2006

Leading our work on the ground in Florida is Florida PIRG, a public interest advocacy organization. Florida PIRG advocates developed an outreach plan to build a statewide coalition of organizations that have a stake in media reform issues. The coalition includes civil rights, women’s, environmental, student, labor, senior, family and other local constituencies.

One of the most successful elements in Florida PIRG’s campaign was their press outreach and, specifically, their op-ed strategy. Florida organizers distributed op-eds in support of net neutrality. MDC’s net neutrality and ownership campaigns received coverage in The Gainesville Sun, the Tampa Tribune, and the Tallahassee Democrat.

In coordination with MDC’s national day of press on October 19 2006, Florida PIRG organized a press conference at the Capital Press Center in Tallahassee to release How Bigger Media Hurts Florida (read the press release and a two-page fact sheet on the reports findings). Speakers included Ben Wilcox, Executive Director of Common Cause, Andy Opel, assistant professor of communications at Florida State University, and Rich Templin of the Florida AFL-CIO. Nine reporters attended the press conference, including the local Associated Press, several local papers, and a Florida public radio reporter.

For months, Florida PIRG worked with FCC staff and Free Press staff to coordinate an official or an unofficial FCC hearing in the state of Florida. The FCC held an official FCC hearing in the Tampa-St. Petersburg region of Florida on April 30. A number of large membership groups, such as the AFL-CIO, Common Cause, and the Florida Consumer Action Network, along with a number of smaller groups collaborated with Florida PIRG, Consumers Union and Free Press in conducting outreach in advance of the hearing.