Media ownership and control

It's a big problem: More and more news outlets are owned by fewer and fewer corporate conglomerates that spend less and less time on real, hard-hitting news coverage. We know what happens as a result: Iraq intelligence goes unquestioned, secret spying programs go unscrutinized, corporate power goes unchallenged, and our ability to function as a democracy takes a big hit.

The Bush administration is now pushing to allow even MORE media consolidation—and we need to fight back.1 To kick off the fight, our friends at the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights are holding a unique online forum to prepare us all with the facts and arguments we'll need to win. It'll include luminaries like talk show host Tavis Smiley and media diversity hero FCC Commissioner Michael Copps—plus questions from people watching online.

Can you participate in this Friday's online forum on media diversity?

What: Online forum—"Why Media Diversity Matters."
When: This Friday, June 29, at 12 p.m. Eastern
Where: On the web
RSVP: To see event details, and sign up for an email reminder, click here:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=2686&id=10618-2956400-G9QkbK&t=1
The media will be covering this event—and other FCC Commissioners will be watching to see what comes of it—so it's important that there is a large turnout and lots of great questions.

Also participating will be Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, LCCR President Wade Henderson, NOW President Kim Gandy, and others. Live audiences will also gather in Denver and Washington, D.C. to watch and take part.

We wanted to make sure you knew about this event because of your previous activism on media issues. Thanks for all you do as we fight for a better media landscape.
–Adam Green, MoveOn.org Civic Action
Wednesday, June 27th, 2007


Sources:

"The Next Big Fight Over Media Ownership," The Nation, June 20, 2006
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?pid=93919

CSU Progress for Latino Grads

Dan Weintraub reports
The diversity machine
One of the great untold stories of the past decade is the rapid rise of the California State University system as an elevator for moving ethnic minorities into the middle class. While a lot of attention has been paid to the end of affirmative action at the University of California, the CSU has quietly become an engine for ethnic upward mobility.
Since 1996, the percentage of bachelor's degrees granted to minorities has increased from 45 percent to 56 percent, based on the ethnicity students report to the universities. In 2005, the CSU granted about 59,200 degree to students who reported an ethnicty. Of those, 32,900 went to non-whites, including Latinos.
The number of bachelor's degrees granted to Latinos has soared from 7,431 in 1996 to 13,153 in 2005.

http://www.sacbee.com/insider/