Sample Letter to the FCC on Children's Educational Programming

Dear FCC Commissioners,

I am a resident of __________, Michigan and recently found out about the TV Licensing Renewal process here in our area. I also found out about the requirements of local TV stations to run a minimum of 3 hours a week programming that would qualify as educational for children. I was glad to discover that you have these requirements, as I believe it is important to have programming for children which is educational and provides positive messages.

Then I discovered what our local stations have submitted with your office as fulfilling those requirements and I was astonished. I can not understand how some of these programs, particularly shows like Under the Helmet and all the Disney programs on our ABC affiliate can qualify as educational programming.

I would like to see more enforcement of these requirements. I also would like to see some restrictions on commercials that run during these programs, as a study by the Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy shows that the bulk of commercials are for junk food or fast food. http://www.mediamouse.org/griid/pdfs/reports/one_week_study.pdf. Maybe, more time could be devoted to airing local Public Service Announcements. This might be an incentive for parents to watch these children's educational program with their kids.

I urge you to consider stronger requirements for local TV stations to provide adequate programming and news coverage in order for me to make an informed vote. I have enclosed a set of standards that I and many others in this community have developed, which I think are reasonable for the TV stations to implement.

Thank you for considering my concerns and I hope that this leads to better TV programming on the broadcast stations in my area.

Respectfully,

Address

 

Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy (GRIID)
711 Bridge St. NW
Grand Rapids, MI
49504

616-459-4788x122 (phone)
616-459-3970 (fax)

www.griid.org

The contents of this page are also available in a PDF version: Sample Letter to FCC.

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