by James Parks, Oct 23, 2007

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin wants to make sure mega-media owners like Rupert Murdoch get big Christmas gifts—more money and power—while the rest of us get less control over what we read in newspapers and see on TV.

According to published reports, Martin plans to seek an FCC vote by Dec. 18 on media ownership regulations. His proposal essentially would gut the nation’s few remaining media ownership regulations, putting an end to the limits on ownership by a single company of a newspaper and a broadcast station in the same market.

You can act now to stop this rush to give media barons more power. Click here to tell your member of Congress to keep the FCC from allowing more media consolidation.

The AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees (DPE) issued an alert to its 23 union affiliates asking their members to contact their representatives. In his letter, DPE President Paul Almeida says:

The FCC attack on media diversity [in 2003] drew more than 3 million comments. Unions affiliated with DPE have worked hard on the FCC public hearings this time around. The public overwhelmingly favors keeping media ownership limits and opposes what Kevin Martin wants to do. 

It’s time to keep the Bush FCC from making one more gift to media billionaires.

Numerous studies have shown the consolidation of media ownership by giant corporations eliminates diverse and local sources of news, music and entertainment programming. The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) notes the growing trend of combining media outlets across America has led to:

• Decreased coverage of local issues and fewer editorial perspectives in news.
• Fewer and less diverse opportunities for actors as the last remaining independent producers struggle to survive.
• Homogenization and disappearance of radio formats.
• Elimination of opportunities for airplay for recording artists.

Currently, a company can own two television stations in the larger markets only if at least one is not among the four largest stations and if there are at least eight local stations. The rules also limit the number of radio stations that a company can own to no more than eight in each of the largest markets.

The FCC in 2003 wiped out decades-old limits on the number of local TV, radio and newspaper outlets a corporation could own, but a bipartisan majority in the Senate voted to overturn the rule changes with Congress eventually reaching a compromise—limiting the number of stations one company could own to 39 percent of the national audience.Since then, growing media consolidation has resulted in increasing lack of diversity both in the content produced and those producing it.  

In Chicago, for example, Sam Zell, the new owner of the Tribune Co., owns the Chicago Tribune as well as WGN-TV and WGN-AM. When the cross-ownership ban was first instituted in 1975, the FCC “grandfathered” the Tribune’s ownership of these outlets. But The Newspaper Guild-CWA’s President Linda Foley says:

It’s time for the FCC to stop pretending that media conglomerates like the Tribune Co. are local businesses that serve local communities. In this age of media consolidation, the FCC should not only continue its rule banning cross-ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations in the same market, the commissioners should reconsider the multiple waivers of the ban granted Tribune Co. over the years.

During a recent hearing on the digital transition of the television industry, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) said:

This is a big deal because we have way too much concentration of media ownership in the United States. If the chairman intends to do something by the end of the year, then there will be a firestorm of protest.

We reported how last year the FCC quietly issued a “Notice of Proposed Rule Making,” the first step in changing media ownership regulations. Commissioner Michael Copps, one of two Democratic FCC members on the five-member commission, had this to say about the FCC announcement: 

This innocuous-looking document initiates the single most important public policy debate that the FCC will tackle this year. Don’t let its slimness fool you. It means that this Commission has begun to decide on behalf of the American people the future of our media. It means deciding whether or not to accelerate media concentration, step up the loss of local news and change forever the critical role independent newspapers perform for our country. 

The media watchdog group Free Press last year released a groundbreaking study showing the shockingly low number of TV stations owned by people of color—with more than 96 percent of television stations under white ownership. Upon reading the report, Copps called the FCC’s failure to promote diversity in media a “national disgrace.” 

Last year, several unions affiliated with the DPE and the AFL-CIO submitted testimony to the FCC asserting that lifting ownership limits will mean increased consolidation, fewer sources of content, whether news, entertainment or music; less local content, less diversity of opinion and higher barriers to minority ownership. 

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