Do you wish for different "news"? Posted by mitcka at 11/12/08 10:29 AM

Like many people, I often feel like the news belongs to someone else. For a discussion of consumer news and the activist consumer cosponsored by The Columbia Journalism Review and Consumer Reports check out our conference site!

The things I care about don't seem to be "news" while the things reporters (and their assignment editors) decide to report sometimes just make me laugh. Meanwhile, skilled politicians, lobbyists and corporations assume they can manipulate the news cycle to make sure big decisions that might affect my financial well being occur on days when they can count on reporters to be somewhere else. This week's Federal Communications Commission votes are a case in point.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin scheduled for Election Day a commission vote on a major overhaul of telecommunications fees, one that Consumers Union felt was seriously flawed. No doubt, that overhaul would get little or no coverage this week, despite its potentially broad impact on people who use phones (I guess that would be most of us).

Thanks to organized and vociferous opposition, Martin's commissioners announced that they needed more time and he had to postpone that vote. He did push through votes to approve a big merger between Verizon and Alltel, that we think is bad for competition. Commissioners also approved a proposal to turn over broadcast "white space" (the space between TV channels) to improve wireless communication. Consumers Union supported this vote. This important decision was well covered by the nation's major papers, but not much by broadcasters (who were the major opponent of the proposal).

I used to get really rankled about stuff like this, but things are starting to change. Thanks to bloggers, angry consumer activists, sites designed to help people help themselves, and good search engines, more information gets posted more quickly about more topics. I also recognize that a cadre of professional, paid news reporters is critical to lively citizen journalism, because individuals often cannot afford the costs associated with the kinds of long term investigations that often earn the nation's papers the respect of their readers. And of course, on the net, its sometimes hard to tell the real mad consumers from the professional ads that just seem like mad consumers. Creepy, huh?

What do you think? Consumers Union and Consumer Reports are cosponsoring a discussion on just this topic--Consumer Revolution on the Web--and we hope you will check it out!

The registration deadline is November 14th!

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