CHICAGO MEDIA ACTION

3411 W. Diversey Avenue / Chicago IL 60647

February 21, 2003

Daniel J. Schmidt

President and Chief Executive Officer, WTTW-TV

Window To The World Communications, Inc (WWCI)

5400 North Saint Louis Avenue

Chicago, Illinois 60625-4698

Email % RWEINGARD@networkchicago.com

Renee Weingard, Assistant to the President

Dear Mr. Schmidt,

Chicago Media Action (CMA, formerly Chicago Progressive Media Working Group) is still very interested in meeting with you and WWCI producers to establish evenings of televised forums on issues deemed important by a number of local community organizations representing working class people.

A copy of our original January 1, 2003, Express Mail request is at

www.chicagomediaaction.org.

Your stated reasons for not meeting in early January were perhaps valid at the time. Happily, the perceived obstacles should now be gone.

During our follow-up phone call on January 6, Ms. Renee Weingard said you would not meet with us because our suggested forums "just didn't seem feasible. ... We're sorry. Its not going to work out for us. There are new 'budget counts,' and there is a freeze on new programming."

Your written response came January 15 in an email that simply said the

sample lead-in documentaries we provided were outdated.

The "'budget counts'" plea became moot two days after our phone call, when the John C. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced it was giving WWCI a new $500,000 grant. Unless you allocate that money to something else, more money is now available for programming.

We understand your concern that programming be current. If you feel our

sample award-winning documentaries are not timely for the urgent first

forum on Iraq, rest assured that we and your staff can quickly identify

newer appropriate lead-in materials.

The forum on Iraq is badly needed, and public television should respond to the community's call for better information. (Polls show that Americans hunger for public debate about this war. WYCC-TV Chicago public television did an excellent student forum; and, ironically, commercial stations are heeding this call. "Oprah" has just done two shows on the topic.)

We think regular forums will receive support from a wide range of

interests. Not only from ourselves and the organizations who endorse our request for a meeting with you. Interests such as: The WWCI Board of Trustees and emeriti, WWCI staff, the Satellite Council donors, the WTTW Community Advisory Committee, and fund drive "Members." And foundations who give grants, corporations who do underwriting, agencies who book advertising, FCC commissioners, "media reform" lawyers, local and national activist organizations, more viewers like us, and more citizens of the areas you are licensed to serve.

Please respond soon with some possible dates and times for our meeting with you.

Yours truly,

CMA, per Ron Kunde. Please reply to: list@chicagomediaaction.org

Cc: Endorsers of the meeting request, WTTW Advisory Committee members, and others.