|
Comment on this article |
View comments |
Email this Article
|
|
News :: Civil & Human Rights : Government Secrecy : Media : Political-Economy : Regime |
|
FCC Destroyed Report Favorable to Local Television Ownership |
Current rating: 0 |
by via Prometheus email
(No verified email address) |
15 Sep 2006
|
Local Groups That Fought Media Consolidation React to News, Urge the
Public to Comment to FCC On Media Ownership Rules Before 9/22 deadline |
For Immediate Release:
Contact: September 15, 2006, 11:00 a.m.
Beth McConnell, PennPIRG Ed. Fund at 215-732-3747
Pete Tridish, Prometheus Radio Project at 215-605-9297
FCC Destroyed Report Favorable to Local Television Ownership
Local Groups That Fought Media Consolidation React to News, Urge the
Public to Comment to FCC On Media Ownership Rules Before 9/22 deadline
A PDF of this release can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/kwulw
A staff analysis produced by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC)
in 2004 that showed local ownership of television stations benefits the
public was ordered destroyed by senior agency management, according to a
story by Associated Press reporter John Dunbar. The report was written
shortly after the FCC voted to relax media ownership rules in 2003,
despite receiving over 3 million public comments in opposition to the
plan.
Local groups that played a key role in the media ownership battle
reacted by reminding the public they have another chance to show
opposition to media consolidation. The FCC is accepting public comment
until Friday, September 22nd on new changes to media ownership rules.
"First, the FCC ignored public support for local media. Then, the agency
ignored its own research showing local media ownership is in the public
interest. Now, the FCC has the opportunity to change course and reject
the weakening of media ownership limits," said Beth McConnell, Director
of PennPIRG Education Fund. State PIRGs across the country, including
PennPIRG Education Fund, helped thousands of citizens submit comments to
the FCC in opposition to media consolidation in 2003.
"This study alerts us to the possibility that further ownership
consolidation could lead to the substitution of non-local news for local
content. A remote, corporate owned media can undermine our participation
in a democracy," said Pete Tridish, founder of Philadelphia-based
Prometheus Radio Project. Prometheus Radio Project led the fight that
ultimately overturned the FCC's weakened media ownership limits. When
the Commission ignored the millions of comments Americans filed against
the planned deregulatory package, Prometheus challenged the economic
arguments the Commission put forward in court, as the lead plaintiffs in
Prometheus et al V. Federal Communications Commission. Ultimately, the
Philadelphia-based Third District Court of Appeals ruled in Prometheus'
favor in the summer of 2004, forcing the Commission to revisit the
agency's rules.
In its attempt to reconsider media ownership limits, FCC opened a new
public comment period in June 2006. Concerned citizens have until
Friday, September 22nd to again urge the FCC to reject weakening of
media ownership limits. PennPIRG Education Fund has created an on-line
comment form at www.pennpirg.org/mediaownership to make submitting
comments to the FCC easy.
According to news reports, the FCC staff analysis showed local ownership
of television stations adds almost five and one-half minutes of total
news to broadcasts and more than three minutes of "on-location" news.
The conclusion is at odds with FCC arguments made when it voted in 2003
to increase the number of television stations a company could own in a
single market. It was part of a broader decision relaxing ownership
rules. PennPIRG Education Fund, Prometheus Radio Project, MediaTank and
others are part of the Media and Democracy Coalition, which was launched
this summer to promote policies that reduce media concentration, ensure
open and non-discriminatory access across platforms, and provide access
to the communications infrastructure that is so critical to modern life
in communities of all income levels and in all parts of the country. For
a complete list of coalition members, visit www.media-democracy.net.
-- |
See also:
http://www.prometheusradio.org/
|
This work licensed under a
Creative Commons license |
Comments
|
Prometheus Radio Project: Statement on Excavation of Buried Localism Study |
by via Prometheus
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Sep 2006
|
For Immediate Release:
Contact: September 15, 2006
Pete Tridish, Prometheus Radio Project at 215-605-9297
Prometheus Radio Project: Statement on Excavation of Buried Localism Study
A PDF of this statement can be found here: http://tinyurl.com/ec5tb
Prometheus represented millions of Americans who asked the FCC to limit
the ability of major media corporations to consolidate in communities
across America in 2003. They led the lawsuit Prometheus et al. vs. the
FCC, which overturned the FCC's attempt to consolidate America's
corporate media. This statement was written by Pete Tridish, Prometheus'
founder.
"A study has come to light that demonstrates a significant connection
between local ownership and local news content in TV stations. This
study alerts us to the possibility that further ownership consolidation
could lead to the substitution of non-local news for local content.
Former FCC Chairman Michael Powell made many statements accusing
opponents of media consolidation of "fearmongering," and made many
high-sounding pronouncements about the need for media policy to be
rooted in empirical evidence. Powell also attempted to separate out the
issue of media consolidation from localism, claiming that most of the
millions of comments to the Commission stemmed from a concern about
local content, not a concern about concentration of ownership into fewer
hands.
Many of us know far more about what's going on in far away countries
than we know about local issues in housing, health care, environment and
education -- news that affects us daily. We can have the most direct
impact on what's happening in our local community, but because of the
economic structure of the news business, these issues are the ones we
end up understanding the least. A remote, corporate owned media can
undermine our participation in a democracy. And it's our democracy
that these conglomerates are exchanging for mass-produced news segments
that they can syndicate on hundreds of channels, nationwide.
