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The Federal Communications Commission, under the leadership of Chairman Michael Powell (son of Secretary of State Colin Powell), has been working towards relaxing or eliminating decades-old rules restricting media ownership, originally designed to promote diversity of opinion. These rules include limiting a company to owning not more than 35 percent of all TV stations in the United States, limitations on the cross-ownership of newspapers, radio and TV stations in the same market, and restrictions on mergers among the networks. Powell has argued that ownership rules may not be as necessary when there are so many new media outlets, such as cable and the Internet. The major media companies have spent a great deal of money lobbying in support of change, and revisions in the rules might already be a fait accompli, but for the politically savvy efforts of one FCC commissioner, Michael Copps. Concerned growing media consolidation will give a few corporations vast power over what Americans watch, hear and read, Copps called on the FCC to conduct a public hearing on the anticipated changes. When Powell initially refused, Copps assured him that he'd hold hearings of his own. Faced with the prospect of appearing to be indifferent to the public's views, Powell relented. "At stake in this proceeding are our core values of localism, diversity, competition, and maintaining the multiplicity of voices and choices that undergird our marketplace of ideas and that sustain American democracy. With such important values at stake, we ought to give Americans access to our decision making process," said Copps. Two weeks later, the Writers Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Communication Workers of America announced their opposition to the FCC's proposed rule revisions, and released a report disputing the FCC's findings. "The inevitable consolidation will result in the same number of viewing hours but will offer less choice," said Mona Mangan, executive director of the WGA East, at a Washington, D.C., news conference. "We'll get homogenized news with pre-determined coverage and a much narrower viewpoint. Changes like these do not bode well for democracy." In January, the Center for the Creative Community, a Washington-based advocacy group for creative artists, submitted 33 pages of comments to the FCC in support of the existing rules. The center's advisory board includes Academy President Frank Pierson, WGA President Victoria Riskin and many prominent directors, producers and writers. A few weeks later, Powell testified at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing and took a somewhat more conciliatory tone, saying, for example, "I am concerned about media concentration, particularly in radio." Several lawmakers from both sides of the aisle expressed concern at the prospect of more consolidation and some found Powell's comments unnecessarily ambiguous. The FCC was expected to hold initial public hearings in February, including one session at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. To submit your comments on this issue, go to the FCC's website at www.fcc.gov/ownership and click on the link for ECFS (Electronic Comment File Submission). |
