Dear Chairman Powell:

The members of the Public Interest, Public Airwaves Coalition are concerned that the Federal Communications Commission's consumer education initiative on "the importance of the digital (DTV) transition" scheduled for Monday, October 4, 2004, does not appear to fully include the interests and concerns of the American public. According to the Commission's own press release regarding the Monday event, not one of the participants represents consumers or the public interest community. Moreover, nearly five years after the FCC posed the question of how television broadcasters should serve the public interest with their increased digital capacity, the FCC remains silent.

A public education campaign that fails to include the public perspective and the public interest is a charade. As the Commission begins to inform the public about the momentous change in television that the digital transition will bring, it has the obligation to tell Americans not only what is available from a technical point of view, but also how digital television will serve them. The Commission needs to inform Americans how digital television has the potential to ensure that Americans have greater access to public affairs programming especially related to local civic and electoral affairs. The Commission needs to make that potential a reality.

We strongly urge the Commission to include the public interest in any discussion of the digital television transition and would be pleased to provide a representative from the Public Interest, Public Airwaves Coalition to address these issues. More importantly, the Commission needs to conclusively and expeditiously determine how the public interest will be served by the digital transition.

Sincerely,

Meredith McGehee
President and Executive Director
Alliance for Better Campaigns

Jon Rintels
Executive Director
Center for Creative Voices in Media

Jeff Chester
Executive Director
Center for Digital Democracy

Chellie Pingree
President
Common Cause

Angela Campbell
Professor of Law
Institute for Public Representation,
Georgetown University Law Center

Timothy Karr
Executive Director
MediaChannel.org

Gloria Tristani
Managing Director
Office of Communication of
the United Church of Christ, Inc.

Gene Karpinski
Executive Director
U.S. PIRG

Katherine Grincewich
Assistant General Counsel
of Catholic Bishops