Delivering Holiday Presents and Petitions: "Metro officials need to act now"
December 22, 2005: Petitions calling for the City to hold a Special Review and other hearings and actions on the Louisville Cable Franchise were delivered to the Mayor and other Metro officials today. "These petitions call for immediate action by the City to hold a Special Review of all the issues we are petitioning for," said Eddie Davis, "including revoking the Carlyle - Insight franchise, renegotiating the franchise, rewriting the communications ordinances and stopping the giveaway of city communications powers to the State and Federal governments."
Mayor Abramson, Council President Barbara Shanklin, Contracts Ctte. Chair Councilman Jim King and Metro Public Works Director Jim Adkins or their representatives were all presented with petitions, said Mr. Davis. Plenty of holiday cheer accompanied the media democracy delegation as they made their rounds of City buildings, met with Metro staff to deliver petitions and shared the spirit of citizen activism. But there was a sense of urgency as well.
"Metro officials need to act now," said Mr. Davis. "With only a week remaining before Carlyle - Insight kicks WYCS off the basic cable package, the Cable Commission hasn't even met, and there has not been a review of the cable franchise as called for in the cable ordinance," said Mr. Davis. "The City is just giving in to the State's threat of double taxation on the revenue plan beginning December 31, and they are not even lobbying Congress about the new Federal legislation which is coming down the pike to strip municipalities of franchise authority. "
"This situation has been brewing for months now, and the City has done nothing, so it is time for citizen action, and petitions are one way to get started," said Mr. Davis, representing a broad range of citizen organizations and individual petitioner."But this is just the beginning." Community groups are expanding the petition drive to websites, neighborhood sign up spots in stores and community centers "and outreach to other communities around the country facing similar problems with Carlyle, Insight and Comcast." Community groups will be issuing new petitions and activities representing different community interests, said Mr. Davis.
The petition can be found online for now at http://petitionspot.com/petitions/cable .
"And when we start getting active, we are also learning about working with the media, creating the kind of media situation which would really serve the community," said Mr. Davis.
"So re-writing the franchise agreement will give us as a community a chance to look at our options and create media centers, media based economic development, expanded community access television channels and other ways to make sure the community is really served well by the franchise."The petitions delivered today fulfill a provision of the Metro Cable ordinance that allows a minimum of 100 citizens to present agenda items for a Special Review of the franchise by the Director of Public Works. In October, the Jefferson Co. Attorney issued an opinion that the current cable franchise could be revoked and renegotiated on several grounds, including Carlyle - Insight's failure to get approval from the City for the ownership transfers to Insight Acquisitions and the Carlyle Group earlier this year. The first and only major schedule change undertaken by Carlyle - Insight after the takeover was to kick WYCS television, the region's only independently owned minority oriented station, off the basic cable package.
Statement from Eddie Davis, Media Committee, Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression:
"The funding of independent community media centers and funding or otherwise supporting locally owned and managed TV stations which cater to local constituencies and minority interests is healthy for the democratic process - as opposed to allowing major corporation to gobble up and control all the local stations and maintain central control over the media system.
"WYCS TV, as the only local station founded by an African American, Jerome Hutchison, and has historical roots in the community. WYCS is owned by he African American Venture Capital corporation. It's about time for the Metro government to intervene and preserve WYCS and the African American Capital corporation in creative ways which support the creation of media centers and new media infrastructure for the community. The City can do this both by supporting those existing entities to grow and better serve their mission and through new organizations and initiatives which support the mission of providing capital and communications support by and for the minority communities of this City.
"Such support by the Mayor and the Metro Council would show an act of good faith by the Metro govenrment in the post-merger era. It would also show their ability to govern in the interests of the whole city, not just special interest business groups and the corporate interests. There Is an urban community that many people feel the council is not dealing with effectively. The old City Board of Aldermen sometimes dealt effectively with this but many on the Council see things through suburban sunglasses, But the primary economic engine is still the urban area and the Metro government is still trying to find balance of urban and suburban communities Metro government can show sensitivity to African American community in particular and urban communities in general.
"And Metro government leaders can show that they have an interest in a healthy democracy. In a healthy, democratic community you have decentralization in terms of the flow of information. If you just have a handful of out of town corporations controlling the flow of information, that is not healthy.
"The Black Caucus of the Council is politically and morally obligated to take the lead, particularly in creating a broader, new media economic development opportunity for the City thorough renegotiation of the franchise, beyond the current poorly written contract. Renegotiated, the cable contract would support the best interests of their constituencies and the businesses which are threatened by the illegal Carlyle takeover, not only WYCS but the producers and media people who can benefit from having an independent station,and the kids and neighborhood leaders who benefit from having a training ground for the future, and the broader community which needs places for direct creative production and community wide dialogue on issues in our own media.
"The leadership of the Black Caucus could support civic dialogue and the creation of new community communications infrastructure for Metro government and the City as a whole. "
See http://louisvillecable.blogspot.com for more ....
posted by louisvillemediaaction @ 3:00 AM
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