[Ecommerce] From Free Press: Don't FOX with local news

[Manon Ress]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
Craig Aaron
Communications Director
Free Press
(202) 265-1490
http://www.freepress.net

From: Timothy Karr, Campaign Director [mailto:list@freepress.net]
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 2:39 PM
To: caaron@freepress.net
Subject: Don't FOX with local news

Dear :

Fox News Channel's political agenda is coming to a local television
station near you.

Roger Ailes, the architect behind the right-wing tilt of cable news,
is now remaking 35 local television stations -- broadcasting to
nearly 40 percent of America=92s homes -- in Fox News Channel=92s image.

Tell News Corp. and local stations: =93Don=92t Fox with my local news!=94

Ailes plans to replace local news with the biased infotainment that=92s
a hallmark of Fox News Channel. He has moved oversight of the local
station group to Fox News headquarters in New York. He has flown in
local news personalities for retraining on how to deliver the news
Fox-style.

This month, he replaced station programming with "Geraldo at Large,"
a show produced out of Fox News=92 studios. Other Fox News Channel
programs -- a lineup that includes Bill O=92Reilly and Sean Hannity --
are waiting in the wings.

One thing is certain: With Roger Ailes in charge, local news will
take a turn for the worse.

Media consolidation made Ailes=92 takeover of local news possible. News
Corp. already owns both a Fox and a UPN affiliate in New York, Los
Angeles and Chicago -- the country=92s three biggest markets -- and
other duopolies in six more of the top 20 markets, including Dallas,
Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. (Click here for an interactive map
of Fox-owned stations.)

As I write this, News Corp.'s lobbyists are schmoozing officials in
Washington to further loosen regulations that prohibit one company
from owning even more local news outlets. Instead, we need to break
up the big media conglomerates and get higher quality news and
information in return for free use of the public's airwaves.

As you=92ve proven with Sinclair Broadcast Group, "payola pundit"
Armstrong Williams and the partisan attack on public broadcasting,
mobilized citizens can stop media abuses. Now it=92s time to keep News
Corp. from turning the public airwaves into a mouthpiece for Fox News
Channel.

You can stop the "Fox Effect" on local news by signing our
declaration now.

We will deliver your declaration to the doorsteps of Fox-owned
stations and directly to Fox News headquarters. But we'll also be
organizing, community by community, to pressure federal regulators to
stop Big Media=92s march against local control. We=92re gathering forces
for an upcoming ownership fight at the FCC. To protect local media
from corporate consolidation, millions of Americans need to stand up
and be counted.

Sign the petition now and forward this e-mail to all your friends and
colleagues.

Onward,

Timothy Karr
Campaign Director
Free Press
www.freepress.net

P.S. Visit our "Don't FOX with Local News" campaign.

P.P.S. Read a recent Variety article on Ailes=92 plans to Fox with
local news.

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************************************************
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology
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