Increasingly, the media's failure to provide diverse viewpoints and unbiased information is undermining the strength of our democracy. As more corporate conglomerates buy up independent news outlets, fewer voices and perspectives are able to be heard and the less accountable broadcasters are to the public.
Common Cause is working to ensure that the media meet their obligations to serve the public by promoting diversity, accessibility, and accountability among media corporations and the government agencies that regulate the media.
Read more in our August 2008 report: "Media and Democracy in America Today: A Reform Plan for a New Administration".
Media Ownership
An increasingly concentrated media ownership system has a negative impact on the quality of news and information Americans receive about the nation, the world and their local communities. Common Cause continues to play a lead role in the effort to stop the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from relaxing media ownership rules. In addition, Common Cause is working to help community members own their own media. We are working to allow for more Low Power FM Radio, local, community-run stations that provide an alternative to the commercial broadcasters.
Public Interest Obligations
Common Cause questions whether broadcasters are doing enough in the public interest to justify receiving a free broadcasting license, drawing attention to the issue and asking what they should have to do to be more accountable to the public.
Public Broadcasting
Common Cause founder John Gardner in 1967 assisted in the birth of public broadcasting. He viewed public broadcasting as an entity to "enable us not only to see and hear more vividly, but to understand more deeply."
Common Cause is committed to preserving the vitality and independence of public broadcasting and is waging an ambitious campaign. We are advocating for continued funding of the CPB, for the appointment of independent CPB members who do not bring a biased agenda to the board and for the continuation of hard-hitting unbiased investigative news and other programming on public television.
Network Neutrality
Net neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be able to access any web content they want, post their own content, and use any applications they choose, without restrictions or limitations imposed by their Internet service providers. Large telecommunications and cable companies want to create tiered pricing for content providers to better reach Internet users, thereby drastically changing the ability of individuals and small businesses to compete with larger interests to attract Internet users. Common Cause is fighting the telecommunications industry, fearing that a tiered system would eliminate the level playing field that has allowed for the free market of ideas and increased political involvement that the neutral nature of the Internet has spawned.
Low Power FM Radio
In most cities and towns, radio stations are controlled by a handful of wealthy corporations who tend to put their own profits ahead of the needs of the local communities they serve. But some communities have an alternative to consolidated commercial radio: Low Power FM (LPFM) radio.
LPFM radio stations are used by schools, community groups, churches and nonprofits to broadcast local information to and about their communities. Common Cause has been actively working in support of legislation and regulation that would bring community radio to more people across America.
FCC Reform
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates how we get the news we need to govern ourselves, how we talk to one another over the phone or over the Internet, and whether everyone in the nation has easy and affordable access to the tools necessary to survive and succeed in the 21st century.
However, the FCC itself has recently come under increased scrutiny regarding the processes it uses to make the rules that govern the broadcasting industry. Common Cause is working in coalition with groups like the Media Access Project to propose and advocate for structural reform of the FCC.