Prometheus 6   

What if we had a Democracy and no one showed up?

Today in Salon I was amazed to read that two FCC commisioners were in Atlanta to hold an "unsactioned" hearing on media deregulation sponsored by two "dissident" FCC commisioners on Wednesday of this week. I didn't find this out from Cox Communications' "local" television, radio or newspapers, they didn't report on the event before or after it occured. Promotion of the event was only carried on local college stations WRAS and WRFG (Radio Free Georgia indeed!) and in the local free weekly, "Creative Loafing" (which never made it into the house from the floor of my car this week).

Even right-wing types might have cared to attend, as evidenced by the National Rifle Association's support for Copps and Adelstein's drive to preserve the existing regulations. So why didn't local conservative talk show host Neal Boortz, an avowed libertarian, mention the hearing to his loyal troops? Possibly because his station, WSB-AM, is owned by media giant Cox Communications. Centrist and right-wing Atlantans did not learn of the hearing because their media outlets are owned, in large part, by the self-same Big Media corporations that want the ownership caps relaxed -- which is, of course, the very problem that the dissident commissioners are trying to publicize.