[Peace] Need help! (Democracy Now! Petition)

[pspringe at uiuc.edu]

Can I sign the petition online? Can I authorize you to sign 
it for me, or my wife? I´m out of the country until July 13.

Greg Springer

---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2004 16:19:28 -0500
>From: "Randall Cotton" <recotton at earthlink.net>  
>Subject: [Peace] Need help! (Democracy Now! Petition)  
>To: <peace at lists.groogroo.com>
>
>Hi all,
>
>I've been working on getting UPTV to broadcast Democracy 
Now! on
>Champaign/Urbana's cable-TV system. This would be on 
channel 6, Urbana
>Public Television (UPTV) and ideally, DN! would be 
broadcast live at 7AM
>every weekday. I've been keeping AWARE folks up to date on 
my efforts and
>they have endorsed this project at AWARE meetings and have 
also approved
>funding (if necessary) for up to $350 (that would be the 
maximum cost needed
>to implement this proposal for the first year).
>
>But I need folks to help me with a petition (either by just 
signing it
>yourself or by signing other folks up) to help get this 
going.
>
>The petition reads:
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
>We, the undersigned residents of the Champaign/Urbana area, 
thank the Urbana
>Public Television (UPTV) Commission for considering the 
acquisition of Free
>Speech TV (FSTV) and regular broadcasts of "Democracy Now" 
from FSTV, and
>
>We strongly encourage the commission to vote in favor of 
making FSTV
>available for retransmission on UPTV and to broadcast the 
live feed for
>"Democracy Now!" every weekday at 7AM.
>------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
>
>And I'm hoping to get at least 200 signatures by Monday, 
July 12th, when the
>UPTV Commission has their next meeting.
>
>You can sign the petition yourself at the AWARE table for 
Taste of
>Champaign/Urbana (which starts 5PM today and runs through 
the weekend). I
>also plan to have it available at the AWARE table at 
Boardman's Art Theater
>during Fahrenheit 911's run (the film starts today, of 
course, and I'll be
>there at the 7:30 show with petition in-hand). I'll also 
have it at AWARE
>meetings and other gatherings.
>
>And please reply to me if you're interested in signing 
folks up yourself
>(that would help a lot and I'd really appreciate it) - I'll 
get you blank
>copies of the petition.
>
>If you're curious about all this, but want to know more, 
read on...
>
>You may or may not know this, but Democracy Now! 
(democracynow.org on the
>web) does indeed have accompanying video. While it was born 
as a strictly
>audio program for radio, for some time now DN! has been 
broadcasting as a
>full-blown video program. Usually, the video is just of Amy 
and any guests
>she has in the studio, but increasingly there's also video 
footage of
>newsmakers, speeches and documentaries.
>
>Of course, that's not the only reason to get DN! available 
on UPTV. While
>you can hear DN! on WEFT, 90.1 FM at 4PM on weekdays, the 
program is
>actually produced at 7AM central time, so it's 9 hours old 
by the time it is
>rebroadcast on WEFT. My proposal is to broadcast it LIVE as 
it happens on
>cable channel 6, 7AM every weekday  morning. In addition, 
many people are
>unable to listen to Democracy Now! on WEFT because it 
broadcasts during
>working hours. Finally, having Democracy Now! available on 
cable-TV would
>make it easy for people to record the program using a VCR 
or DVR (Digital
>Video Recorder - e.g. Tivo) and more accessible for folks 
who don't often
>listen to the radio. I believe many folks may discover DN! 
for the first
>time by accident just by flipping through their cable 
channels and anything
>that makes independent, alternative, non-profit news and 
analysis more
>accessible to the general population can only accomplish 
good things.
>
>There are already over 100 public-access cable-TV stations 
across the
>country that broadcast DN!, so this isn't exactly a bold 
new precedent.
>Check out:
>
>http://democracynow.org/stations.pl?
op=fullsearch&broadcast=tv
>
>to see a complete list.
>
>But I do need help. In particular, I feel I need to put 
together a petition
>to influence the UPTV Commission (the body that 
governs/advises UPTV). I've
>already made a proposal to the UPTV Commission at their 
most recent meeting
>to acquire broadcasting rights for "Free Speech TV", which 
will, in turn
>allow them to broadcast Democracy Now! (which is one of 
Free Speech TV's
>programs). They'll be considering my proposal at their next 
meeting on July
>12th. It's not a certainty that they'll vote to approve 
this proposal. I
>hope to have 200 signatures by then (and more after that) 
to help influence
>the commission.
>
>Feel free to reply to this message (but please don't 
include the whole peace
>list) if you'd like to know more. Or you can contact me by 
phone at
>722-8470.
>
>Thanks =8-)
>R
>
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