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Tuesday, Nov 10, 2009
Surprise, surprise: The TV networks that will benefit from the new FCC rules on media ownership have been keeping their viewers in the dark about the changes.
May 22, 2003 | On June 2, the Federal Communications Commission will make a decision that will probably radically change how Americans receive their news. But if, like most people, you rely on television as your primary information source, chances are you haven't heard a word about it.
At stake are the current rules on how many different properties a media conglomerate can own. Eager to create new economic efficiencies, media companies such as Viacom, AOL Time Warner and the Tribune Co. have been pressing the FCC for years to relax limits on cross-ownership on such things as TV stations and newspapers in the same city. Meanwhile Congress has held several high-profile hearings discussing the likely ramifications of the FCC's decision to invite greater media consolidation.
But to date, most network and cable news operations have all but ignored the story; a story their parent companies have taken extraordinary interest in and spent millions of dollars paying lobbyists to make a reality. And perhaps unsurprisingly, the two television news operations most reluctant to cover the FCC debate -- CBS and Fox -- are owned by the two media conglomerates with the most to gain from a lenient FCC ruling: Viacom and the News Corp.
"The broadcast media has been absolutely atrocious on this issue," says Robert McChesney, author of "Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communications Politics in Dubious Times." "The coverage has been virtually nonexistent."
The claim of a news blackout was recently boosted by a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press, which found 72 percent of Americans had heard "nothing at all" about the possible change in media ownership rules.
"That's pretty pathetic," complains one Democratic Hill source who has been working on the consolidation issue. "The press has an obligation to inform."
What's frustrating for consumer advocates and others is that the current coverage of the FCC debate simply reinforces the concerns they have about how Americans get their news, and what happens when fewer and fewer media companies control the flow of information. "The deep irony is there's a concern that media companies already control too much of the news, yet the public today is not being informed about a decision that media companies would benefit from," says Michael Bracy, director of government relations for the Future of Music Coalition, which opposes relaxing ownership limits.
Why the silence? "There is a certain amount of self-censorship for broadcast networks," suggests Peter Hart, media analyst for the left-leaning advocacy group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. "Reporters and editors understand you have to be careful about what you're going to put on the air" when the story involves the business preferences of the parent company. Skeptics suggest that if the story dealt with the imminent deregulation of the pharmaceutical or telephone industry, news outlets would find a way to cover it more thoroughly.
Network producers dismiss any implication that they're shying away from the story out of corporate concerns. "We cover the story with the same level of energy we would anything else," says Paul Slavin, senior vice president at ABC News, which has been alone among the four major television networks in airing a story about the FCC debate. ABC's "Nightline" is also planning to devote a broadcast to the media ownership topic prior to the June 2 vote. "We find it to be an interesting business story."
Sources at other networks explain the paucity of coverage by saying it's still early in the story and that reporting will intensify and focus as the June 2 vote approaches. But news organizations routinely cover big Beltway topics, such as judicial nominations, well before the final vote. In fact, more times than not the final up or down vote on a policy matter in Washington signals the end of press interest, not the jumping-off point for further examination.
And according to most press accounts, the outcome at the FCC has already been determined, with the three Republican FCC commissioners committed to a yes vote on easing ownership limits, and the two Democratic commissioners opposing the change. Come June 2, the FCC is expected to overturn decades-old rules and allow one company to own both a newspaper and a television station in the same market, acquire many more local affiliate stations, and own up to three TV stations in a single large market. The FCC is expected, however, to retain the rule forbidding any two of America's four broadcast networks from merging.
The bottom line is that one company could own television, radio and newspaper outlets in the same market. And, in theory, NBC could purchase Gannett and become the country's largest newspaper publisher.
