Press Releases

Washington – As Sinclair Broadcasting Group—the largest owner of local television stations in the U.S.—orders its nationwide affiliates to preempt regular programming to air an anti-Kerry documentary, Free Press is releasing a new report (available at www.sinclairwatch.org) that cites several Sinclair business practices that are reprehensible at best and illegal at worst.

Washington – Free Press launched a comic web-based flash animation today (www.debatingforratings.com) that underscores the media’s failings in covering the 2004 presidential election and the overall decline in quality journalism. “Media’s role in elections has been reduced to a barrage of political ads and pundits talking about polls, strategy, spin and superficialities.

[Open Letter Submitted to Members of Senate Commerce Committee from Free Press and Consumer Federation of America] Dear Senator,

Dearborn, MI – Over 300 citizens joined Federal Communications Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps at last night’s Town Meeting on the Future of Media at the Ford Center of the Performing Arts in Dearborn.

Washington – Over 500 people waited in long lines for an opportunity to voice their opposition to government policies favoring big media corporations Wednesday night. The Monterey Herald, under the headline “Commissioners get an earful from public,” wrote, “It was a bad night for Big Media ...

Washington – Federal Communications Commissioner Chairman Michael Powell says a “scheduling conflict” will prevent him from attending today’s official FCC Localism hearing in Monterey, California. Powell himself called for the hearing – one of six nationwide – after millions of Americans decried last year’s attempt to gut media ownership rules.

(Washington) - Calling it "an historic victory toward protecting diverse, independent and local media," Free Press today applauded the decision by the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the Federal Communications Commission's dramatic loosening of media ownership rules. The court's ruling in the case, Prometheus Radio Project v.

Washington, DC – National and local advocates today called on California citizens to make their voices heard on behalf of diversity and local control in broadcasting at a public hearing scheduled by the Federal Communications Commission in Monterey. The FCC announced today that the hearing will be held on July 21 at the Monterey Conference Center, 1 Portola Plaza.

The coalition to Stop Commercial Exploitation of Children (SCEC) and the media reform organization Free Press today launched a national public outreach campaign to build support for Senator Harkin’s [D-IA] Healthy Lifestyles and Prevention legislation.

Washington – Federal Communications Commissioner Chairman Michael Powell announced today that he will not attend the official FCC hearing scheduled for tomorrow, May 26th, in Rapid City, South Dakota. Powell called for this hearing as part of a series of nationwide public hearings after millions of Americans decried last year’s gutting of media ownership rules.