Save Access!!

On May 12, The Santuary for Independent Media in Troy held a day-long media event. A backdrop was made as a workshop in the morning with Eric and many many hands. George Stoney lead a workshop about the history of cable access and why we need to get involved with recent attempts to defeat local franchising. For more information, go to www.saveaccess.orgGeorge Stoney and Red Burns founded the Alternate Media Center at NYU in the 1970s and sent their students out to help local communities negotiate community channels as cable was developing across the US.There was good representation from Ithaca. Many people from around New York are concerned about state telcom policies. To find out more about the struggle against the telcoms, go to http://patv.tv/blog/ for a wonderful discussion about why PEG (public, government and public access) is important. Nick Johnson, former FCC commissioner who was instrumental in initiating access in the 1970s is one of the panelists. If you care about access, don't miss this discussion! It is unfortunate that Free Press, the media reform organization has not made local franchising one of their priorities.