2006

Free Press and US PIRG partnered in the state of Virginia to conduct a comprehensive campaign to build a statewide network of partners, including the League of Women Voters, the ACLU of Virginia, the Poverty Law Center, the state NAACP, and the Virginia Organizing Project. They worked to conduct education and outreach efforts with statewide & local groups and convene individual meetings.

Member organizations contacted their email lists urging members to send comments to the FCC regarding the media ownership proceeding. Among some of the individuals whom MDC organizers contacted to co-author opinion editorials were professors, media experts, and bloggers of all political stripes.

Throughout the campaign, Free Press & US PIRG worked to create and disseminate educational materials and conduct media outreach with Op-eds, letters to the editor, earned media, and several editorial board meetings. Letters to the editor ran in two papers: the Fredricksburg Free-Lance Star and the Gainesville Times. Before the 2006 campaign kicked off, Free Press had held an unofficial FCC Hearing in Norfolk, Virginia.

In coordination with MDC’s national day of press on October 19 2006, Virginia partners released the How Bigger Media Hurts Virginia report and fact sheet.