Media and Democracy in America Today: A Reform Plan for a New Administration

This new report lays out a plan of action for the next President and Congress to take to ensure the media performs its appropriate role in our democracy. Recommendations focus on protecting the democratic nature of the Internet, supporting community media, increasing diversity of media ownership and improving the digital TV transition process. Common Cause wants it to push for an overhaul of the Telecommunications Act of 1991 with an eye toward "a new focus on promoting diversity and true competition and preventing consolidation." The group also wants the government to mandate three hours per week of civic or electoral programming, as it does for educational children's programming, and to be more specific about what broadcasters' public-interest obligations are, particularly now that the digital-TV transition is opening up more spectrum for broadcaster use. The platform also includes free airtime for candidates; more specific policies for helping women and minorities to own more media outlets; network-neutrality legislation; a more securely funded and transparently nonpartisan public-broadcasting system; and a raft of DTV-transition-related proposals from more funding to more education. "The American public needs diverse sources of news if we are to be able to be educated participants in our democracy," Common Cause President Bob Edgar said.