to the American people? This is a HUGE situation! These companies are trying to run our country! I am not quite sure of how it should be totally regulated and safe guard our freedoms as well. BUT truth is truth and lies are lies that should not be allowed. They are changing OUR great America! Someone(s) in these companies have made decisions to change our country over the Martin and Zimmerman case going on. I am not saying Zimmerman is right or Martin was wrong (no one has enough info of what happened yet.) BUT what I am saying is the news is not balanced AT ALL! There are a few making decisions for the many... which is not America! What can this agency or any other agency do to correct where do we start? I believe there should be a government agency as well as an American Agency (made of unconnected members to the media) combined to regulate these types of situations.

Ban the Use of Unnecessary Technology [updated]

2012-04-01T23:30:13-04:00

I don't think that the radio audience is being effectively served with automated stations that are run by computers that frequently break down. I don't think radio stations should ever use computers to run their stations; they should have a human being on the premises 24 hours a day. A prime example of this took place at KSLG in St. Louis, MO (at 1380 on the AM dial) on January 13 and January 27. After finishing the coverage of a Missouri State University basketball game, the computer automation failed to switch the program to Fox Sports Radio, in which the station was supposed to carry. Instead, it illegally simulcast the programming of Missouri State's flagship station, KTXR in Springfield, MO (at 101.3 on the FM dial). Voice tracking, or the use of a pre-recorded voice to replace the live DJ, should be permanently banned. This has brought about a decline in radio audiences, coupled with an unnecessarily high number of job losses. If radio is to be truly local again, this practice must be abandoned. And, GET RID OF "HD RADIO"! This is a spectrally inefficient technology. On the AM dial, depending on the distance from the transmitter and the dial position, it wastes up to 100 kHz of space. The sound quality of "HD Radio" is inferior to analog. An excellent quality analog signal takes up only 10 kHz of space on AM. On the FM dial, it takes up 600 kHz of spectrum. An excellent quality analog FM Stereo signal, which already rivals CD quality, only takes up one-fourth to one-third the space "HD Radio" on FM does. Stereophonic AM broadcasting should be forced to return to the spectrally efficient C-QUAM system, which produces a high-quality sound within only 10 kHz of space. Move digital audio broadcasting to much higher frequencies; AM and FM just doesn't have the spectrum space to support it.

Kevin Steinmetz said:

Digital Radio is nice when the signal is strong enough. I can tell the difference between analog and digital....digital being nice and clear.

how about giving power back to the people with free tv and stop paying the evil cable companies!!!! POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

2012-03-30T18:36:31-04:00

Bakersville, N.C.

2012-03-29T16:51:40-04:00

Anonymous suggested:
We have been told that cell phone numbers will be released to companies and also told that this is false. What is the truth?

Include Non-profits in do not call list

2012-03-29T12:20:23-04:00

Amy suggested:
Whether they want to sell me something (telemarketers) or just want to take my money in exchange for NOTHING (non-profit donations) or tie up my telephone with a canned speech which will not disconnect until they finish 2 minutes of a diatribe (political recorded messages) - ALL are an intrusion on a service that I pay for in my own home. Non profits should not be exempt from Do Not Call list regulations. They call automatically, hanging up on whoever doesn't answer the phone the quickest, so I run for the phone and get hung up on. When I complain about the Do Not call list, I'm told "That doesn't apply to us." and when I ask to be removed from the list, they are rude and hang up on me. The political calls cannot be disconnected - even unplugging my phone from the wall will not hang up on them, so my phone is unable to be used until they are done ranting about the latest threat of the opposing political party.

