Moyers and Company

[Commentary] For democracy to survive, media must thrive — media that serve the people, provide the news and information we need to make informed decisions about the future of our country, understand their obligation to serve the public interest first and foremost, and help protect us from the depredations of monopoly and oligopoly markets. Central to this is an Internet that can support quality journalism. There is no viable model for this today, and most experts agree that the kind of investigative journalism that once thrived in traditional media like newspapers and TV has not transferred to the Internet, even while it disappears from the older media.

There may be fewer levers out there to push post-election, but the reality is we have never come close to pushing all the levers that already exist. You’re a lever; so are your family, friends, neighbors and colleagues. So are whatever independent media left standing. So are local, state and national public interest groups. It’s time NOW to organize, coordinate and deploy these resources, and others, into battle. Share and write about your thoughts with anyone who will listen or read, seek out local and national decision-makers and let them know an open Internet and affordable communications aren’t partisan issues: they impact each and every one of us.

[Michael Copps is a former commissioner and acting chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, where he served from 2001–11. He serves on the board of Free Press and the Free Press Action Fund and is a special adviser to Common Cause.]

[Commentary] This merger is ginormous. It would put the nation’s largest multichannel video provider (thanks to newly acquired DirecTV), the second-largest wireless company and the third-largest broadband provider under the same corporate umbrella as HBO, CNN, TBS, TNT and the Warner Bros. movie studio. Forget Ma Bell. This is Monster Bell.

AT&T Can’t Be Trusted: For years and through multiple merger proceedings, AT&T has promised to expand high-speed broadband and failed to deliver, only to resurrect the same promises when it’s ready to make another deal. AT&T’s list of lies and chicanery is too long to reprint here.

More Than Just a Merger: It’s important to recognize just how much the political landscape has shifted. There is deep popular distrust of the rigged system that AT&T/Time Warner represents and broad bipartisan frustration with the failure of merger after merger to deliver any public benefits.
Is there really enough popular and political will to stand up to AT&T’s lobbying juggernaut and block this deal? Stranger things have happened.

[Craig Aaron is the president and CEO of Free Press and the Free Press Action Fund]