DU Action Needed to Save Public Access TV!!!

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Democracy Now! Media Action Alert, Feb 24, 2005

Help Save Public Access Television in Arizona
Help Stop a dangerous legislative precedent that will be replicated across the U.S.


Public Access Television, also called "PEG", for Public, Educational, and Government channels, exist in communities on cable television because media activists years ago said that if cable companies are going to come into our towns, dig up our streets, and get monopoly access to the homes, then we should ask for something in return: fully-funded public access television facilities and the channels on the local cable system to put out the shows.

Now, cable companies, which are richer and more powerful than ever, are trying to rewrite the laws to put public access television out of existence. There are several battleground states where this is happening, and Arizona is facing a crisis right now.

The Arizona Senate will soon vote on SB. 1229, which will strip away the funding mechanism that has worked for public access television. City services like ambulances will also lose funding that has come from the cable franchise fee that is threatened by SB 1229. The cable companies also want to limit the number of public channels to TWO. Tucson, for example, has nine PEG channels that are highly regarded and valued by the community. Tucson would lose seven channels at a time when cable companies like Cox Communications in Tucson are ADDING many commercial channels.

The bill would remove the power of cities and towns, granted to them by Federal law, to charge a franchise fee of 5 per cent of the cable company's revenues in a city or town. Instead, a cap of one per cent would be imposed, with some additional funds accruable from sales taxes on cable services. In effect, the cable companies have written themselves a bill that strips millions of dollars from local, public coffers and gives the cable companies more corporate welfare.

Cox Communications, the largest cable tv operator in Arizona, is behind this bill, as is the industry group the Arizona Cable Telecommunications Association.

Specific actions you can take now to voice your support for public access:

Action - Part 1 of 2: Contact the Arizona Senate TODAY
Urge the senators to OPPOSE SB 1229
Continue the national standard funding of 5 per cent of revenues for public, educational and governmental channels
Continue to allow more than two channels for vital, local PEG services

Toll Free: 1-800-352-8404
Arizona has 30 state senators - those listed below either cosponsored SB 1229 or voted in favor of it in the Senate Finance Committee, so call and ask them to justify their vote. Ask if they have received any financial contributions from employees of Cox Communications or the Arizona Cable Telecommunications Association (Senate Finance Committee Chair Dean Martin received contributions from both, for example) - also impart your sense of the importance of strong, diverse, well-funded public, educational and governmental channels, and the power of municipalities to govern their rights or way, that is the streets and property that cable companies use to get access to the customers homes. PLEASE BE COURTEOUS. PLEASE CALL. YOUR CALL COUNTS
some of the Arizona Senators who favor SB 1229:
Dean Martin cosponsor
Robert "Bob" Burns
Ken Cheuvront
Ron Gould
Karen Johnson
Jack Harper cosponsor
John Huppenthal cosponsor
Thayer Verschoor cosponsor

See Access Tucson's online facility for sending a message to ALL Arizona legislators here http://accesstucson.org/news/sb1229-3/

While Arizona residents have a special role in contacting legislators, we all have a stake in strong, independent media everywhere. Let the Legislators know that they will be setting a destructive precedent that will hurt the reputation of Arizona, and that the eyes of the world are on them.

Action - Part 2 of 2: Contact key members of the Cox Communications Board of Directors

Cox Communications is said to be behind the regressive Arizona Cable Bill, SB 1229. Cox Communications is one of the US's largest cable companies. Cox Communications was recently acquired by Cox Enterprises, Inc, in a deal that provoked shareholder lawsuits. The Cox Communications Board of Directors has very few independent directors; most on the Board are Cox executives. One Director who is not a Cox executive (but who does receive compensation from Cox) is Andrew J. Young, former US Ambassador to the UN and former Mayor of Atlanta.

Please contact Ambassador Andrew Young, member of the Cox Communications Board of Directors, via his company, GoodWorks International. Suggested text follows:

[e-mail]
[e-mail]

Tel: [phone]

Dear Ambassador Young:

I am writing to alert you to the pivotal role Cox Communications is playing in destroying public access, educational and governmental (PEG) television in Arizona. Cox Communcations employees have been central in legislative hearings pushing for Arizona Senate Bill 1229, which will essentially defund PEG television in the state and strip away the rights of municipalities to negotiate the best, fair rate for cable companies to access the publicly-owned rights of way.

As a former Mayor of Atlanta, surely you do not support legislation that would strip the authority of any city to negotiate how its public rights of way will be accessed and paid for by private companies. And yet Cox Communcation employees in Arizona are trying to push through SB1229 that will do just that. Join with the League of Arizona Cities and Towns in opposing this Cox-driven legislation.

Please use your office as Director of Cox Communications to halt this attempt to wreck PEG television in Arizona.

Thank you.

(when emailing, please bcc:[e-mail] so we may better gauge the effectiveness of this action.)


Further background and resources:
Public access television can be a powerful resource in a community when it has the proper resources and support. As well, the educational and governmental channels are essential to a well-informed public that support a strong local democracy. Here are a few web-based resources to help you learn more:

Arizona article on the issue of SB 1229:
http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2005/02/07/daily21.html

Article on Cox Comm. in Arizona threatening to withhold donations to legislators who did not sign on to Cox-promoted legislation:
http://www.azstarnet.com/dailystar/relatedarticles/31223.php

Arizona Statehouse webpage about SB 1229:
http://www.azleg.state.az.us/DocumentsForBill.asp?Bill_Number=SB1229

The Alliance for Community Media, the US national PEG advocacy group:
http://www.alliancecm.org/

Free Press, a national media reform group, issued a press release on SB 1229:
http://freepress.net/news/release.php?id=48

List of over 150 PEG and PBS TV stations that run Democracy Now!:
http://democracynow.org/stations.pl?op=fullsearch&broadcast=tv

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