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Cynthia McKinney on Internet and Media

We live in what has been termed the Information Age. Every day, most Americans interact with or absorb some form of mass communications media -- television, radio, print, or the internet. The owners of these outlets, and the digital pipes and airwaves through which they are delivered into our homes, have a significant impact on the values, lifestyles, and points of view the American people are exposed to. And because information is easily shared and accessed, issues of privacy and information ownership will continue to demand our attention. This topic includes information about candidate positions on: media consolidation, net neutrality, telecom immunity, intellectual property, rural broadband and the digital divide, censorship, internet taxes, and media literacy.

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The issues

  NewCynthia McKinney strongly supports rules limiting the number of media outlets (newspapers, TV or radio stations, etc.) a single corporation can own within individual media markets.

From the 2008 Green Party Platform: "The Green Party intends to end corporate rule and create real democracy.... We must reclaim our sovereign right to define corporations, not just regulate them. We propose the following.... Protect and strengthen the people's rights and control over their Commons, such as forests, water, air, radio frequencies, data formats, internet protocol, and electronic distribution, and to defend these public resources from corporate commodification."

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From the 2004 Green Party Platform: "The Green Party supports returning ownership and control of the electromagnetic spectrum to the public. We urge the public to reclaim the public airwaves. The privatization of the broadcast airwaves - one of our most important taxpayer assets - has caused serious deformations of our politics and culture."

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  NewCynthia McKinney supports the principle of equal access to internet bandwidth known as “network neutrality.”

Voted YES on an amendment to add a new section to Title VII of the Communication Act of 1934 entitled "Network Neutrality." The amendment was defeated 269-152.

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  NewCynthia McKinney strongly opposes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies who cooperated in warrantless, government-ordered surveillance of Americans.

"Last week, Nancy Pelosi helped deal a double blow to Democratic Party grassroots supporters and to the U.S. Constitution itself. On Thursday, June 19, George Bush got another $162 billion from the Congress for war and occupation. On Friday, June 20, Nancy helped Bush give immunity to telecommunications companies that helped him spy on us!"

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  NewCynthia McKinney strongly opposes current restrictions on the exchange of intellectual property and copyrighted material in the digital realm.

From the 2004 Green Party Platform: "Open-source software is necessary to achieve personal, cultural, and organizational security in the face of technological threats brought by corporations and individual criminals. Government has a vital role in breaking up software monopolies, not so much by filing antitrust suits, but by buying nothing but open systems. The U.S. Government and the larger states are buyers large enough to influence the computer and software systems through their purchasing. It should be illegal for a government agency to create and store information vital to its operations in a format it doesn't control. Governments should always consider storing information with open-source software and in-house staff instead of only commercial systems, vendors and software. One way to achieve this would be to add a virtual bid for in-house open source deployment whenever a software purchase goes out for bid."

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From the 2004 Green Party Platform: "The Green Party opposes patenting or copyrighting lifeforms, algorithms, DNA, colors or commonly-used words and phrases. We support broad interpretation and ultimate expansion of the Fair Use of copyrighted works. We support open source and copyleft models in order to promote the public interest and the spirit of copyright.... [We support] protection of software (free or proprietary) by means of the copyright. We strongly oppose granting of software patents. Mathematical algorithms are discovered, not invented, by humans; therefore, they are not patentable. The overwhelming majority of software patents cover algorithms and should never have been awarded, or they cover message formats of some kind, which are essentially arbitrary. Format patents only exist to restrain competition, and the harm falls disproportionately on programmers who work independently or for the smallest employers."

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