From
Robert McChesney and Jeff Chester: (sorry for cross-postings)
Hope all
is well. Bob McChesney and I have written the following letter to be sent to
members of the FCC and to the members of the relevant committees that deal with
the FCC and media ownership in Congress. As you may know the FCC is presently
formally reviewing a handful of important media ownership rules, with the
possibility that it may relax or even eliminate them. By all accounts the
consequences of eliminating these ownership rules will be a wave of media
consolidation at the national and local levels. For as much detail as you want
on the issue, go to www.democraticmedia.org or www.mediareform.net and follow
the necessary links.
Those in
favor of eliminating the ownership rules at the FCC are pushing for the
establishing of a diversity index, a quantitative measure that will set a
standard to determine just how much concentrated ownership is permissible. I
attach an article to the end of this email that explains the thinking behind
the diversity index. The core problem with the diversity index is that is has
been done entirely in secret, yet it is apparently going to be used as the
justification for a radical change in our rules regulating media ownership.
Considering that the FCC has no real research staff to speak of, that even
Congress not to mention has been kept in the dark on this diversity index, and
that the leading scholars in the field have not been consulted at all by the
FCC, we think Congress needs to make the FCC open up the process and subject it
to the light of public and scholarly examination, study and debate.
If you
agree, please sign the letter. If you could pass on to others, we would
appreciate it.
Sincerely,
Bob
McChesney and Jeff Chester
Dear Mr. Chairman:
(we would send to other Commissioners and Chair/ranking of
Commerce Committees).
The FCC will soon make a critical decision on media ownership
policy that could affect the future course of our democracy. At stake, as you
know, are the rules and policies governing U.S. media ownership of the nation's
radio and television broadcasters, TV networks, and newspapers. You and your
colleagues are well aware of the important role these media outlets play in
providing the public with a diverse array of local and national information and
analysis.
According to reports, the Commission is developing a
"diversity index" that will serve as a form of universal measurement
on media ownership. Such a measure, we understand, will be used to analyze
individual media markets in order to determine whether cross-ownership limits
should be eliminated, modified, or maintained. Press reports also suggest that
some of the specific rules under review may be subject to new policies as well.
We have grave doubts that any single measure can effectively
analyze the complexities of the media marketplace, in terms of its impact on
journalism, citizen access to information, and competition. Such
quantitative-let alone qualitative-methodological measures attempting to serve
as holistic approaches are likely to be very imprecise.
As leading scholars in the field of social science and mass
communications, we urge you to release to the public any proposed such measures
in advance of their enactment. There must be serious scholarly and public
debate about the efficacy of any proposed new measure on media ownership.
Indeed, we look forward to examining and commenting on any proposal, so that
the scholarly community can help make the most informed Commission decision
possible on this important issue.
We are sure you, as we, believe that informed debate and
discourse on the analytical underpinnings of what the FCC may propose can only
further your goal of developing an approach to media policy regulation that is
supported by sound scholarship.
Sincerely,
Robert W. McChesney, Professor, Institute of Communications
Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
*******
FCC's Powell defends index idea on media ownership
Reuters, 04.08.03, 4:18 PM ET
By
Jeremy Pelofsky
LAS
VEGAS (Reuters) - Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell
Tuesday defended the idea of a market index to measure concentration in a media
market as the agency formulates new ownership regulations.
Powell,
a Republican, said he was leaning towards such a diversity index to ensure
multiple television, radio and newspapers voices in a market as opposed to
taking each case individually if and when companies want to acquire new
properties.
FCC
Commissioner Kevin Martin, a fellow Republican who has bucked Powell before on
telecommunications issues, Monday told Reuters he preferred simple rules
without complicated mathematical formulas when measuring voices in a market.
"It
really isn't that complicated, the idea at least," Powell said at the
National Association of Broadcasters annual convention.
"We
are far from having decided whether to do something like that or if we do do
something like that what form it will actually take," he said. "But I
don't think that there should be a freak out about the possibility of both
using data and mathematical methods."
The
agency is overhauling decades-old rules that restrict the media industry,
including one that bans common ownership of newspapers and either a radio or
television station in a single market.
Powell
has said he saw no need for a complete ban on the newspaper and broadcast
ownership limit. Martin has advocated lifting the ban and said that he worried
about complicated mathematical formulas leading to marketplace confusion.
Tribune
Co. , which owns newspapers and television stations, has pushed to scrap that
restriction but some newspaper owners and consumer groups have lobbied the FCC
to keep the rules to preserve diversity of voices.
Also
up for review, in part because a federal appeals court questioned the
justification the FCC has given for keeping the rules, are limits on a company
owning multiple radio and television stations in a single market.
FCC
CONFIDENT OF MEETING JUNE DEADLINE
The
head of the FCC's Media Bureau, Kenneth Ferree, said at a panel discussion that
the agency will make the self-imposed deadline of June 2 to complete the new
media ownership rules. "There will be no delay," he confidently
predicted.
Ferree
also said he would give the FCC commissioners scenarios for what the record
would support on either keeping or easing the cap that prevents a company from
owning television stations that reach more than 35 percent of the national
audience.
Major
broadcast networks NBC, a unit of General Electric Co., Viacom Inc.'s CBS and
News Corp.'s Fox have sought to lift that cap while smaller broadcasters and
the NAB have fought to keep the limit intact.
Separately,
when asked about whether consolidation in the media industry was leading to a
degradation of the quality of programming, Powell said that he believed it was
because of programmers' fervor to beat the competition.
"I
have a different view which I think it's actually the hyper-competitiveness
that is causing this," he said.
Powell
also warned radio stations that their day may be numbered if they willfully and
repeatedly violate the law and regulations that limit the broadcast of indecent
material, a not-so-veiled threat to pull stations' licenses.
FCC
Commissioner Michael Copps, a critic of what he describes as the declining
quality of television and radio programming, urged the agency to determine
whether it was concentration or competition before voting on new ownership
limits.
"I
do not look forward to voting without even having asked the questions and tried
to amass a record on it, yet that's what we're doing," he told reporters.
Copyright
2003, Reuters News Service
Clemencia Rodriguez
Associate Professor
Department of Communication
University of Oklahoma
610 Elm Avenue
Norman OK 73019 USA
405 325 1570