Media Merger rule change- Only the FCC and the Corporations want this.
What’s wrong with this picture? First of all, this is the most unreported story ever. The fact that the FCC destroyed documents which would dispute the liberalization of rules governing Big Media Mergers is not being reported by most of those Big Media Companies. Okay, no real surprise there, they stand to make a bunch of dough and get the backing of politicians who can give them more pork and regulatory largesse by feeding us sheep only what certain politicians who belong to the Party in Power at the mo want us to hear. Lots of quid pro quo going on there.
The documents that were destroyed (well, all except the copies made available to Senator Boxer) show clearly and with much empirical evidence that Big Media Mergers are bad for local news coverage and have increased the number of news outlets while decreasing the number owned by women and minorities.
The Seattle Times summed up the first part of this:
The study says television stations with local owners cover more local news than do stations with out-of-town owners. The gap is statistically large: In a typical news broadcast, in which the editorial time is 30 minutes minus several minutes of commercials, the locally owned stations had five and a half minutes more of local content.This observation was not based on a small sample, but on a database of 4,078 news stories broadcast in 1998.
The implication is that the growth of media mega-chains tends to homogenize the news and make each town’s outlets more interchangeable. The result is soporific to local politics and a community’s sense of itself.
Richard Prince of The Maynard Institute summed up the second part of of the problem with the Mergers:
Some of the findings:* “Women comprise 51 percent of the entire U.S. population, but own a total of only 67 stations, or 4.97 percent of all stations.
* “Minorities comprise 33 percent of the entire U.S. population, but own a total of only 44 stations, or 3.26 percent of all stations.
* “Hispanics or Latinos comprise 14 percent of the entire U.S. population, but only own a total of 15 stations, or 1.11 percent of all stations.
* “Blacks or African Americans comprise 13 percent of the entire U.S. population but only own a total of 18 stations, or 1.3 percent of all stations.
* “Asians comprise 4 percent of the entire U.S. population but only own a total of 6 stations, or 0.44 percent of all stations.
* “Non-Hispanic White owners controlled 1,033 stations, or 76.6 percent of the all stations.
* “There has been no improvement in the level of minority broadcast television ownership since 1998, even as the total universe of stations has increased by approximately 12 percent.
* “At the same time, there has been a marked decrease in the total number of black or African-American owned stations — dropping nearly 30 percent since 1998.
* “Pro-consolidation policies enacted by the FCC in the late 1990s had a significant impact on minority ownership, indirectly or directly contributing to the loss of 40 percent of the stations that were minority-owned in 1998.
* “Over 10 percent of the nation’s Hispanic or Latino TV homes are in the New York City market, where there are no Latino-owned stations.
* “Over 12 percent of the nation’s African-American TV homes are in the New York City and Los Angeles markets, where there are no African American-owned stations. Nor do African- Americans own stations in cities with large black populations like Atlanta and New Orleans.”
I think the FCC isn’t going to know what hit them though. This is NOT just business as usual, this is a CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUE, and there are going to be a lot of Minority Leaders taking it to the Streets, which will eventually cause enough disruption so this issue cannot be ignored by the pet news outlets of our Party in Power. One of the groups who will be yelling the loudest is Jesse Jackson and his Rainbow PUSH Coalition, who are, in their investigation to learn more about the issue, being helped by the two FCC Democrats, Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein. I’m actually considering joining the coalition for this one, if they don’t mind having a skinny white woman along for the ride . . . my big mouth and fanatical research on this issue might help a bit.
Some other things have come to light re this FCC Document Suppression Scandal which was first brought out at Chairman Martin’s reappointment hearing. According to the article in the Seattle Times, “Former FCC staff attorney Adam Candeub, now a law professor at Michigan State University, told the Associated Press that senior managers at the FCC ordered that “every last piece” of the report be destroyed.” while the San Francisco Bay Guardian online has reported that according to the letter Senator Boxer wrote requesting Martin launch an investigation, “Recently, it was reported in Radio and Records that Clear Channel had visited two commissioners’ offices on August 31, 2006 ‘to influence their positions on expanding ownership cap limits in the largest radio markets,’” her letter stated. “I trust that you will update and release this report prior to the conclusion of the media ownership proceeding.” Thus Senator Boxer let Chairman Martin know that his future conduct will be closely scrutinized.
Technorati Tags: FCC, Media Mergers, Chairman Martin, Jesse Jackson, Michael Copps, Jonathan Adelstein, Senator Boxer, Clear Channel, Adam Candeub
