Monthly Archives: June 2018

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Consolidation eats another local touchstone ~2013~ TV &Progressive Radio in Seattle – etc.


So, had to go back and find info on Sinclair…

Posted by 
April 11, 2013 at 10:55 AM

The acquisition of Fisher Broadcasting by Sinclair Broadcast Group is bad news for Seattle and the Northwest. Seattle will lose a small but important corporate headquarters. Sinclair, which is based in suburban Baltimore, will no doubt get rid of many Fisher corporate jobs that are made “redundant” by the merger. The Northwest will lose a distinct local voice.

Sinclair says it “owns and operates, programs or provides sales services to 112 television stations in 61 markets” in some 26 states. With the Fisher acquisition, it will gain KOMO TV and 19 other television stations, along with KOMO Newsradio, KPLZ STAR 101.5, and KVI 570. (The reader should know that I have appeared on KOMO radio from time to time as an unpaid pundit on economic issues, as I do on several other local stations).

Broadcasting, which uses the public airways, has become one of the most consolidated industries in our era of monopolies, duopolies and cartels. All across the country, formerly proud local stations have been absorbed by the Borg of a few big players.  The Federal Communications Commissionhas done nothing to stop the trend, so don’t expect it to stop the sale of Fisher. But the result is not just lost jobs, but the loss in communities of some of their most important, and influential, touchstones. There’s less competition and innovation, fewer choices and distinctive local stations.

This is especially true in the news operations, which should be serving the public trust and are made better by local ownership and competition. Instead, in a consolidated, cartelized environment, they get their marching orders from elsewhere and a news agenda narrowed down to a one-size-fits-all, often with little emphasis on, or curiosity about, the community. These are just “markets.”

The other curious thing about the latest move is that in 2009 Sinclair said in a regulatory filing that it was considering Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Obviously the company was able to step back from the brink, but it will be interesting to know if Sinclair took on more debt to make the Fisher deal. As for Fisher, it’s too bad the company ever went public, putting its fate in the hands of investors who care nothing for Seattle. A short-term payoff for a few, a long-term loss for the community.

Information about the sale of Fisher Communications to Sinclair

Fisher Communications, owner of Seattle’s KOMO-TV and 19 other television stations, will be acquired for $373 million by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the country’s largest Fox affiliate.  Sinclair said it plans to keep Fisher’s three Seattle radio stations — KOMO Newsradio, KPLZ STAR 101.5 and KVI 570 — even though its focus is TV. (Seattle Times, April 11, 2013: http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2020756564_fisherbroadcastingxml.html)

In a recent conversation with someone who knows the Fisher family, I learned that the family only owns 30% of the stock in what is now a publicly traded company.  So, the decision to go ahead with this sale to a highly conservative media group is in the hands of the Fisher stockholders.  The Fisher family does have a long-time reputation as liberal (Dan Evans) Republicans, a species that may no longer exist, but there may be some hope that the family will want to purchase a station that could become a new progressive broadcasting station in the Seattle Area.  We can hope.

Come to the Meaningful Movie Night in Wallingford this Friday, showing “Corporate FM…the killing of local commercial radio”

Here is another story about the demise of the public airways.  The film shows at 7:30 PM at the Keystone Congregational United Church of Christ, 5019 Keystone Place N., Seattle.  For more information, check the website: http://meaningfulmovies.org/

You can hear your favorite progressive talkers for free using IHeart Radio

You can register for free and access several live progressive radio stations!  http://www.iheart.com/mobile/

If you know anyone who hasn’t signed our petition, please send them the link:

http://signon.org/sign/dont-let-seattle-lose-1?mailing_id=12129&source=s.em.cr&r_by=4666192

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

NO OIL DRILLING IN THE ARCTIC WILDLIFE REFUGE!


The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of the most beautiful and unspoiled places on our planet – home to iconic wilderness and wildlife and the indigenous Gwich’in people.

But right now, the Trump Administration is racing to open this untouched wilderness to oil drilling.

Before that happens, the Department of Interior has to review environmental impacts and listen to the public.

democraticconservationalliance.com

**********

“We are caribou people.  Caribou are not just what we eat; they are who we are.  They are in our stories and songs and the whole way we see the world.  Caribou are our life.  Without caribou we wouldn’t exist”.  ~Sarah James

 

About the Gwich’in

The Gwich’in are the northernmost Indian Nation living in fifteen small villages scattered across a vast area extending from northeast Alaska in the U.S. to the northern Yukon and Northwest Territories in Canada.

