By W. Evan Golder

No matter where you live in the United States, a UCC OC Inc. petition filed at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Wednesday, July 24, will affect you.   The petition seeks to deny the right of Gannett Company, the nation’s largest newspaper publisher, to expand its hold in five media markets by buying a TV company called Belo Corp.  If the merger is approved by the FCC, it will affect media markets, large and small, across the country.  The petition focused on five of the hardest hit markets.  Members of the UCC filed to demonstrate to the FCC how they would be harmed by the merger.

In Phoenix, the Rev. David W. Ragan watches Phoenix’s three television stations – KTVK, KPNX, and KASW – and subscribes to Phoenix’s only major daily newspaper, the Arizona Republic.  But he finds it “almost impossible” to get media coverage for events sponsored by groups fighting for equality in Arizona “when our cause is against the positions taken by the dominant perspectives of the press and the community it shapes.”

In Tucson, the Rev. Teresa Blythe regularly watches KTTU and KMSB and reads the Arizona Daily Star, the only daily newspaper providing news of her entire community. Gannett, which currently owns 23 television stations and 82 U.S. daily newspapers, including half-ownership of the Star, proposes to provide major services to KTTU and KMSB. “Without independent voices,” Blythe says, “there will be less investigative journalism, which allows corporate interests via press releases and highly ‘spinned’ news to dominate the news.”

In St. Louis, the Rev. David Beebe serves Good Shepherd United Church of Christ. Among the television stations he watches are KMOV and KSDK, both of which Gannett proposes to own. This potential common ownership “harms me,” he says, “by sharply reducing the number of independent voices and competitive news sources available to me.”

In five media markets, these three and Louisville, Ky., and Portland, Ore., Gannett proposes to purchase broadcast licenses, thus reducing the number of media outlets in these markets—and the number of sources of news and information.

But this media consolidation cannot occur in a vacuum. These deals must be approved by the Federal Communications Commission—and the public has a right to oppose them.

So the UCC’s media justice arm, OC Inc., short for UCC Office of Communication, Inc., joined with five other public interest organizations to file objections to this media concentration. The other groups are Free Press, the National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians and the Broadcasting and Cable Television Workers Sector of the Communication Workers of America (NABET), the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the National Hispanic Media Coalition (NHMC), and Common Cause.

The filing today and the every member of the public’s right to hold media accountable at the FCC are due to the legal rulings established by OC, Inc. More than 50 years ago, OC, Inc.’s founder, Everett Parker, mounted a concerted campaign to deny the license of WLBT-TV in Jackson, Miss and successfully divested the station from its owners.

One of the UCC members who helped with Wednesday's filing was inspired by the original work to take part.  St. Louis pastor David Beebe was new to ministry when Everett Parker created OC, Inc. “Up to then, I had thought of a denomination’s Office of Communication as the publicity arm of the church,” he says. “I hadn’t thought of it doing social justice. But I learned what he was doing in Jackson, Miss., and I was very proud. Now I’m grateful that OC, Inc., is still functioning and doing the work that Everett Parker started.”

In two filings today and yesterday, United Church of Christ, OC Inc. was pleased to address several important components of the Federal Communications Commission's proceedings considering media concentration limits.   Today, UCC OC Inc. joined The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights comments submitted in response to the Federal Communications Commission's release of the Critical Information Needs Research Design.  The comment praised the FCC for releasing the design and highlighted it as an important step to counter the substantial dearth of studies addressing the needs of underserved communities.  It noted that the FCC cannot proceed with its proposals  to change existing media ownership rules in the pending quadrennial review, explaining the current record is "flawed" because of "its lack of adequate data analyzing media concentration’s impact on people of color and women."  The letter described a number of refinements which would improve the research protocol.

Yesterday, UCC OC Inc. filed a detailed pleading analyzing  recent study by the Minority and Media Telecommunications Council, also in response to FCC request for comments.  The filing, written by Georgetown Law Center's Institute of Public Representation, concluded that the FCC "may not and should not" rely on the MMTC study in the ongoing media ownership and diversity proceedings.  Yesterday's filing described the study's flaws.  It explained that the study utilized only 14 interviews and lacked any transparency or description of the markets that were studied.  Further, while the study claimed that its results provided  no reasons to alter the FCC proposal to permit more consolidation, in fact 3 of the 14 interviewees did identify problems with the type of media consolidation in question -- joint ownership of TV stations and newspapers.  Finally, the study conflated a lack of evidence with proof that no harm exists--something that responsible research cannot do.

These filings are part of UCC OC Inc.'s on-going efforts to promote a diverse and accountable media.

