Lisa English of Ruminate This is on top of an important story the mainstream press needs to pick up on. The head of the Center for Public Integrity has charged that media companies are essentially buying political favor through hundreds and thousands of fancy all expense paid trips being given to politicians and FCC employees, respectively. Lisa and Democracy Now point out that the FCC, under Michael Powell's leadership, is aiming to remove the last vestiges of regulation on our media. The bottom line will be a media that is owned by very few -- and the likelihood of their corporate agenda reflecting the liberal ideology is nil. They see political endorsements on the horizen with further consolidation and deregulation, as well as a host of other problems.

Columbia Law School yesterday held a public hearing on the Federal Communications Commission's plans to loosen or scrap all remaining media ownership rules. The hearing was at the instigation of unions and media activists, originally organized by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the Writers Guild of America, the Center for Digital Democracy, the Media Access Project and others.

The six rules under review include:

*the ban on broadcasters owning television stations that reach more than 35 per cent of the country * the prohibition of mergers between the four largest TV networks

• and the prohibition from owning a newspaper and broadcast outlet in the same market.

If those rules are scrapped, a single CEO could theoretically own all of the largest media outlets in the country. The event featured all-day panels where media activists, public interest advocates, representatives from think tanks and Hollywood guild members outnumbered industry reps like Viacom's Dennis Swanson, Fox Entertainment Group's Ellen Agress and David Poltrack of CBS.

You can listen to the tapes from the Columbia Law School hearing here. You can download a free copy of the Center for Public Integrity's report, Off The Record: What Media Corporations Don’t Tell You About Their Legislative Agendas here.