Stop Allowing Cable Providers to Block Citizen Owned Networks

2012-03-27T12:28:42-04:00

Jason suggested:
Many people may not know this, but the Television Stations 2-13 belong to the citizens of the United States. Too often, Cable Providers block customer access to these channels over some dispute between the parties. If you are going to run a Cable TV Service Provider (Optimum, Time warner cable, FIOS, etc.) it is your responsibility to accomodate Channels 2-13 regardless of any disputes between the parties. If the only way to ensure this happens is to set a Federally Instituted rebroadcast fee, so be it, I doubt the Providers would agree. What we really need is the FCC to do their job and protect the interests of the American Citizen. As an example, WPIX does not OWN the broadcast frequency of channel 11. They have the right to show programming and sell Ad Time in order to cover the costs therein. WE THE PEOPLE own these frequencies. Stop letting ANYONE block your access to these channels for any reason. If the companies cannot come to an agreement as to how this will be accomplished, then the FCC needs to Step in and prohibit the activity. The Providers can do what they like with Channels 14- 10 Million, but 2-13 belong to the Citizens of the United States of America.

TECHNOLOGY NOISE AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION

2012-03-20T06:49:11-04:00

Cara suggested:
Too many technological gadgets are interfering with proper communications and creating noise pollution which is detrimental to people's and children's minds and health. There has to be technological updates and reinventions so technology will not harm the environment.

Require telephone and internet companies to provide current mailing addresses on their web sites to file written billing/cramming disputes. [updated]

2012-03-18T19:50:42-04:00

John said:

It doesn't do any good at all to dispute issues regarding cramming with ATT. They just ignore the complaints or pass them off to the third party. Then consumers are caught between two corporations who both tell the consumer conflicting information. We need a way to send a certified letter to a correct address.

Provide a list of mailing addresses for disputing cramming issues directly with telephone and internet providers.

2012-03-18T19:48:42-04:00

John suggested:
It doesn't do any good at all to dispute issues regarding cramming with ATT. They just ignore the complaints or pass them off to the third party. Then consumers are caught between two corporations who both tell the consumer conflicting information. We need a way to send a certified letter to a correct address.

Require telephone and internet companies to provide current mailing addresses on their web sites to file written billing/cramming disputes.

2012-03-18T19:44:51-04:00

San Francisco, CA

2012-03-14T20:49:03-04:00

Knot Limbaugh suggested:
We need to get the Rush Limbaugh show off the air, or at least into "Safe Harbor". Clear Channel is filing the Rush Limbaugh show with local ads where the advertisers don't even know what his content is. After insulting Sandra Fluke he called Alexandra Petri from the Washington Post a bitch. He called the women from the National Organization for Womens NAGS or as he said National Associtation of Gals.

HOWARD STERN WAS FINED REPEATEDLY FOR NON COMPLIANCE OF FCC RULES! THIS LED TO REVOKED LICENSE! HE COULD ONLY HAVE TALK SHOW ON SIRIUS RADIO

2012-03-14T14:53:44-04:00

Nancy Janitz suggested:
WHY should Rush Limbaugh be allowed!? HE is just as vulgar, bigoted As Howard Stern! !? People don't want that ON public radio Or TV stations! Put IT ON private airwaves!! Like Howard Stern!

Detroit, Michigan

2012-03-11T18:57:50-04:00

an anonymous user suggested:
I see many people driving and texting while driving. This is very dangerous and needs to be outlawed. Read more on <a href="http://www.gounce.com/articles/iphone">iPhone apps</a>

lindenhurst, ny

2012-03-09T08:53:27-05:00

carla suggested:
Has anyone ever heard of a company called Satellite Live TV Stream. They claim that if you download their software(all that is needed) you can watch 3500 hd channels from your lap or desktop and not pay cable bills. I cannot find any thing about them from the bbb in new york. Thanks

Change the FCC regulations for cable and satellite companies

2012-02-24T23:01:13-05:00

Spencer Karter suggested:
My idea to change the FCC regulations that restricts Nielsen's DMA boundaries on cable and satellite. People don't want to be forced to watch local networks in the market in which they are in. We deserved to watch out-of-market network feeds of ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX from New York City or Los Angeles or Chicago or other places. We need more choices and the sports blackouts, network non-duplication, and syndex rules must go. We lived with 21st century techologies with 20th century laws. This needs to change.