Cheryl Leanza, the policy advisor of the United Church of Christ’s Office of Communications Inc., participated in a day-long Federal Communications Commission (FCC) workshop Wednesday, July 10 discussing the high cost of telephone service to persons in prison and the FCC’s current rule-making on Inmate Calling Services.  Read her testimony as prepared for delivery.  See the full video of the event. Ms. Leanza is featured from 26:00-31:00 minutes in the video.

OC Inc. has long been an advocate for reforming a system under which telephone companies that provide services to prison inmates are permitted to charge exorbitant rates to the families and friends of inmates. In some cases, companies compete for contracts with state prison systems by offering a portion of their revenues to the prison system itself.  

Under the leadership of interim FCC Chair Mignon Clyburn, the FCC has been taking a closer look at this issue. Rev. Geoffrey Black, president and general minister of the UCC, participated in a rally last November to help raise awareness of this issue. Read his remarks.  Visit our web page to learn more about this issue and get involved.  www.uccmediajustice.org/prisonphones 

We are collecting signatures from clergy and religious organizations to end predatory prison phone rates.

L to R: UCC OC Inc. Chair Earl Williams, Treasurer Sara Fitzgerald, Policy Advisor Cheryl Leanza

The United Church of Christ's Office of Communication, Inc. (UCC OC, Inc.) was proud to participate in the United Church of Christ’s biennial national gathering, General Synod, which was held in Long Beach, CA from June 28-Jul 1 this year.  We briefed several conferences about our work (the UCC’s regional bodies), and networked with our colleagues in justice.  We hosted a workshop which outlined our historic and cutting edge work in media justice and communications rights. 

Read the powerpoint slides from our workshop.

Handouts:

Fighting Hate Speech

UCC and Media Justice: Low Power FM Radio

Prison Phone Rates: A Moral Issue

Universal Service: A Matter of Economic Justice

2013 has been a busy period in the effort to end predatory prison phone rates.  After the Federal Communications Commission issued its proposal, UCC OC Inc. was pleased to join with its allies to file comments and reply comments at the Federal Communications Commission.

In addition, we were able to play a critical role a few weeks ago to get the attention of one of the worst prison phone companies -- Securus Technologies.  Securus has aggressively opposed any reform to prison phone rates at the F.C.C. and elsewhere.   In April, the United Church of Christ, OC Inc. was pleased to join with Public Knowledge, Free Press and Rainbow/PUSH to block the purchase of the telephone company Securus Technologies, Inc. by a hedge fund.  The groups jointly filed a petition at the Federal Communications Commission last night in response to a filing by Securus requesting FCC permission to complete the proposed transaction.  Public Knowledge, Free Press, UCC OC Inc. and Rainbow/PUSH released a joint statement.  Cheryl Leanza, policy advisor for UCC OC Inc., said, “Predatory prison phone rates are a moral issue for the faith community—these types of businesses should be stopped, not allowed to expand.  Companies that invest in these predatory businesses risk endangering their public reputation.”

The petition was supported by a declaration of United Church of Christ's Minister for Criminal Justice and Human Rights, Rev. Sala Nolan-Gonzales, which laid out the strong interest the United Church of Christ has in this issue.  The F.C.C. ultimately dismissed our petition, but only once it had extracted a promise that the company cooperate more constructively in the F.C.C. proceeding considering predatory prison phone rates.  Also, Securus conceded it was blocking another company's service which was designed to help ameliorate high prison phone rates.

This month the Justice and Peace Action Network will feature an action alert in time for Father's Day to support the effort to reform prison phone rates around the country.

Attending the 2013 General Synod Conference in Long Beach, CA this year?

Come meet with OC Inc. at the United Church of Christ’s General Synod gathering at the Long Beach Convention Center this summer.

Leaders of the UCC’s media justice ministry are conducting a workshop, “The UCC and Media Justice: The Next 100 Years” at 2 p.m. Saturday June 29 in Room 201B of the convention center. We will be providing the latest information on key battles that are under way in the areas of media reform, media justice and media diversity, and how these issues impact so many other social justice concerns. We’ll be providing information on how you can support us, no matter where you live, and we also want to hear from you about the media issues that you care most about.  The workshop will also give us another wonderful opportunity to celebrate the legacy of our founder, Rev. Dr. Everett Parker, as he celebrates his 100th birthday this year.

Among the topics the workshop will cover are: 

• economic justice means access to new technologies and basic phone service for everyone and how these are threatened;
• how you can support the campaign to eliminate the predatory phone rates that are charged to prisoners and their families;
• fight hate speech against the LGBT and immigrant communities;
• how to create a media outlet for excluded voices through the one-time chance to apply for a community radio station in October 2013;
• media violence fast in September 2013 during the week of prayers for peace.

If you will be able to join us, we’d love to know in advance. If you won’t be able to attend the workshop, but would like to connect with us at General Synod, please let us know.   And if you are a member of the UCC and won’t be at General Synod, we’ll be glad to send you a post-Synod update.   Let us know how we can best connect!

