October 23 - Election Protection Efforts to Defend the Right to Vote; A Documentary Filmmaker Facing 25 Years for Practicing Journalism; How Consumers Will be the Losers From the $85.4 Billion AT&T / Time Warner Merger

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the growing concern that Donald Trump’s calls to his supporters to go to the polls “in certain neighborhoods” to make sure the election is not stolen, an election he has already claimed will be rigged, will result in voter intimidation across the country from untrained poll-watchers who will show up to challenge voters and in some cases might be armed. Joining us is Kristen Clarke, the President and Executive Director of the national Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law which leads the national nonpartisan Election Protection coalition made up of more than 100 local, state and national partners working to defend the right to vote. We discuss the widespread concern that this election, the first without the Section 5 protection of the Voting Rights Act, will be subject to orchestrated voter suppression, and explain what is being done by the Election Protection coalition to protect voter’s rights when they are confronted by voter intimidation on November 8.

Part 2

Then we are joined in the studio by Deia Schlosberg, a climate journalist, filmmaker and the producer of Josh Fox’s new climate change documentary “How to Let Go of the World and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change”, the third film in the Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning GASLAND series. Deia was arrested for simply filming environmental activists interfering with oil pipelines in North Dakota and is facing 25 years in prison for the crime of practicing journalism, in a case that the Committee to Protect Journalists has called on authorities in North Dakota and Washington “to drop these troubling charges and stop interfering with journalists doing their jobs”.

Part 3

Then finally we examine the proposed $85.4 billion AT&T deal to buy Time Warner, a consolidation of endangered media monopolies reeling from completion from Netflix and Amazon who face declining revenues from advertisers as they try to figure out what changing technology’s role will be in distributing the content they have. Timothy Karr, the Campaign Director for Free Press and SavetheInternet.com joins us to discuss how companies that control the pipe into your home are being eclipsed by innovators and are trying to maximize their monopoly control to continue to milk their customers and will be charging more for worse service in order to pay off the banks who enable these mega-mergers.