Preserve Community Access Now!

Preserve Community Access Now!

Pass the Community Access Preservation Act - HR 3745, Tammy Baldwin (WI-D), sponsor.

1. Call-to-Action Letter

This is our primary Call-To-Action alert letter.

2. Bill Summary

This is a 1-page summary that simply and clearly explains the bill's four areas of PEG access protection and preservation.  The bill:

a)  Allows negotiated PEG access fees to be used for any PEG access-related purposes;
b)  Ends operators' discriminatory treatment of PEG channels (digital channel slamming & U-Verse Channel 99);
c)  Directs the FCC to study and report on recent states' video franchising legislation impacts on PEG access; and
d)  Defines all video services delivered to the home over wire as "cable", regardless of the transmission protocol used.

3. Sample Support Request Letters to Senators & Representatives

Community media advocates need to send letters to their Senators and Representatives asking them to support the bill - seeking co-sponsors in the House, filing companion legislation in the Senate.  Here are samples.

4. Sample Congressional Letter Requesting FCC Action on ACM's Petition for Declaratory Ruling

Here is Congresswoman Baldwin's letter to the FCC requesting swift action of the ACM's Petition for Declaratory Ruling, along with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's response.  The ACM encourages community media advocates to ask their Senators and Representatives to send similar letters of support to the FCC.

5.  House Appropriations Subcommittee members 9/30/08 Letter to FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin

This is the letter sent by several members of the Subcommittee asking the FCC to look into the matter of placing PEG channels on digital tiers.

6. Sample Thank-you letters to Senators and Representatives

Once Senators and Representatives announce support of the bill, they need to receive thank-you follow up letters from community media advocates.  Here are samples.

7. Sample Supporting Resolution for Local Governing Bodies
The value of PEG access services is widespread, and appreciated by the various levels of local government whose meetings are seen on the channels, and who use the channels for delivering essntial information to their communities.  Here is a sampl resolution they can send to your Congressional delegation asking them to support these PEG access protections.

8. Bill section-by-section analysis

This is a 2-page document, spelling out in more detail, the specific changes required by the bill.  While this is not an essential document for the involvement of the general public in the campaign, it is an essential document for campaign leaders and others who are having ongoing discussions with legislators or the press on this matter.

9. Response to NCTA

DOCUMENTS TO BE GIVEN TO THE SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES IN FACE-TO-FACE MEETINGS

10. The Bill

This is the bill itself - a 4-page pdf.

11. "Assessing the Damage" Harms Survey

This is Alliance's 2008 2-page pdf highlighting the damages done by recent states' video franchising legislation - a set of abuses our advocates should be able to recite from memory.

12. About the Alliance

This is the 1-page document describing the Alliance for Community Media and its mission.

13. The Alliance Public Policy Platform

This is the 2-page document describing the Alliance's public policy platform.  Any Alliance members meeting with Congress to support our position should familiarize themselves with this document.

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION & PRESS REPORTS ON THE CAP ACT

For some entertaining and highly useful information on how the cable and telco industries have been strangling the people's voice, check out the annotated YouTube clips of:

• the January 29, 2008 House Telecommunication Subcommittee Hearing, where Commerce Committee Chairman Dingell and others asked AT&T and Comcast reps why they were mishandling PEG channels; (Alliance testimony from Annie Folger, Midpenisula Community Media Center, Palo Alto, CA); and
• the September 17, 2008 House Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing, where Chairman Serrano and others asked the cable industry to account for these practices, and asked the FCC why it was not enforcing the law requiring equitable treatment of PEG channels (Alliance testimony from Barbara Popovic, Chicago Access Network Television, and Michael Max Knobbe, BronxNet).

Just scrolling down through the YouTube thumbnails and reading the brief captions is a quick way to get a sense of the current life-or-death struggle PEG access faces.

PRESS REPORTS ON THE CAP ACT