Is FCC pulling the plug on democracy?
By Nancy Cicco
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Media giants that hold huge sway in shaping public opinion could be handed more power to do that if the Federal Communications Commission on Monday endorses eased media ownership rules that govern the public airwaves.
While FCC Chairman Michael Powell has said the proposed regulations could be a boost to free-media outlets, others decry the proposals as a showdown between U.S. democracy and the money-grabbing interests of behemoth communications companies.
The fact the FCC?s proposed rule changes haven?t been better covered by the media "itself is a sign of the danger of relying on only a handful of companies controlling most of the media in the United States," said Joshua Meyrowitz, a professor of media studies at the University of New Hampshire.
If endorsed, the new regulations would allow television broadcasters to own and operate stations that reach up to 45 percent of U.S. households, a 10 percent increase over the current cap of 35 percent of U.S. households.
Other proposed regulation changes would allow one company to own two television stations in markets with at least six competitors and three stations in the country?s largest cities, such as New York and Los Angeles.
The FCC will also consider rule changes that would allow a single media company to own combinations of television and radio stations and newspapers in the same city, according to The Associated Press.
That?s too much power in too few hands, detractors say.
"You really should be incensed this is going on," said Portsmouth resident Clifford Taylor, a former general manager of WHEB-FM and WHEB-AM. "The little guy is being squeezed out."
The commission?s view
The proposed regulations split the five-member FCC board earlier last month when Democratic Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein called on Powell, who is Secretary of State Colin Powell?s son, to postpone the board?s June 2 vote on the regulations, to no avail.
Copps and Adelstein prefer to keep the current regulations in place, in opposition to Republican Commissioners Powell, Kathleen Abernathy and Kevin Martin, according to the AP.
Reached this past week, Abernathy?s spokesperson, Stacy Robinson, said she could not confirm what the proposed FCC regulations seek to accomplish nor could she provide a statement about Abernathy?s opinion on the issue. Calls to the FCC?s other media spokespeople requesting comment on the issue were not returned before deadline.
The FCC?s Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires the commission to review media ownership regulations every two years.
According to published reports, Commissioner Powell believes the FCC rules need to be updated to keep pace with media market changes brought about by cable and satellite television and the Internet.
"We?re trying to make sure that quality content doesn?t continue to flee to pay television," Powell told The Associated Press.
He also does not want to leave it up to the courts to make changes to the regulations because he believes the commission should do that itself.
In response to Powell?s decision not to postpone Monday?s hearing, Copps issued a statement on the FCC?s Internet page.
"We are rushing to passage of new rules without letting the American people know who is going to own and control the public airwaves for years to come," Copps wrote.
The case against big business
Meyrowitz and Taylor warned that allowing media companies to own such large shares of given markets could inevitably homogenize news content and reduce the number of news-gathering staffs in the name of reaping greater corporate profits. They say a diversity of media voices in the marketplace is essential to fostering democracy.
Taylor began his career at the radio station WHEB-AM/FM in 1960 as a disc jockey and became the company?s general manager by 1975. He retired in 1988.
He believes the current cap on media ownership at 35 percent of a given market is already too high a share.
"If this passes, gone forever will be any semblance of local media anywhere," he said of the proposed FCC regulations.
He recalled that under former FCC rules, broadcast outlets had to work to justify their operational licenses. Broadcasters had to "pull all this stuff together" to show the FCC the station owners were accountable to and representative of the local community. He says those procedures have been whittled away.
"There?s practically no news and no accountability to the community," he said of the current state of local radio.
Clear Channel Communications, now the parent company of WHEB and six other radio stations in Portsmouth, has come under the microscope in the latest debate over FCC deregulation. Headquartered in San Antonio, Texas, the company operates some 1,225 radio stations and employs 55,000 people, according to Andrew Levin, the company?s senior vice president for government affairs.
"We believe that deregulation has been the key to turning radio from a dying medium into a vibrant one. Today, the efficiencies of deregulation have created enormous benefits for listeners and communities all over the country who have more choices and more formats than ever before," he said in response to written questions posed to him by the Portsmouth Herald.
Critics of media deregulation say their cause is well illustrated by a story concerning a Clear Channel radio station in Minot, N.D.
According to published reports, in January 2002, an early morning train wreck in Minot caused an ammonia spill. Local authorities were slowed in their ability to notify residents about the incident because they had trouble contacting a Clear Channel employee at KCJB-AM.
Media critics say the story speaks to the horrors of employee cost-cutting measures; however, Levin responded the station is staffed "24 hours a day, seven days a week."
The problem arose from the authorities relying on an outdated Emergency Broadcast System hotline. Clear Channel officials worked with local authorities to remedy the situation for the future, he said.
Meyrowitz fears further deregulation of media ownership will by default leave the airwaves in the hands of big conglomerates that have little incentive to challenge the status quo.
"One of the problems with narrowing the ownership is that there are lots of topics they tend not to want raised," he said.
More diversity in the media, for example, could have spurred a larger debate about the reasons behind the war with Iraq, he said. Instead, Meyrowitz believes the media "bought" the Bush administration?s claim Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat to the United States because he possessed weapons of mass destruction. No such weapons have yet been found.
"The public was completely misinformed about the reasons for this war," Meyrowitz said.
He wants media outlets to more frequently challenge the country?s Military-Industrial Complex.
While there may be more media outlets to choose from these days, critics say those outlets are in the hands of a few powerful companies.
"Already, we are in a situation where, supposedly, the greatest democracy on Earth has the narrowest discussion of political events," Meyrowitz said.
The biggest media companies include Viacom, AOL TimeWarner, Disney Inc., and News Corp., as each owns an array of broadcast television stations, film production companies, and print outlets. General Electric is also a player. Best known for the production of household appliances, the company also owns NBC and is a large U.S. defense contractor.
Outlook for New Hampshire
Media watchers are waiting to see how any potential change in the FCC regulations would affect the media industry in the Granite State.
John Tabor, the publisher of the Portsmouth Herald and six other newspapers owned by Seacoast Newspapers throughout New Hampshire and southern Maine, isn?t particularly worried the proposed FCC regulation changes would hit home here, if they are enacted.
"The cross-ownership rules really come into play in the top 100 cities. On the Seacoast, residents are blessed with good local newspaper competition, several independent weeklies, radio stations, cable, direct mail and increasing Internet outlets in real estate, tourism, employment and auto niches. We have a crowded media market because of the rich retail sector here, due to no sales tax. So all outlets can compete profitably, and do," he said. "Local residents win in smaller markets like this."
Congressman Charles Bass, R-N.H., representing the 2nd Congressional District, is waiting for the FCC to present its justification for any rule changes before he takes a position on the issue, according to Sally Tibbetts, the congressman?s communications director.
In an interview at the Portsmouth Herald on Thursday, Congressman Jeb Bradley, R-N.H. representing the 1st Congressional District, also said he is waiting for the FCC?s ruling, although he added he has "some concerns about the increasing monopolization" of the media.
Bradley fears eased regulations would create a "loss of independence of programming, a loss of news independence," particularly in smaller states like New Hampshire.
Late Friday, a group of local...
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