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News :: Media |
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Stop The FCC!!! |
Current rating: 0 |
by Media Reform Network
(No verified email address) |
29 May 2003
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We are barraged with advertising. Journalism has become dumbed-down entertainment. The range of news analysis and debate is shrinking along with the diversity of media ownership, placing an extraordinary degree of economic and social power in a very few hands. |
The FCC will vote on June 2 to change several of its remaining media ownership rules(the rules http://www.mediareform.net/rules.php : the changes http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/13/business/media/13FCC.html). If the rules are relaxed, it will lead to a massive wave of media consolidation. (Click here http://www.mediareform.net/timeline.php for a detailed time line showing how the review of the media ownership rules has developed.)
Nationally, it will mean the largest firms (http://www.thenation.com/special/bigten.html) will be able to swallow up any other media firms they set their eyes upon, and industry observers all expect a flurry of large deals. At the local level, we should expect a single firm, or perhaps two or three firms, to own the vast majority of the media — daily newspaper, TV stations, radio stations, cable TV system — in a single community. There is enormous profit to be made by having such monopolistic power, and firms are scrambling to get the rules changed so they can dominate markets and crush competition.
Such media concentration not only violates the premises of a competitive marketplace, but it makes a mockery of the notion of a free press (http://www.mediareform.net/faqs.php#question1) enshrined in the Constitution. The implications are clear: huge media conglomerates will rule journalism, culture and to a large extent, public opinion. They have the power to put their footprint on our political system in a manner that has never been seen before. As they say, "You control the news, you control the views."
One need only look to radio (http://www.mediareform.net/why.php#radio), which had its ownership rules greatly relaxed in 1996, to see what the implications are for our entire media system. As a result of concentration on the radio industry, radio has become less competitive, more commercialized, has much less local content, and devotes much fewer resources to local journalism. It has been a winner for the firms that own the handful of giant companies that dominate radio, but a disaster for everyone else.
Worst of all, the FCC process has been conducted in the most corrupt and secretive manner possible (http://www.mediareform.net/why.php#corrupt). The very justification provided by the FCC to justify eliminating the media ownership rules is invalid and unjust (http://www.mediareform.net/why.php#flawed).
It is imperative that members of Congress and the FCC be flooded with letters and emails before May 30th, telling them that the FCC's drive to eliminate or relax the media ownership rules must be stopped. Congress must demand that there be full-scale public hearings based on competent and unbiased research.
Contact Congress and the FCC
To send a letter to your legislators & the FCC voicing opposition to lifting ownership limits CLICK HERE NOW:
http://capwiz.com/consumersunion/issues/alert/?alertid=1656736
New study shows FCC in industry's pocket: |
See also:
http://www.publicintegrity.org/dtaweb/report.asp?ReportID=524&L1=10&L2=10&L3=0&L4=0&L5=0
http://www.mediareform.net/
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Consumer Groups In 7 Cities To Protest At Clear Channel Communications |
by CodePink * Global Exchange * Media Alliance
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
29 May 2003
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As FCC Commissioners Prepare to Eliminate Media Regulations Consumer Groups in 7 Cities to Protest at Clear Channel Communications, *Poster Child* of What's Wrong With Media Deregulation
SAN FRANCISCO - May 27 - On Thursday, May 29--just four days before the Federal Communications Commission votes on a proposal to radically deregulate the media--free speech advocates and media consumers will protest at Clear Channel Communications radio stations in seven cities to draw attention to the problems that resulted from the last media deregulation. *If you ever wondered why it seems like the same seven songs are playing on every radio station in the United States, you can thank Clear Channel Communications and its take-over of radio stations after the 1996 media deregulation. We can't let the same thing happen with television stations and newspapers, and that's just what could happen if the FCC gives more power to the media companies on June 2,*said Andrea Buffa, who works with Global Exchange and Media Alliance, two of the groups organizing the Clear Channel protests.
The Clear Channel protests are planned for New York City, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Portland, and Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. They are part of a multi-pronged effort by free speech advocates and media consumers to stop the FCC from approving a radical deregulation of the media that will allow huge media corporations to own more television stations, radio stations, and newspapers, endangering media diversity and independence. FCC Chairman Michael Powell, Colin Powell's son, is pushing for June 2 vote on the media deregulation proposal, despite opposition from an unlikely coalition of liberal and conservative groups that oppose giving more power to a small number of media companies.
Clear Channel was chosen as the target of street protests because it exemplifies the problems that can arise from media deregulation. After the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Clear Channel gobbled up hundreds of radio stations throughout the country and now owns more than 1200 stations nationwide. Not only is the company the world's largest radio broadcaster, it's also the world largest concert promoter and billboard advertising firm.
Clear Channel's monopolistic practices have accelerated the homogenization of the airwaves. The company promotes cookie-cutter style radio that has urban stations throughout the country seemingly playing the same focus-group-selected songs. It shuts out independent artists who can't afford to go through high-priced middlemen and is responsible for taking the practice of voice tracking to new heights. Voice tracking creates brief, computer-assisted voice segments that attempt to fool the listener into thinking that a program is locally produced, when in fact the same content is being broadcast to upwards of 75 stations nationwide from a central site.
Clear Channel also uses its stations to promote its conservative political agenda. After September 11, the company came to the public's attention when executives circulated a list of blacklisted songs including John Lennon's *Imagine*and Cat Stevens' *Peace Train*. This year Clear Channel became one of the first media companies in recent times to sponsor a political rally‹the company sponsored pro-war rallies in cities around the country before and during the war on Iraq. Another "Rally for America" was organized in Huntington, West Virginia for Memorial Day weekend.
*If the FCC passes Michael Powell's proposed new media rules, companies like Clear Channel will be given even more control over the public airwaves than they already have. Literally a handful of large corporations already dominate 80% of what the American public sees and hears. Our democracy can't afford this constriction of public debate,* said Gael Murphy of CodePink, Women for Peace, a group that is organizing several of the Clear Channel protests. Other groups are Global Exchange, Citizen Works, Media Alliance, United for Peace and Justice NY, Prometheus Radio Project, Free Press, the Youth Media Council, and Democracy Rising.
The following rules are being considered for modification or elimination by the FCC:
*Newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership prohibition. Prevents broadcast TV companies from buying newspapers in communities in which they have TV stations.
*National TV ownership limit. Limits the number of local broadcast stations any one broadcast company can own to systems serving 35% of the TV households in the U.S.
*Local TV multiple ownership. Allows a broadcast company to own two TV stations in the same market only if at least one of those stations is ranked below the top four stations and there are at least eight independently owned-and-operating, full-power TV stations in that market.
*Radio/TV Cross-Ownership restriction. Prevents one company from owning both a radio station and a television station in the same market.
Clear Channel protest website
www.unitedforpeace.org/stopthefcc
CodePink
http://www.codepinkalert.org
Global Exchange
http://www.globalexchange.org
Media Alliance
http://www.media-alliance.org |