BEAUFORT, SC

2012-02-16T07:43:10-05:00

Anonymous suggested:
REQUEST THE LICENSE FOR FM 100.1 BE RENEWED. 100.1 PLAY GOSPEL MUSIC FOR SC & GA. SC IS POPULATED BY THOUSANDS OF SENIORS WHO RELY OF GOSPEL MUSIC TO MAKE IT FROM DAY TO DAY. JOY 100.1 IS THE ONLY GOSPEL MUSIC STATION IN BEAUFORT, SC. THANK YOU.

The US is too puritanical. That is the whole problem. [updated]

2012-02-07T18:12:17-05:00

No other free country on the planet is as ridiculous about censorship as the US. Human anatomy is not sexual until you make such an effort to hide it. When bleeping out four letter words, the mind automatically uses its closure skills, which is more stimulating. Censorship may be instrumental in the number of sexual assaults on women and children. Don't quote me though.

Mathew Waldrop said:

For being such a progressive nation, I simply can't understand why the US is so afraid of the human body, and by censoring it it creates a heightened curiosity about the human body, and as the maker said, making it sexual. There is nothing sexual about a naked person unless you make it sexual(ie porn). Hell in art you use a naked model to for art! Not sex or porn.

Show more coverage of bills in the senate

2012-02-07T17:54:23-05:00

Mathew Waldrop suggested:
I watch the news all the time and I was when I saw absolutely little to no coverage on PIPA, SOPA, and a few other bills that were huge in the news networks like ABC, FOX, and many other mainstream news. This is a stifling thing to find when the very fabric of every day life now a days is being threatened, and the media ignores it. There should be more coverage on bills, and the doings in senate to better inform the public on policies that could vastly affect their lives. All that is wanted is merely a blurb about each bill that is in discussion, maybe half a minute for each one, or just a breif summary at the very least.

lewisham

2012-02-01T12:12:24-05:00

Anonymous suggested:
there is no local lewisham cinemas or swimming clubs and it would be nice to have a cinema or swimming in the local area.

Seattle, Washington [updated]

2012-02-01T01:45:19-05:00

Underdogs like myself who are fighting back against big media conglomerates, they continue taking over local outlets(radio, TV and newspapers) all over America, silencing independent voices, especially minorities. They have made a mockery of the commitment to “operate in the public interest”, convenience and necessity. It is time for the FCC and “Press” to stop serving the agenda of mega media corporations and the politicians they control....and start serving “Democracy” now. I have lived in Washington's state since 1972, and I have seen many injustices in broadcasting...for example, just to mention one of the hundreds....It is unfair that Anglos, who do not understand the Hispanic culture, language and more....they have the nerve to exploit the Hispanic community, not only by owning the stations, but providing bad programing and hiring mediocre talent....and they continue to get away with it. If you do research about who owns what?...you will find that these big media conglomerates do not care about the Hispanics at all...they care about money...even if they have to feed them with garbage all the time....but what can you expect of them if they do not speak the language at all, or they don't understand the culture...they cannot tell if the programing is good or bad?..it is like me trying to discern Chinese radio or TV...because I do not understand the language at all. Spanish TV or radio-are owned by Anglo(most of them)...they just have a “token” (Hispanic)...to cover it. Sometimes, they put Hispanic (tokens) in front...but the money and profits and manipulations are for the big corporations...Hispanics vote in the elections...they need the Hispanic vote to elect a politician who will protect their wealth. I remember, when I started Spanish programing in Seattle in1972...nobody(radio station and TV station) wanted to sell airtime to me...I was the pioneer in Spanish commercial radio in Washington state...now they see the 45 million Hispanics and more...they see money and profit. Now, we have Spanish radio and Spanish TV in Seattle...still owned by Anglo...and these corporations owned many but many radio stations and TV stations ...without concern for the needs of the Hispanic community. We must continue the quest for justice and awareness in broadcasting in the U.S.A.

