?Fake News? Charges Spark Call for TV License Intervention, Creation of Community Media Centers and News Alternatives

Citizens from Kentucky, Tennessee and Indiana Converge on Louisville to Plan Visits to TV Stations and Startup of Community Media Centers and News Systems

6;45 PM PRESS CONFERENCE On Citizen Interventions in TV License Renewals and Community Journalism Alternatives
   

What: Media Democracy Midwest Convergence
When: Thursday, June 9, 1 p.m. - 9 p.m.
PRESS CONFERENCE: 6:45 PM
Where: JFVS / Louis and Lee Roth Family Center, 3587 Dutchman's Lane, Louisville, KY

Sessions:  (See www.theopencommunity.org for details)
1 ? 3 PM  Be the Media: Neighborhood Media Centers and Community Journalism
3 - 5  PM   Reclaim the Media: Television Station License Renewal: What citizens can do Now to intervene in license renewal and shape the future of media democracy
  Stop Fake News: Identifying and stopping commercial and government propaganda
7 ? 9 PM  Media Democracy: The Time is Now: Town Hall meeting

Regional leaders meet today in Louisville to expand their campaign for TV and Media Accountability and Community Journalism.  ?This campaign is particularly important for the Louisville region as TV stations in Kentucky, Indiana and Tennessee prepare to renew their FCC licenses this summer. ? said Tim Karr, Campaign Director for Free Press, the national media reform coalition.  The deadline for citizen comments and filing is June 30.

Leaders from diverse community groups have come together to stop corporate- and government-sponsored "fake news" before it infiltrates local news outlets. Revelations in the New York Times on March 13, 2005 detailed the role of local TV stations in airing propaganda, particularly Louisville Fox affiliate station WDRB-41.  At the same time, ALL TV stations in KY, TN and IN are up for renewal this summer, and citizen activists are acting to help bring positive change to local news.

?Not only can we file complaints to stop fake news and covert product placement,? said Victoria Strange, a citizen from Louisville, ?but we can also research and ask for accountability on issues and coverage such as diversity, the environment, local ownership, access, citizens oversight councils and children?s programming.  Every community group should look into this ? the majority of Americans get their news from television, and if we want our communities and democracy to thrive, we must have real news.?

All it takes to start the process is to look at the station?s FCC ?public file.?  Stations are required to make the file available.  The group has researched a number of local stations this way, and is making the results and ?how to? handbooks for citizens and journalists available through a community journalism web site, http://theopencommunity.org. They hope to have reviewed the majority of the stations in the region by the June 30 FCC comment deadline.

?What we?ve found is that studying the media is a way for us to become community journalists, and that with new technologies, there are now many ways for us as citizens to tell our own stories at the neighborhood level,? said Lisa Abell, a Nashville TN resident active in media center and community radio work in her community. Participants are also meeting to plan regional community news networks and independent neighborhood media centers as positive alternatives to the crises in mainstream media.