roundtable: Re: What Public Interest Initiatives to Support?

roundtable: Re: What Public Interest Initiatives to Support?

Re: What Public Interest Initiatives to Support?

Andrew Blau (blau@clark.net)
Wed, 1 Feb 1995 18:01:12 -0500 

Date: Wed, 1 Feb 1995 18:01:12 -0500
Message-Id: <ab5551a305021004c6d1@[168.143.0.233]>
To: roundtable@cni.org
From: Andrew Blau <blau@clark.net>
Subject: Re: What Public Interest Initiatives to Support?


Last week, Hans Klein asked:

>Where do we direct our voices?  How do we affect
>activities in Washington?  In particular, are there any public interest
>initiatives under discussion? ...   What opportunities are foreseen?

In partial answer to this, check out a new report from Benton 
Foundation's Communications Policy Project simply titled "What's Going 
On."  The briefing summarizes the current political terrain in Congress, 
the Administration, the FCC and among the states, and draws conclusions 
for what it means for nonprofits in the months ahead.

It's available at our Web site (http://cdinet.com/benton).  You can also
point your gopher to cdinet.com and open the benton subdirectory, or use
ftp.cdinet.com.  Finally, you can get hardcopy from Benton at the address
below.

The report was written by veteran journalist Christopher Conte, who
formerly covered national affairs for the Wall Street Journal and the
National Journal.  Conte interviewed people in the public interest
community, on the Hill, in the Administration, and elsewhere to gauge the
current political environment and identify where the opportunities for
public interest activity lie this year.

The report concludes that nonprofits and public interest groups will have
to fight to hold a place at the national negotiating table that was won
last year, but just as importantly, they should expand their efforts at 
the state and local levels, where the most promising opportunities will be.
They should use the planning processes that almost a third of the states
are engaged in to promote public interest outcomes among state legislators,
public utility commissions, and governors' offices.  And they should expand
their efforts to build grassroots expectations for noncommercial services
by becoming producers of content and users of the systems that are
available today.

The report is intended to stimulate discussion and doesn't pretend to be
the final word.  I hope the participants in this list find it an engaging
snapshot of the state of play as of late January.

Regards,

-Andrew

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  Andrew Blau                                             blau@benton.org
  Director
  Communication Policy Project                   http://cdinet.com/benton
  Benton Foundation
  1634 Eye St., NW, 12th Fl.                             202.638.5770 (v)
  Washington, DC  20006                                  202.638.5771 (f)

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