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Urbana Public TV Presented with 500 Person Petition for Democracy Now - Vote of Support Gets Interrupted |
Current rating: 0 |
by IMC Radio News Collective
(No verified email address)
Address: UC-IMC |
19 Jul 2004
|
Efforts to get Democracy Now, a nationally distributed daily public affairs program, on Urbana Public Television, have met with strong resistance by some city officials even though there isn't enough programming to fill the station's 24/7 schedule and despite large, demonstrated community support in favor of Democracy Now.
The show's transcript is below. Listen at:
http://che.ojctech.com/~chyn/public/IMC/IMCRN-7.18.04-normal.mp3 |
Last Monday, Urbana Public Television member Randall Cotton, presented the UPTV Commission with a petition signed by over 500 people requesting that Democracy Now be aired on UPTV Channel 6 every Monday-Friday from 7-8 AM.
The Commissioners discussed the request and after lengthy debate a vote in favor of airing Democracy Now was called. 5 out of the 6 Commissioners voted "yes." Commissioner Kevin Maxson requested further debate. The voting was stopped and the Commissioners seemed confused as to what steps to take next.
Pete Resnick: "I will go ahead and move to put Democracy Now on as city programming, as UPTV programming, with decisions about the dish to be decided later."
Greg Bozell: "Second."
Barb Gladney (chair): "All those in favor."
Resnick, Bozell, Macuso, Hayes, Gladney: "Aye"
Resnick: "Or whould you like discussion?"
Gladney: "I'm sorry. We had so much discussion ..."
Maxson: "Yes, I would like to have just a brief discussion. I don't think that [the motion] was exactly what we were discussing. It was not what I was discussing."
Ultimately, the Commission took no action at its July 12th meeting regarding the request to air Democracy Now and instead discussed placing the issue on the agenda for its next meeting on September 13th.
Typically public access members do not petition the City to air programming - they simply drop off a tape for air. In this case, Democracy Now is distributed via satellite and the city would have to sign an affiliate agreement with Free Speech TV which distributes Democracy Now. The satellite is free and Randall Cotton has offered to pay the programming fee of $300 a year. The satellite distribution is what makes the request for Democracy Now different since the city must take action to get the programming.
During the debate the Mayor spoke strongly against putting Democracy Now on the air, claiming that doing so sets a dangerous precedent for public access members requesting programming.
Mayor Satterthwaite: "What kind of precedent are we setting? Who is going to be next to ask for this kind of programming? Is it the National Rifle Association that's lined up to put a dish on our rooftop and broadcast? Is it the KKK? Is it Matt Hale and his supporters? Once you open the door, you have to invite who comes through?"
Neither the Klu Klux Klan nor the National Rifle Association can broadcast on UPTV since only tax-exempt organizations serving Urbana residents can request programs for broadcasting, according to UPTV policy.
At the meeting, both Mayor Satterthwaite and Commissioner Kevin Maxson pressed for a comprehensive review of all programs, letting Democracy Now compete amongst others, rather than being chosen because of its public support.
Mayor: "To set it so that you are not discriminating against one or for another, the Commssion should say, of everything that is out there, what is our first choice to air on our TV station. I mean you are running a TV station! So decide amongst yourselves what you want on there. Now if Democracy Now rates as the first and you go through a process that says 'out of all the programming that is out there on the air waves, this is our first choice as most important,' it is a Commission decision, it is not a UPTV member coming to you making a request and getting special consideration with a dish on the roof with everyone else. If you act on a member request, no matter who that member is, than it is not an unbiased process any more."
What is confusing is the distinction between public access and city sponsored programming. The city must be content neutral and unbiased with public access programming, but can be discriminating with city sponsored programming. The Commission merely advises the Mayor on city sponsored programming, who makes the final decision.
Some commissioners questioned why a comprehensive review was being advocated now, when Democracy Now is being proposed, and not when other national programs from satellite were picked for broadcast by city staff with input from the Commission. Commissioner Pete Resnick noted that the city already broadcasts 20 hours a week from satellite - broadcasting the Annenberg Channel, which is free educational programming.
Resnick: "The same way with Annenberg, we discovered it in a particular way. We didn't at that point, I assume, stop and say 'oh well do we want Annenberg, there may be other programs, let's go research those first. It came to us, we said 'that looks like interesting programming for our purposes, let's go ahead and put that on."
