> FAIR-L > Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting > Media analysis, critiques and news reports > >ACTION ALERT: >FCC Moves to Lift Cross-Ownership Ban > >October 26, 2001 > >Just two days after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and >the Pentagon, the FCC began to eliminate the last remaining shreds of >regulation on media concentration. With all eyes elsewhere, the FCC voted >unanimously to "review" laws that prohibit the same company from owning both >a newspaper and a TV station in the same geographic area, and laws that >limit the percent of the national audience that a single cable company can >reach. > >FCC chair Michael Powell has made no secret of his desire to abandon any >substantive public interest restrictions on the dominance of big media >corporations, claiming "the oppressor here is regulation." (See "Their Man >in Washington," http://www.fair.org/extra/0110/powell.html .) He even >presented this latest move as a patriotic act, declaring, "The flame of the >American ideal may flicker, but it will never be extinguished...We will do >our small part and press on with our business, solemnly, but resolutely." > >Pressure to drop the cross-ownership ban comes from companies like Rupert >Murdoch's News Corp., whose recent acquisition of station operator >Chris-Craft puts it in violation, giving it two TV stations and a newspaper >in New York City. (News Corp. already had a waiver to operate one TV station >and a newspaper in New York.) There are more than 40 markets with >newspaper-broadcast combinations already, most 'grandfathered' in when the >law was written in 1975. Other companies in violation of the law include the >Tribune Co. which owns TV-broadcast combinations in Los Angeles, New York, >Orlando and Chicago. > >Powell has called the cross-ownership ban "extremely prohibitive," and said >he sees no reason a city's TV station and newspaper shouldn't be controlled >by the same company. Indeed, media corporations routinely make deals that >violate existing law, so confident are they of the current anti-regulatory >climate-- "skating where the puck is going to be," is how one industry >analyst described it (L.A. Times, 9/14/01). > >Besides the wholly predictable result of a single company controlling a >town's TV stations, radio stations, cable company and only newspaper, >critics warn that elimination of this rule will essentially signal the >absorption of the newspaper business into the television industry, with a >negative impact on the quality of print journalism. Newspaper companies "see >savings in news gathering by combining with TV stations as a big plus," an >industry analyst told the L.A. Times (9/14/01), giving an indication that >the newly merged megacompanies would provide communities with less news, not >more. > >FCC reviews include a mandatory public comment period to give Americans a >chance to weigh in on proposed regulations. Examination of some previous >public comment periods shows that the comments received are often few and >are overwhelmingly drawn from media companies and industry trade >organizations. > >The deadline for comment on the cable ownership cap has been extended to >January 4, 2002; FAIR will release more information on that soon. More >urgent right now are comments about the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership >ban, which are due by December 3. > >At a time of crisis, the dangers of such overwhelming concentration in media >are more glaring than ever. The changes underway will make U.S. media even >less diverse, more commercial and less accountable to the public. > > >ACTION: Please let the FCC know that lifting the cross-ownership ban to >allow further media consolidation will not serve the public interest. > >Because the FCC has time-consuming requirements for email comments which >require that people format their message in a certain way, FAIR created a >form to simplify the process. You can submit comments to the FCC about >cross-ownership at: >http://www.fair.org/mailform.php > >For more details on the FCC's efforts to weaken ownership rules, see the >Center for Digital Democracy's in-depth resources: >http://www.democraticmedia.org/issues/mediaownership/index.html > > ---------- > >Feel free to respond to FAIR ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] ). We can't reply to >everything, but we will look at each message. We especially appreciate >documented example of media bias or censorship. And please send copies of >your email correspondence with media outlets, including any responses, to us >at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] . > >FAIR ON THE AIR: FAIR's founder Jeff Cohen is a regular panelist on the Fox >News Channel's "Fox News Watch," which airs which airs Saturdays at 6:30 pm >and Sundays at 11 pm (Eastern Standard Time). Check your local listings. > >FAIR produces CounterSpin, a weekly radio show heard on over 130 stations in >the U.S. and Canada. To find the CounterSpin station nearest you, visit >http://www.fair.org/counterspin/stations.html . > >Please support FAIR by subscribing to our bimonthly magazine, Extra! >For more information, go to: >http://www.fair.org/extra/subscribe.html . Or call 1-800-847-3993. > >FAIR's INTERNSHIP PROGRAM: FAIR accepts internship applications for its New >York office on a rolling basis. For more information, see: >http://www.fair.org/internships.html > >You can subscribe to FAIR-L at our web site: http://www.fair.org , or by >sending a "subscribe FAIR-L enter your full name" command to >[EMAIL PROTECTED] . Our subscriber list is kept confidential. > >You may leave the list at any time-- just send a message with "SIGNOFF >FAIR-L" in the body to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] . > > FAIR > (212) 633-6700 > http://www.fair.org/ > E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >list administrators: [EMAIL PROTECTED] "