In response to the widely-reported impending announcement of Tom Wheeler as nominee to lead the Federal Communications Commission and Mignon Clyburn to lead the agency until Mr. Wheeler is confirmed, the United Church of Christ's media justice ministry made the following statement:

"I congratulate Chairman Clyburn on her historic appointment as the first woman chair of the Federal Communications Commission.  She is the ideal person to safeguard the interests of the public at this time of transition," said Earl Williams, Chair of the United Church of Christ, Office of Communication, Inc.

Cheryl Leanza, UCC OC Inc.'s policy advisor stated, "We are eager for Mr. Wheeler to rapidly learn more about civil rights and media justice very early in his tenure.  We will be looking carefully at his key staff appointments with the expectation that he will select people with an in-depth understanding of the information needs of all communities to complement Mr. Wheeler's private sector resume."

We expect to work closely with Mr. Wheeler on the priorities of the public interest and civil rights communities, including diverse ownership of media and technology companies, universal and affordable high speed broadband Internet access, open Internet, and a rapid end to predatory prison phone rates. 

Today members of the House of Representatives held a hearing to consider the Federal Communications Commission's Lifeline program, which provides a financial subsidy to low-income people to help them afford telephone service.  The United Church of Christ's media justice ministry, OC Inc., was pleased to collaborate with its civil rights and other allies in supporting this program, including the excellent testimony by UCC OC Inc.'s close ally, the National Hispanic Media Coalition.

Since 1934, the United States has recognized the importance of ensuring that all people can communicate with each other through a policy of "universal service."   For almost 30 years, federal communications policy has set funds aside to ensure that people would be connected to the telephone network even if their financial circumstances or remote location might otherwise prevent them from doing so.   And in 1996, universal service was expanded by Congress to also assist schools and libraries and rural health care providers. 

The low-income Lifeline program has recently come under attack, not for the important work that it does, but because a few bad actors have taken advantage of a program targeting the lowest income Americans and used it for their own gain.  The attacks are all more upsetting because this program is not in need of curtailment -- rather it is in need of updating so that it can support the use of new technologies, such as high speed broadband Internet, rather than simple voice telephone service.

While voice phone service is a minimum service necessary for everything from reaching 9-1-1 to getting a job, the truth is that Americans who  can afford it are rapidly moving to broadband Internet for most of their communications needs.  For example, the Wall Street Journal recently ran a story describing high school students who routinely study and do their homework at McDonald's, which offers Internet access, because those students' families cannot afford to subscribe at home.  Unfortunately, the advent of high speed broadband is making the "digital divide" worse, as the least connected fall farther behind.

Fortunately, Rep. Doris Matsui, joined by Rep. Henry Waxman and Rep. Anna Eshoo, have introduced a bill that would ensure the Lifeline program is not only well-run, but that it aids the people who most need it.  The proposed Broadband Adoption Act would go a long way toward ensuring that our nation remains competitive and fair.   Broadband Internet important to ensure that people who seek to find a way out of poverty have the means to do so--through education, job searches, and access to benefits programs which offer support in a time of need.   Universal access to broadband Internet is not only important to the individuals who need it, but also to our whole country--we cannot succeed in the world economy if we fail to utilizing the skills and talents of a significant proportion of our people.

Since 1997, the United Church of Christ has formally recognized we risk becoming a society of "information rich" and "information poor" -- with dramatic consequences for exacerbating inequities that already exist in our midst.   Communications is a human right -- a tool that connects us to our communities, helps to disclose injustice, and facilitate innumerable aspects of modern life. 

As such, we wholeheartedly express our support for the Lifeline program as it stands now, and for legislative proposals to ensure that it keeps pace with technological change by supporting high speed broadband Internet. 

The United Church of Christ, OC Inc. was pleased to join with Public Knowledge, Free Press and Rainbow/PUSH to block the purchase of the telephone company Securus Technologies, Inc. by the Hedge Fund ABRY Partners.  Securus provides phone services to prisons, and its business model relies on charging predatory rates to the families of prisoners, who have no choice but to pay high prices or forgo speaking to their loved ones.  The groups jointly filed a petition at the Federal Communications Commission last night in response to a filing by Securus requesting FCC permission to complete the proposed transaction.  Public Knowledge, Free Press, UCC OC Inc. and Rainbow/PUSH released a joint statement.  Cheryl Leanza, policy advisor for UCC OC Inc., said, “Predatory prison phone rates are a moral issue for the faith community—these types of businesses should be stopped, not allowed to expand.  Companies that invest in these predatory businesses risk endangering their public reputation.”

To learn more about predatory prison phone rates and UCC OC Inc.’s efforts to eliminate them, go to www.uccmediajustice.org/prisonphones