Are The New FCC Media Rules Anti-Diversity? Trent Lott Says Yes
By C. Stone Brown
* 2003 DiversityInc.com

June 03, 2003 

In a 3-2 vote, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted Monday to relax media-ownership rules that critics say will further stifle diversity of ownership and viewpoints in print and broadcast media. 

The new FCC rules allow a single company to own combinations of newspapers and TV and radio stations in the same city, a cross-ownership ban that had been in place since 1975. 

Monday's rules also call for lifting cross-ownership restrictions in markets with at least nine or more TV stations, a rule adopted in 1941. The rules also call for lifting all cross-ownership restrictions in markets with nine or more TV stations. Smaller market towns would face some restrictions and cross-ownership would be banned in markets with three or fewer TV stations.

Many television-broadcast companies such as FOX (owned by News Corp.), CBS (owned by Viacom), and NBC (owned by General Electric), have said the old rules had far outlasted their effectiveness and placed the networks at a competitive disadvantage, in a world competing with cable television, satellite broadcasts and the Internet. 

One supporter of the rules change, NBC, said in a written statement, that this is only the beginning. "While today's decision by the FCC to update its media-ownership rules is a first step in the right direction, we have much further to go before there is a level playing field between free and pay TV. The issue will remain a priority to NBC and to all those who value free, over-the-air television. Moving forward, it is also imperative that the broadcast community unite to tackle the regulatory challenges we face in making the transition to digital television." 

Opponents, however, say the advent of cable, satellite and Internet sources of news only creates an illusion of diversity of viewpoints because ownership is concentrated.

"People say there is diversity because there are so many new voices. The fact is, the top areas of the Internet where people get their news are owned by the same companies that own the broadcast stations. The top 50 channels on cable television, 90 percent of them, are owned by the same companies that owned the broadcast stations, said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-S.D., at a Senate Commerce Committee news conference following the FCC vote.

Dorgan who was joined by fellow committee members, Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Sen. Fritz Hollings R-S.C., said there were a few winners in the FCC ruling on Monday. "Some interests are celebrating, but they are big interests. Billionaire enterprises won, hometowns of America lost with this decision," said Dorgan.


Surprisingly, critics of the rules change are spread across the political spectrum, ranging from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and religious groups to the National Rifle Association. "I think this is a mistake," said Lott, who has a strong conservative voting record and who was under attack by liberals for insensitive comments he made and later apologized for at Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party, adding that the FCC has gone too far this time. 

"I've been very disappointed in the way the FCC has handled it," said Lott, who said he sometimes favors big business. "I'm not one that has believed always that big is necessarily always bad. I think that sometimes mergers, if they make, you know, good sense in terms of access to the people or businesses, you have to weigh that. That's what we trust an FCC for."

"But when you allow this type of concentration, where you could have a market where one company could own and dominate the print media, could theoretically own one of the dish networks, could own the local cable, could own the local television station or two stations, where is the limit?" he asked.

The outcome of the vote didn't come as a surprise. As early as Sunday, FCC Chairman Michael Powell, a vocal supporter for lifting the ban, said on ABC News the rule changes wouldn't have as severe an impact as critics charged and has said before the rules change would enhance the cause of diversity. "This is not a complete deregulation of the media … There will be rules and restrictions. Everything that a media company would like to do is not going to be permitted."

"The idea that you're going to get more competition on local TV by having fewer owners is just ridiculous, said Jim Naureckas, editor of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), a media-watchdog group based in New York.

Naureckas pointed to the example of the 1996 Telecommunication Act. "If you want to see what this is going to do to television news, turn on your radio and listen to what the radio sounds like. Listen to how many commercials are on there; listen to how rarely you see original programming on the radio." 

In a joint statement by the Tri-Caucus of the U.S Congress, Rep. Elijah Cummings D-Md., chairman of the Black Caucus, Rep. Ciro Rodriguez D-Texas., chairman of the Hispanic Caucus, and Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., chairman of the AsianPacific-American Caucus, said the FCC decision is "a blow to diversity, competition, and the public having access to multiple sources of information … We are extremely concerned that these new changes will significantly undermine current FCC rules that were intended to promote minority participation, and preserve multiple media voices and opinions in the electronic and print media industries."

The Tri-Caucus cited a study by Santa Clara University and the University of Missouri that determined that diverse ownership encourages diverse content in the media. According to a study by the Department of Commerce, in 2000, people of color owned 248 AM radio stations and 178 FM stations, representing 4 percent of the country's 10,577 commercial AM and FM radio stations. However, since the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which lifted ownership restrictions on radio ownership, the overall number of radio-station owners has decreased by 30 percent. 

Many of the critics opposing the rules change targeted Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. owns FOX News Channel, 20th Century FOX TV and film studios, the New York Post and several other media properties. According to the Associated Press, Murdoch told a Senate committee last month he has no plan for a media buying spree after the changes, other than his proposed acquisition of DirecTV, the nation's largest satellite-television provider.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, visit:

        http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/aam.html

AAM Website:  http://www.danenet.wicip.org/aam
----------------------------------------------------------------------------