MILLION DOLLAR AD BLITZ TO KILL NET NEUTRALITY ~ SAVE THE INTERNET

On Tuesday morning, an AT&T-funded front group, Americans for Prosperity, announced a $1.4 million advertising blitz to try to convince Americans that the FCC is plotting to "take over the Internet." Last week, the FCC simply proposed to “reclassify” aspects of broadband under Title II of the Telecommunications Act to better advance its goals of bridging the digital divide and safeguarding the free and open Internet. But AFP is spinning this into, laughably and somewhat ironically, a “government takeover.” During yesterday’s press conference, AFP trotted out Grover Norquist, the right-wing hit man perhaps best known for threatening to “drown the government in a bathtub,” to put his stamp on their cause.




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TAKE ACTION: SAVE THE INTERNET

A new bill has been introduced in U.S. House that would stop Comcast, Verizon and AT&T from controlling what you do, and where you go online.

In 2006, 1.6 million people stopped mighty phone and cable companies from gutting Net Neutrality. In 2007, more than a quarter-million people sent comments to the FCC and opened up cell-phone networks to user choice and innovation.



This year, we're going to stop Internet blocking and censorship once and for all. Learn more about the Internet Freedom Preservation Act

JOIN THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR MEDIA REFORM--ONLINE

The National Conference for Media Reform is for anyone who is concerned about the state of our media and committed to working for change. This energizing weekend from January 12-14, presents ideas and strategies for winning the fight for better media and connects you with thousands of media reformers from across the country. The conference opens today with 3000 people who have traveled to Memphis to listen to over 250 speakers and attend their choice of 100 panels and workshops. If you care about media and can't leave your desk or office log on and watch streaming live video of the opening plenaries with Bill Moyers and Jesse Jackson, and closing plenary with Jane Fonda. You can also view the keynote session with Congressman Ed Markey who introduced the Net Neutrality bill and chairs the Subcommittee on Telecom and the Internet, actress Gina Davis and FreePress founder Robert McChesney. Tonight watch the Memphis Music Concert and rally streamed live on the Internet. Be sure to check out their blog over the weekend as well.

Be sure to take advantage of :

Downloadable audio of hundreds of panels and workshops
Live Blogging
Photographs of Conference on Flickr
YouTube footage of Conference taken by participants

DON'T LAY OFF NOW--

Make Net Neutrality Priority 1 for 2007. There's little to no discussion of what net neutrality is on regular broadcast news. Because of this the Free Press initiative "SavetheInternet Coalition" was born in April 2006 and byseveral months later, in July, over 1 MILLION people had signed the petition to maintain our Internet freedom. By September the public stood together on Net Neutrality and the anti-net neutrality Bill that passed through Senate stalled.

Net Neutrality ensures that any citizen can view the smallest website or blog as easily as they can view a large corporation's website, preventing phone and Internet companies like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon from charging additional fees or making it very difficult to navigate and load the websites you want to see and read. Only the big payers would get the fast "broadband" lane. The best way to understand net neutrality is to take 5 minutes and watch this new video. If you want to continue to have a free and open Internet (the way it is right now) then you you owe it to yourself to understand the principles of Net Neutrality before these companies spend enough on lobbying Congress to take away our free and participatory aspect of the Internet. If they do that, they take away our voices too. The Internet is an incredible Democratic resource for every citizen. We can't let the Internet become this generation's TV and Radio—as citizens will lose our power. Take notice --watch the video.

VOICES SELECT | ADVOCACY |

Net Neutrality Resurgence
COANEWS is involved in the production and distribution of a new highly charged video alerting people to an upcoming “lame duck” congressional push to remove the all important Net Neutrality. If you not familiar with the issue you can learn more here: (http://savetheinternet.com).

The basic idea is that big Internet providers want to be able to turn the Internet into more of a cable system where they control what content you get at what speeds. Now that the elections are over un-elected congressmen can pass unpopular bills (like those removing net neutrality) before they leave office. It’s called a “lame duck” session — what's "Lame Duck"