CHICAGO MEDIA ACTION ALERT: October 16, 2005
www.chicagomediaaction.org

Do you watch Chicago-area broadcast TV?

Do you hate the pro-war line that local TV stations fell for without consideration of other viewpoints?

Are you frustrated by the endless proliferation of straight, white, male, privileged perspectives on local TV -- and the simultaneous marginalization of concerns important to communities of color,
women, labor, children, environmentalists, and others?

Are you endlessly annoyed by the crass commercialism and lack of community concerns that permeates local television?

Do you have a personal story of how a Chicago-area broadcast TV station belittled or ignored you or a concern important to you?

If you can answer "yes" to these questions, Chicago Media Action (CMA) would like to hear from you. Together, we can seize an opportunity RIGHT
NOW which comes around only once every eight years.

All of the over the air TV stations in Illinois are facing the expiration of their broadcast licenses, which last eight years, and which stations must renew if they wish to continue to broadcast.

Simultaneously, this also presents an opportunity to file an action with the Federal Communications Commission -- a simple but formal regulatory
action called a "petition to deny" where we ask the FCC to deny a station's TV broadcast license.

Which Chicago-area stations will be petitioned? That depends on what objections we hear about. And that depends on you.

CMA feels that the TV stations in the Chicago area have systematically failed in their obligations to serve the public interest. As a result, CMA is now assembling a petition to deny against over-the-air TV stations in the Chicago viewing area.

If you agree with us that Chicago's over-the-air TV stations are dismal
and worse, and if you have a story to tell, we'd like to hear from you.
Hopefully, your story can be part of a petition we'll file.

Again, we encourage you to take advantage of this rare opportunity.

Send your story by email (cma (at) chicagomediaaction.org) or call our toll-free phone number (1-866-260-7198) to help take part. Unfortunately, time is short. The FCC _MUST RECEIVE_ petitions to deny by November 1,
2005 -- so we ask you to respond by Friday, October 21 so we have time to assemble the petition and send it in time. Thanks.

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This is an announcement from Chicago Media Action, a Chicago activist group devoted to media issues.

Chicago Media Action, P.O. Box 14140, Chicago IL 60614-0140
Call toll-free: 1-866-260-7198
Web: www.chicagomediaaction.org
E-mail: cma (at) chicagomediaaction.org

To join the CMA announcements mailing list, simply send an email to mailinglist (at) chicagomediaaction.org asking to join.