Commissioner Greg Bozell, who also works for Chicago's Public Access Station, thought that evaluating all programming before responding to the request for Democracy Now misses the opportunity the Democracy Now request presents:
Bozell: "When Randall shoved over the stack of petitions, I and then the Barb, the chair of the commission, noted 'look, these are outreach contacts,. Fine let's get DN on and then let's hold a meeting to involved these people in a more substantial way - not that DN is not substantial - but I am very committed to local programming. And ah, if Democracy Now is a way of opening a door to people and making then aware that the station exists and is available to them then I would love to leverage it that way, because personally I also believe that access's strength is in localism. This is an active community - there are tons of things going on. There are lectures, speakers - this is a very active place and a real goal of any access channel is to be as congruent with the community as possible so I also don't want any one sector over represented - hopefully we engage everyone and make the channel as lively as the town we live in."
The content of Democracy Now also seemed to be of concern. The Mayor called the program "ideological" and Commissioner Kevin Maxson was worried that airing Democracy Now would make the city appear partisan in its decision-making.
Maxon: "We need to, like Tod said, review all the available material, one of which will be Free Speech TV and Democracy Now and to determine what of that material we want to resolve to put on. Resolving to do that is - I don't know how to put it - a less partisan solution that resolving to sponsor Democracy Now."
The issue of whether the city can consider content in making a decision is a tricky one. UPTV is a PEG Channel, P for Public Access, E for Education and G for Government. When the city considers what educational and government programming will air on UPTV, content can be considered. All public access programming, unless it is obscene, must be aired. Decisions about airing public access programming cannot take content into consideration. To do so may constitute a violation of the First Amendment right of free speech. City Attorney Steve Holz explains:
Holz: "UPTV is basically tax-payer and rate-payer funded. It's a city resource basically. It is one what we have to treat as a city resource. And to the extent that it is a public forum for people to speak in, we have to treat it as a public forum the same way we would and under the constitutional restrictions as we would with any other public forum."
At the same time, the city contends that it must protect public access from a flood of outside programming via satellite:
Holz: "Obviously people have been bringing in stuff which is obviously not locally produced. It was been brought in but by but tape by tape and that stuff has been aired at the request of those members who bring it in. I think what really caused this to come up on the radar screen is that members came in with a different kind of proposal and that was a proposal to make this PEG channel an affiliate of a company of kind that produces mass produced programming with a contract to sign to put this kind of thing on to the local channel and we said 'well that's interesting; under what rules do we become an affiliate of somebody? Is this any different than when somebody brings in once and week or once a month an hour long tape for us to run? Instead they want us to sign a contract to run 8 hours or 12 hours of programming from this one particular mass produced source. How do we do that? How do we handle that in light of our obligations as a care taker of this limited public resource that is funded by taxpayers and ratepayers."
Outside programming on UPTV is strictly governed in its policies. Only public access members residing in Urbana can sponsor outside programming, at a maximum of once a week.
Randall Cotton is a resident of Champaign, not Urbana. When questioned on this he said he has gathered five residents of Urbana to sponsor each day of programming.
Additionally, government meetings and locally produced programming take precedent. Currently the slot requested - 7-8 AM - is filled with a community bulletin board that functions as "filler" for the station.
Randall Cotton, who has been working to get Democracy Now on since March, questions whether the hold up is really legal, or if it is represents a resistance to the content of Democracy Now. Randall explains the history of his request:
Cotton: I sent off an e-mail to the coordinator of UPTV CF and for whatever reason I never got a response, but I was determined so I sent up a follow up e-mail a few weeks later at least asking for an acknowledgement and I did get an acknowledgment and I was told he would get back to me but unfortunately I never got a response. So after a month had passed, I called him directly in his office and I actually got a good response after that. A meeting was scheduled with Chris and his supervisor Bill DeJarnette and it was a very positive meeting. I thought was going to be a very easy thing to do. It seemed that they were very interested in getting it on as soon as possible it seemed and Bill DeJarnette actually said that they were going to pursue it 'aggressively' - that was the word he used. But then nothing was really happening. Something changed. I am not really sure what it was. A week went by, nothing happened. I contacted them. And on repeated occasions I was assured it would be taken care of in a few days or a week, but nothing happened. We never really got off square one. The staff there became increasingly evasive and kept coming up with different rationales for why things were hanging on and no progress was being made. The last reason I got was that it was in 'legal it needs to be reviewed for legal reasons by the City Attorney and that's the last I heard of it and its been about a month. I kinds lost hope on that track."
If the hold up is logistical, Democracy Now supporters say they want to clearly know what concerns need to be addressed to get the program on UPTV.
If the issue is political, the question remains: Does the city object to the content of Democracy Now? Are they legally allowed to? What is motivating this resistance.
We asked Danielle Chynoweth, Urbana City Council member and former UPTV Commissioner, this question. Danielle Chynoweth is a member of the Independent Media Center and IMC Radio News.
