Copps Picks New Media Issues Advisor

Chooses New Media Issues Advisor

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS news web editor JOSHUA CINELLI is joining FCC Commissioner MICHAEL J. COPPS' office as Advisor on Media Issues.  CINELLI, who has blogged for the HUFFINGTON POST while a graduate student at CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK's journalism school and worked for the NEW YORK CITY NEWS SERVICE and the alternative weekly PORTLAND MERCURY, also served as Legislative Director for TEXAS Rep. DORA OLIVO (D-27th).

COPPS said, "I am so pleased to have someone of JOSHUA's caliber, talent and deep sense of commitment to serve as my advisor on media issues.  He arrives at a critical time for the future of our country’s media policy.  He and I are both convinced that the opportunity for media reform is now.  We have new leadership and a new sense of direction at the Commission plus a window of opportunity to address the gamut of pressing media issues, including too much media industry consolidation, too little diversity, and too many years of lax public interest oversight.  In addition, I feel passionately about the need to confront the crisis facing broadcast journalism, with slashed news budgets jeopardizing the civic dialogue upon which our democracy relies.  As a journalist who has worked in both traditional and 'new' media, JOSHUA is ideally suited to help craft innovative solutions to ensure that the interests of the American public are being served by all our media."

On JAMILA BESS JOHNSON, who has been serving his office as interim media adviser, COPPS said, "I asked JAMILA to give us a few months help when I became Acting Chairman in January.  Then we asked her to stay several months longer—and she agreed.  She has done an absolutely stellar job.  JAMILA shares my passion for the issues that affect the state of the American media.  Her expertise, her invariably sound judgment and her commitment to the public interest have been invaluable to me in tackling the many challenging issues that we have faced—beginning with those surrounding the DTV transition during my Acting Chairmanship.  She is a wonderful person and a tremendous asset to this Commission.  I am grateful for the opportunity we have had to forge a friendship that I know will last through the years."

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