The FCC has taken recent action that threatens democracy and a free press.

Last week, according to National Journal Live, the FCC announced "...it has voted to move forward with media ownership rules that would ease restrictions on owning newspapers, TV, or radio stations in the same markets."

The Free Press Action Fund, now accepting donations to fight this assault on our free press, sees the "new" rules as almost identical to those proposed during the Bush administration.

Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project, which brought the case in 2008, says "The public understands that excessive concentration of media ownership is bad for democracy, so we expect to convince the FCC to take a stronger position in the end."

Tell the FCC the public wants more freedom of the press - not more media consolidation.

We, the undersigned, support Media Access Project's case against easing restrictions on cross ownership of media outlets within the same market.

We agree with  Schwartzman;s statement "...that excessive concentration of media ownership is bad for democracy..."

The  latest FCC action serves to repeat those of the last administration that were rejected by the public, Congress, and the courts, said Free Press President  Craig Aaron, insisting that  "The FCC "should be working to remedy the mistakes of past administrations - not repeating them."

Therefore we request that the FCC work to strengthen an independent press and take a stronger stand against media consolidation.

Thank you for your consideration of this important issue.