Chynoweth: "There are anti-gay sermons on UPTV and there are videos by the local peace movement. There is Farrakkan and there is Indymedia. This is not the first programming on UPTV that could be considered controversial. After not paying the station much attention for many years, I'm not sure why this program has gotten so much interest."
"There are some suspicious things that happened around this vote that should be taken into consideration. A month ago, the Mayor spoke to me criticizing the fact that the progressive community has mobilized around getting Democracy Now on UPTV. In that same conversation he threatened me in an attempt to get me to reconsider my vote on the ward map - the map council recently passed that will determine the districts for next year's election of council members. I refused. 30 members of the public came out to the next council meeting to make sure the Mayor did not continue his threats. The same week, the UPTV Commission meeting where we were to discuss Democracy Now was abruptly cancelled. I then received notice that I was removed from the Commission. The week after, the Commission convened, without me, to discuss Democracy Now. At that meeting, the Mayor was present for the first time in my three years on the Commission. At the next meeting he returned and strongly opposed a vote to put DemocracyNow on the air. Both the cancellation of the meeting, due to a potential Open Meetings Act violation, and kicking me off Commission, due to a stipulation in the ordinance that does not allow me to serve, may be legitimate. What is fishy is the timing of these decisions - right before the first controversial vote before UPTV in 3 years."
"It's a sad day when the Mayor hijacks a public resource and uses it for political retribution both against me and the progressive community. That's not what the station is about."
The Mayor was not available for comment.
Whether or not the stall is legal or political, Mr. Cotton has decided that the best route now is to demonstrate to the City Administration, UPTV Commission, and City Council that a significant number of area residents want to see Democracy Now on the air.
Cotton: "Well I am going to continue to gain as many signatures and support as I can of this idea and I think it is important that there be a strong public showing of the hundreds of people in the Champaign-Urbana community who want this program to be broadcast regularly on UPTV for them to actually show up at the next UPTV meeting. Those meetings are open to the public. The next meeting is Monday, September 13 at noon in Urbana City Council Chambers."
Democracy Now is broadcast on radio and TV stations across the country. WEFT airs Democracy Now every Monday through Friday from 4-5pm. Democracy Now also has a website, democracynow.org.
To find out about UPTV, listeners can go to www.city.urbana.il.us. Public access information, membership forms, a schedule of programming, and a list of UPTV staff and commissioners are under "What's New." UPTV Membership is currently free.
Listen to the show at:
http://che.ojctech.com/~chyn/public/IMC/IMCRN-7.18.04-normal.mp3 |
See also:
http://www.democracynow.org
http://www.city.urbana.il.us
|
This work is in the public domain. |
Comments
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Re: Urbana Public TV Presented with 500 Person Petition for Democracy Now - Vote of Support Gets Interrupted |
by James Mortland
mortland1976 (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
20 Jul 2004
|
Quit crying - if you want it that bad, sign up for Dish Network. It's on channel 9415 three times a day.
This is not some great censorship conspiricy - even the almighty Urbana City Council can't censor the world: far right OR far left.
Can't afford Dish Network, but you can afford internet access to read this? Sounds like a whole lot of "I'm a martyr and I want everyone to know it" to me... |
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Tough Competition for Fox? |
by Dose of Reality
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
20 Jul 2004
|
Wassa matter, Jim? Are you afraid that DN will prove to be tough competition for Fox News [sic]? After all, Fox is on both local cable and Dish Network. If Urbana pledges not to put DN on cable, will Fox News [sic] give up being on Dish Network, just so things will be a little fairer?
Isn't it strange how conservatives get all hinky when the market asks for something other than Rush? Clearly, if the petition has 500 signatures, it's because of an unmet demand. Think of it as a market correction, Jim, if it makes you feel better.
As for our megalomaniacal mayor, it's looking more and more like it's time for him to go. |
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Re: Urbana Public TV Presented with 500 Person Petition for Democracy Now - Vote of Support Gets Interrupted |
by James Mortland
mortland1976 (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
21 Jul 2004
|
You're kidding, right? Information dissemination has become so decentralized now that most people get at least a portion of their news from the internet, its impossible to believe that Fox, CNN, BBC, or anyone else has some kind of zombie-like hold on the public.
There's no balancing out here - not only can you find DN on dish network, but you can also download Amy Goodwin's "news" from the net on the FSTV website.
I'm "hinky"?
As for "Dose of Reality," here's yours - whether its Rush, DN or Michael Moore (the Free Speech TV spokesman, imagine that...), the vast majority of people who chose to take in a particular type of information are ALREADY watching because they ALREADY believe it. You're not going to be making light bulbs come on over peoples' heads by putting DN on local. |
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