Jon Rintels is the executive director and the founder for the Center for Creative Voices in Media, a group that advocates against media consolidation and censorship. Rintels is a former attorney and award-winning screenwriter who says media conglomeration of the last several years is having a negative impact on those who write for television and film.
“All of this is based on our strong belief in free speech and free expression,” says Rintels. “Overregulation of the airwaves to protect children from so-called indecent content has backfired.”
On the October 20th edition of WINA’s Charlottesville–Right Now, he told host Coy Barefoot that local news suffers when corporations buy up several radio stations in a community. Rintels also commended WINA for its commitment to local news after Rob Graham broke in with a news report live from the scene. Click here for archive tape here recorded after the interview.
Thanks, Sean, for capturing for this. When the host cut away from our interview to go to a live local reporter on the scene of a police manhunt for an armed and dangerous fugitive, it was a perfect illustration of what I had been talking about: the benefits of local media covering local news.