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Wednesday, 21 June 2006 04:28 |
| Wally Bowen
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By MEEGAN KELLY
Asheville is entering a cable-telephone company duopoly, where big companies intend to change how the Internet operates, Wally Bowen told party-goers last Thursday, as the Mountain Area Information Network celebrated its 10th anniversary at Jubilee! Community.
MAIN is a non-profit community network that provides Internet access and web services in 14 western North Carolina counties. It also funds other community projects, such as WPVM (103.5 FM), the Blue Ridge Web Market and CarolinaHoy.org
Bowen, MAIN??s executive director, spoke to the live audience of about
60 people, as well as listeners of WPVM in a broadcast of his Media
Reform Report, explaining what is happening with the group??s attempt to
create a more democratic media.
According to Bowen, the Internet has always operated as an open
platform, meaning whatever speed one can afford is the speed that an
individual crosses the platform. The duopoly intends to partition off
that open platform into a fast lane and a slow lane.
?®This is unprecedented. The Internet has never been carved up like this,?∆ Bowen said.
?®Network
neutrality?∆ ?? an attempt to maintain the open platform of the Internet
?? would deny companies the ability to partition it, Bowen explained.
?®The good news is that we have very powerful allies like Google, eBay,
Amazon and even Wal-Mart. But, our Republican Congress appears to be
ready to certify this duopoly control. This is extremely, extremely
important. How are we going to get around this if Congress doesn??t
enforce network neutrality??∆ Bowen asked.
One alternative Bowen suggested was to create a strategic market
bypass, whereby Internet users migrate to wireless and leave telephone
and cable companies.
If not, the duopoly will lead to serious consequences for small
businesses, he added. New businesses that begin as small ideas and
could potentially explode on the Internet will not be able to innovate
because they cannot afford the costs of doing so.
But the real danger comes as a censorship and privacy threat, Bowen said.
?®With the NSA eavesdropping scandal, we now know that the telephone
companies are cooperating with Big Brother and we saw this [censorship]
happen with the Dixie Chicks. They were banned from commercial radio
because companies have the power to do that,?∆ he said.
Besides the partitioning of the Internet and the aftermath it would
create, Bowen also expressed concern about new cross-ownership laws
that will affect the future of media systems.
?®New media ownership rules will allow media companies to consolidate
more, get bigger and own more, if you can believe that. Can you imagine
Sinclair Broadcasting Group, who owns WLOS, also owning the
Citizen-Times? That will be possible if these new laws are approved by
the FCC,?∆ Bowen said.
A final issue
that MAIN is currently tackling is a battle for public access
television. After working hard for 10 years negotiating a franchise and
locating grant money, MAIN will launch URTV, a public access station,
on Aug. 1, he said.
?®It will be open, free speech. It will be protected space, just like
Pack Square. It is space that belongs to all of us, for the
community,?∆ Bowen said.
A new law, the Video Service Competition Act, threatens to eliminate
much of the funding for franchises like URTV, Bowen said. The
legislation, now in the North Carolina General Assembly, is being
pushed by telephone and cable companies to eliminate negotiations with
local governments to deliver cable TV service, he noted.
Asheville will be the fifth community in North Carolina to go live on
public TV, following Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro and Chapel Hill.
?®If this act is passed, communities like Waynesville, Hendersonville
and Brevard will never be able to get public access. We are giving our
public rights away,?∆ Bowen said.
He urged listeners to support public television and PEG funding, which
refers to three types of channels ?? public, supporting access for the
community; education, for schools and colleges; and government,
covering local government, city council meetings and public hearings.
?®Not only should
we preserve what we have and enable (it) to grow, but we should ensure
adequate funding for others,?∆ Bowen said.
Bowen urged audience members to attend the upcoming Town Meeting on the
Future of the Media, where the public will have the opportunity to tell
FCC Commissioners how well the media is serving its community, as the
FCC prepares to review federal rules on media ownership.
?®The eyes of the nation will be upon us here in Asheville,?∆ Bowen said.
Past town meetings have been held in six cities since 2004, most
recently in Norfolk, Va.
?®The FCC commissioners expect and are prepared for about 500 people to
attend,?∆ Bowen said. Panelists will include Virgil Smith, publisher of
the Asheville Citizen-Times; as well as Ken Falyer, general manager of
Clear Channel Asheville. Since it will be an ?®open mic for local
testimony,?∆ MAIN will sponsor workshops to help prepare citizens who
would like to speak at the meeting.
?®The meeting is really a spectacle. The walls are covered with suits.
BellSouth alone has 12 lobbyists attending and $100,000 dollars
greasing the wheels. Please tell your friends and neighbors,?∆ Bowen
encouraged.
?®Local media is how a community knows itself. It??s how they solve
problems. It??s how they get to know each other. It??s what changes
people from passive spectators into active citizens,?∆ Bowen said.
After the
meeting, Bowen, in a brief interview with the Daily Planet, expounded
upon his ideas about local media, mentioning media scholar and activist
Robert McChesney and German social theorist, Jurgen Habermas. In 2002,
McChesney, president of Free Press, visited Asheville for a series of
talks on media and democracy.
?®There are people like me, like all of us, who are working in other states to fight this,?∆ Bowen said.
Bowen also
expressed interest in Habermas, a philosopher remembered for his view
of the public sphere, and tried to explain the general idea behind his
theory.
?®He thought that, in public spaces ?? physical and electronic ?? we bump
into people from different perspectives and that is how we refine our
own ideas,?∆ said Bowen. ?®Take a vibrant look at 17th century London,
with the rise of the taverns, coffeehouses, journals and pamphlets ??
and you can see how that was the juice and energy for growth.?∆
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