The word “Gwich’in” means “people of the land,” and it refers to a people who have lived in the region since before the U.S. and Canada existed. Today, the Gwich’in homelands span both countries. Oral tradition indicates the Gwich’in have occupied this area since time immemorial, or, according to conventional belief, as long as 20,000 years.

ourarcticrefuge.org

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

7 Million Acres of Amazon Threatened by Big Oil


One of the Waorani's traditional malookas (huts) in the Amazonian rainforest, built without using nails.

GUY NEEDHAM
Friends —

I’m writing you because I’m deeply concerned about the fate of a place and a people I have come to know over the years. Right now, the greatest threat I’ve seen is facing the Ecuadorian Amazon and the Waorani people who have lived there for thousands of years. The Ecuadorian government is auctioning off vast tracts of pristine rainforest that rightfully belong to the Waorani, to oil companies.

The Waorani communities have declared their unanimous rejection of the oil auction and are united in resistance.

We can’t stand by and watch one of the most biodiverse areas on Earth be stolen from the Waorani and destroyed by oil companies seeking a profit.

 

The words of the Waorani are more powerful than anything I can say:

We are Waorani and we have always lived in the Amazon rainforest. For thousands of years we have defended our territory from trespassers. As a warning, our ancestors left crossed palm-wood spears on trails to give would-be invaders a chance to retreat.

Our ancestor’s bones are buried under this earth. Deer, boar and jaguar still roam free across this land. Our memory, our language, and our songs are borne from the forest, and we will ensure that they live on, generation after generation.

Drilling for oil fuels modern life in the cities, but drilling within our territory threatens everything that matters for our people. We have seen the destruction that oil drilling causes in the rainforest. We have heard neighboring indigenous peoples tell of their children poisoned by contaminated rivers, and seen their bounty of wild fish and game disappear, their language and culture fall to the brink of extinction, all in a single generation.

Our territory gives us life. We will not allow oil-drilling to poison our creeks and our fishing holes. We will not allow lines of explosives to be placed in our hunting grounds for seismic testing. We will not allow the building of platforms or pipelines or roads. We do not recognize what the government calls Oil Block 22. Our forest homeland is not an oil block, it is our life.

These are our words, our palm-wood spears crossed on the jungle trail, our message to the oil companies: Our land is not for sale.

Please, take action right now to protect the Amazon rainforest and the ancestral home of the Waorani people. Time is running out and there is too much at stake.

Ginger Cassady - Forest Program DirectorIn Solidarity,

Ginger Cassady

Board member of Amazon Frontlines and

Program Director at Rainforest Action Network
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Tara Raghuveer, People’s Action


Friends,

Would you rather be hungry or homeless? That’s the choice that low-income people are forced to make.

Under the administration of Ben Carson, the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, we’ve witnessed $31,000 being spent on office furniture. And on the other hand, little has been done to invest in our public housing infrastructure.

Add your name to the petition now to keep Carson from hurting poor and working people.

Tara Raghuveer
People’s Action

P.S. Here’s the email I sent a few days ago, in case you missed it. It has more information on the implications of Carson’s proposals.

 

Ben Carson’s logic is ridiculous: If the government slashes public assistance, poor folks will pull themselves out of poverty.

This assumes that public assistance is a choice. The fact is that people are poor due to a rigged economy and the ongoing legacy of racial and gender injustice.

Ben Carson is the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He and Donald Trump intend to raise rents and add work requirements for the lowest-income people living in public housing.

In order for people to work and increase their income, they need stability in their lives. And that’s exactly what housing-insecure people lack.

Sign the petition now to demand that poor and working people receive aid without absurd conditions.

Worse is that Carson plans to raise rents on top of work requirements.

Do you know a senior or someone with a disability? A rent increase, even a small one, means choosing between paying rent or putting food on the table. 4.5 million people will be at risk of losing their homes and falling into homelessness if their rents are increased.

People’s Action believes that housing is a human right. We also believe that people deserve good jobs. Let’s work toward an inclusive economy that provides income or jobs for all, rather than a 1% economy that increases inequality.

Add your name to the petition to fully fund HUD and stop this attack on poor and working people.

Tara Raghuveer
People’s Action