FCC URGED TO KEEP MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES Associated Press Federal regulators' latest public hearing into media ownership rules Wednesday came complete with a protest outside its headquarters against allowing more consolidation among media companies.
At a lively and well-attended public meeting, the five members of the Federal Communications Commission heard testimony from experts and comments from members of the public, all criticizing a possible relaxation of media ownership rules favored by Republicans.
Speakers included a panel made up of several public interest groups, members of local media companies and individuals arguing for more involvement by women and minority groups in media ownership. The FCC has held meetings on the subject over the past year.
Marcellus Alexander, an executive vice president at the National Association of Broadcasters, and Jim Goodman, president and chief executive of North Carolina's Capital Broadcasting, spoke in support of local broadcasters.
All the other panel members criticized the lack of local content and news aired by owners of television and radio stations.
Andrew Schwartzman, president of public interest group Media Access Project, said that before the FCC even considers relaxing the ownership rules, it must strengthen the existing framework by which radio and television stations have their licenses renewed, including requiring stations to air a minimum amount of local content.
Mark Cooper, of the Consumer Federation of America, said the FCC hadn't really examined the impact its ownership rules have on local content. If it did, he said, "it would find that the challenges to localism are great, and relaxing ownership limits will make it harder to achieve the goal of a broadcast media that is truly responsive to local needs."
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, also on the panel, said minority groups are underrepresented in mainstream media.
"We are gravely concerned that people of color own just 7 percent of the broadcast stations in this country," said Jackson. "This is a disgraceful level of inequality in one of the most important arenas of our economy and our democracy."
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, has proposed speeding up the review of the media ownership rules, with the aim of concluding the long-running proceeding by the end of the year.
This suggestion has been met with widespread criticism by a variety of groups and lawmakers who have said such a timeline would not give opponents of the proposed changes sufficient opportunity to consider them.
Martin has yet to release proposals for substantive changes. His office has said that he will release proposals in mid-November, before scheduling a vote by FCC commissioners in December.
He is known to favor scrapping the current ban on a single company owning a newspaper and television or radio station in the same market.
But Martin's position on the wider media ownership rules is unclear. He may not suggest significant changes to those rules, and could, in fact, propose facilitating greater access to media for women and minority groups.
Martin's predecessor as head of the agency, fellow Republican Michael Powell, attempted radical changes to media ownership rules in 2003, including essentially lifting caps on the number of newspapers, radio and television stations a single company could own.
The attempt was ultimately tossed out by the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, and the FCC has been reconsidering the ownership rules ever since. |