Many thousands of Americans testified at "Localism" hearings and labored
to produce comments for the "Localism Task Force." Despite the fact
that Americans generated an impressive record of comments, clearly
articulating the importance of local ownership in local content
production, the task force has never released a report on what those
thousands of people had to say, from Charlotte, North Carolina, to San
Antonio, Texas, to Rapid City, South Dakota. Many believe that Powell
developed the Localism Task Force as an attempt to divert citizen
comment and evidence out of the media ownership rulemaking -- the docket
where we could actually begin to impact who owned what, and how
available our airwaves were for our local stories.
It is sad to see further confirmation that behind the Commission's
empirical rhetoric was a willingness to suppress scholarly work whose
results were politically inconvenient to the Powell Commission's goal of
allowing unprecedented mergers.
In the wake of this revelation, Prometheus calls upon the FCC to
re-combine the ownership rulemaking and the Localism Task Force, and to
accept all the testimony received by that task force, written and
verbal, as evidence in the new proceeding ordered by the Third Circuit
Court of Appeals in the Prometheus et al vs. the FCC case. The
Commission is required by law to consider all evidence presented in
comments of this nature, and to refute any recommendations presented
that it does not choose to implement. The addition of the evidence in
the localism proceeding will do much to help inform the ongoing debate
about media ownership. The acceptance of the reality of the inextricable
link between localism and ownership can set the stage for a much better
informed decision by the Martin FCC than the Powell FCC was able to
make.
Millions of Americans formally commented to the Commission on ownership,
and we were ignored. Now we know that the Commission's economists also
found evidence that indicated consolidation could be bad for local news,
and they were ignored too. We thought that our stories, experience and
evidence, presented to public officials, counted for something in a
democracy. If our testimony doesn't fit into the "what's good for
General Electric, is good for America's media" mentality, it goes down
the memory hole. We have every intention of continuing this struggle,
whether through organizing, through continued litigation, through more
demonstrations, or by conducting more research. The corporations have
millions of dollars to invest in purchasing government policies that
help their business models, but we have millions of people who have
grown up in a democracy. We won't let a handful of corporations use
control of the media to pull the rug out from under our citizens'
ability to be informed and make a difference in this country." |
|
Lawyer Says FCC Ordered Study Destroyed |
by via AP
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
15 Sep 2006
|
WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission ordered its staff to destroy all copies of a draft study that suggested greater concentration of media ownership would hurt local TV news coverage, a former lawyer at the agency says.
he report, written in 2004, came to light during the Senate confirmation hearing for FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. received a copy of the report "indirectly from someone within the FCC who believed the information should be made public," according to Boxer spokeswoman Natalie Ravitz.
Adam Candeub, now a law professor at Michigan State University, said senior managers at the agency ordered that "every last piece" of the report be destroyed. "The whole project was just stopped — end of discussion," he said. Candeub was a lawyer in the FCC's Media Bureau at the time the report was written and communicated frequently with its authors, he said.
In a letter sent to Martin Wednesday, Boxer said she was "dismayed that this report, which was done at taxpayer expense more than two years ago, and which concluded that localism is beneficial to the public, was shoved in a drawer."
Martin said he was not aware of the existence of the report, nor was his staff. His office indicated it had not received Boxer's letter as of midafternoon Thursday.
In the letter, Boxer asked whether any other commissioners "past or present" knew of the report's existence and why it was never made public. She also asked whether it was "shelved because the outcome was not to the liking of some of the commissioners and/or any outside powerful interests?"
The report, written by two economists in the FCC's Media Bureau, analyzed a database of 4,078 individual news stories broadcast in 1998. The broadcasts were obtained from Danilo Yanich, a professor and researcher at the University of Delaware, and were originally gathered by the Pew Foundation's Project for Excellence in Journalism.
The analysis showed local ownership of television stations adds almost five and one-half minutes of total news to broadcasts and more than three minutes of "on-location" news. The conclusion is at odds with FCC arguments made when it voted in 2003 to increase the number of television stations a company could own in a single market. It was part of a broader decision liberalizing ownership rules.
At that time, the agency pointed to evidence that "commonly owned television stations are more likely to carry local news than other stations."
When considering whether to loosen rules on media ownership, the agency is required to examine the impact on localism, competition and diversity. The FCC generally defines localism as the level of responsiveness of a station to the needs of its community.
The 2003 action sparked a backlash among the public and within Congress. In June 2004, a federal appeals court rejected the agency's reasoning on most of the rules and ordered it to try again. The debate has since been reopened, and the FCC has scheduled a public hearing on the matter in Los Angeles on Oct. 3.
The report was begun after then-Chairman Michael Powell ordered the creation of a task force to study localism in broadcasting in August of 2003. Powell stepped down from the commission and was replaced by Martin in March 2005. Powell did not return a call seeking comment.
The authors of the report, Keith Brown and Peter Alexander, both declined to comment. Brown has left public service while Alexander is still at the FCC. Yanich confirmed the two men were the authors. Both have written extensively on media and telecommunications policy.
Yanich said the report was "extremely well done. It should have helped to inform policy."
Boxer's office said if she does not receive adequate answers to her questions, she will push for an investigation by the FCC inspector general.
© Copyright 2006 Associated Press
http://www.ap.org/ |
|
