On Thursday February 4, the Senate held hearings on the potential merger of Comcast and NBC Universal. During the hearings Senator Al Franken warned that we should be nervous about the companies that own our media and we should be particularly nervous when one company owns both the means to produce programs and the pipes that deliver those same programs. Senator Franken later went on to detail his dealings with Comcast CEO Brian Roberts on the merger, depicting either extreme dishonesty or incompetence.

In a Youtube video of the senate hearing Franken explains:

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This was originally a comment on the thread about the Daily News articles criticizing the way the city has approached the stimulus proposals in the ARRA.

I wanted to repost this as a standalone because I believe this was one instance of Philadelphia getting it right.

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This year I had the honor of working with Media Mobilizing Project (www.mediamobilizing.org) in their successful efforts at organizing the Digital Justice Coalition, a citywide coalition of Philadelphians ranging from PhillyFIGHT to SEIU to the Taxi Workers Union to the Public School Notebook, to come together to address the city’s digital divide (one of the worst in the nation.)

FROM THE MEDIA MOBILIZING PROJECT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
6/13/08

Press contacts:
Todd Wolfson (MMP): 215.990.3702
Gwen Shaffer: 267.475.1441

The Future of Philadelphia's Wireless Internet Initiative:
A Public Forum

When: Wednesday, June 18, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Tuttleman Learning Center, Room 105,
Corner of 13th St. and Montgomery Ave. Temple University

Panelists Include:
Mark Rupp, Principle, Boathouse Communications
Beth McConnell, Executive Director, Media and Democracy Coalition
Karl Garcia, Technical Staff, Google's Wireless network, Mountainview, Calif.
Greg Goldman, CEO of Wireless Philadelphia
Phuong Ninh, Philadelphia Student Union's Youth Leadership Team
Bill Green City Councilman-At Large
Invited, representative from the Nutter administration