Michael Mattson said:

As co-owner of a television station in a top 30 market (and an Anglo), we picked up an affiliation with an international Spanish network just over a year ago.

We've a long way to go to become profitable, so it's not like we're taking boatloads of money from the Hispanic community. The other Spanish television stations in the market are all owned by very large corporations hundreds of miles away, so they are indeed sucking money out of the market without concern for the Latino community.

The question that you should be asking is... Where are the local Hispanic broadcast entrepreneurs? What are they waiting for? Frankly, we saw there was a need and an opportunity for a new Spanish station, and have invested a lot of time and money in making it a reality.

One of the ways we currently serve this community is by providing airtime without charge for a local Hispanic businessman who interviews members of the Latino community and addresses current issues relevant to this community. As the income grows, we will do more. It would be great to have a group of local Hispanic business owners collaborate in producing a local or regional newscast that they would own and control.

Hispanics could have established a station in this area, just like we did, and surely would have done a much better job of addressing their community than a large corporate entity or a couple white guys that admittedly know only a couple dozen words of Spanish.

Although our station isn't yet profitable, about 7 years ago we put our first station on the air AND operated it over a year for less than $100,000. It isn't necessarily as expensive as some may think, so opportunities are available. Please stop complaining and start a station, or at the very least, produce a broadcast that addresses the needs you see in the community.

(By the way, the Hispanic community isn't alone in being screwed by big corporate media.)

they should stop whitewashing with tabloid fodder (Corona, Queens NY) [updated]

2012-01-24T18:05:41-05:00

My point is that their really isn't news on the news anymore. The majority of the time, its full of tabloid fodder and if they finally do have news its biased. We need something that gives us the facts and breaks it down in a way that we can understand what is going on. A lot of the times news reporters will use all this lingo as if the normal person would understand. This confuses people and makes them not want to watch. It's not dumbing down if you actually speak in English!

MR said:

I'd like to see the over-the-air networks return to a real news show format, similar to what PBS does with the Nightly News. Devote an hour to true news - not "news and entertainment" - and go into much more depth about things that really matter and affect all of our lives. Frankly I don't care what flavor of meat Lady Gaga has chosen to wear to the most recent awards ceremony. I despise shows that intermingle un-news like this with true news stories. I'm an educator, and students quite often have a difficult time discerning the difference when it's all jumbled together, as Saira says.

FCC's distortion news policy dichotomy [updated]

2012-01-01T16:09:53-05:00

The policy for combating news distortion requires insider knowledge of the event. Without an actual rule in place, the FCC's policy offers no whistle-blower's protections, yet requires a whistle-blower to file the distortion complant.

Mike said:

Jane Aker filed a complant against Fox, and lost the appeal due to FCC's lack of clear policy concerning news distortion. The FCC has been sued many times for this lack of clearity, both of content and enforcement, and has lost. It is time the populus is protected, not the corporations. Solidify in to rules the basis for the distortion policy, provide the protections the whistle-blowers need, help them maintain their jurnalistic ethical commitment.

FCC's distortion news policy dichotomy

2012-01-01T16:02:50-05:00

Mike suggested:
The policy for combating news distortion requires insider knowledge of the event. Without an actual rule in place, the FCC's policy offers no whistle-blower's protections, yet requires a whistle-blower to file the distortion complant.

END MEGA-CORP OWNERSHIP OF MEDIA. [updated]

2011-12-22T18:33:20-05:00

Eric said:

The FCC is about to review media ownership laws again and I suspect they will try to further dilute corporate ownership restrictions like they unsuccesfully did in 2006 before being derailed by public opinion. Be sure to drop them an email and let them know your thoughts.

Here's a "creative" idea:

2011-12-20T16:26:40-05:00

Bethany suggested:
Here's a "creative" idea: keep ethics in the media! Stop showing sex, nudity, cursing, violence, and all that destructive filth!