FCC OPTS FOR MORE MEDIA CONCENTRATION, REFORMERS PROTEST

December 19th, 2007 - by: danny

The FCC has Acted: Its Time To React.

FCC DOES THE DIRTY NEED
US SUPPORTS TURKISH ATTACK ON KURDS
MISERY DURING XMAS IN KATRINALAND

B&C: FCC Adopts 30% Cable Ownership Cap

The Federal Communications Commission adopted a rule Tuesday afternoon that bars any cable company in the U.S. from serving more than 30% of all pay-TV subscribers nationally.

AP: WASHINGTON – The Federal Communications Commission, overturning a 32-year-old ban, voted Tuesday to allow broadcasters in the nation’s 20 largest media markets to also own a newspaper.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin was joined by his two Republican colleagues in favor of the proposal, while the commission’s two Democrats voted against it.

Note: Just before the vote some folks vocalized their opposition to Martin’s proposal. They were removed

BEFORE THE VOTE: GAO report disputes FCC media data

On the eve of a controversial vote that critics say could limit the number of voices in local journalism, the federal Government Accountability Office is reporting that the number of women- and minority-owned broadcast outlets “appears to be limited.”

MEDIA REFORMERS REACT

StopBiGMedia.com: WASHINGTON — The new media ownership rules passed by a 3-to-2, party-line vote at the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday are far worse for the public interest — and more favorable to Big Media companies — than anything FCC Chairman Kevin Martin previously revealed to the public.

“Martin’s claims that consumer groups approve of these new rules couldn’t be farther from the truth,” said Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press. “What the FCC passed today is significantly worse than indicated in his proposal by press release. The waivers and giant loopholes contained in these new rules could spell disaster for citizens everywhere.”

The majority of the FCC voted to approve more than 40 “waivers” for pre-existing cross-owned combinations in markets large and small. These waivers will shield companies like Tribune, News Corp., Media General and Gannett from even the weak standards of Martin’s new media ownership rules.

Free Press: It happened. A few minutes ago, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and his two fellow GOP commissioners approved new rules that will unleash a flood of media consolidation across America. The rules will further consolidate local media markets — taking away independent voices in cities already woefully short on local news and investigative journalism.

In 2003, the FCC tried to do the same thing, but millions of people demanded that Congress reject the FCC’s rules. And they did. It’s time to do it again.

Charles Benton of the Benton Foundation:

Acting on a remand by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Prometheus Radio Project, et al. v. FCC., 373 F.3d 372 (2004), the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) majority today decided to lift the ban on common ownership of newspapers and broadcast outlets in the same local communities. The following comments can be attributed to Charles Benton, Chairman and CEO of the Benton Foundation and member of the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee:

The Commission missed the mark today, both in its decision and how it reached it. In evidence the Benton Foundation and many others around the country delivered to the FCC over the past 18 months demonstrate, the diversity of media ownership in the US is a disgrace. The FCC actions today will exacerbate this problem.

CHICAGO MEDIA ACTION: Chicago Media Action (CMA) is dismayed at the FCC’s repeal of the TV-newspaper cross-ownership rule. The FCC has ignored nearly unanimous public input opposing media concentration — including hundreds of Chicagoans who attended a September 2007 FCC hearing in Chicago to air their opposition to the FCC firsthand. The undemocratic and dysfunctional FCC ignores such widespread sentiment at its peril.

The FCC’s “slight” revision of the rule is so loophole-laden that it would leave the rule practically eviscerated. Moreover, the newspaper industry, by its own assessment and despite recent downturns, is not “dying” but rather is hugely profitable

COMMON CAUSE: Common Cause President Bob Edgar made the following comment:

“The FCC still doesn’t seem to get it: Media consolidation is bad for America,” said Bob Edgar, president of Common Cause. “Today’s vote to allow greater media consolidation is merely a handout to big business at the expense of the public. For Americans to get the information they need to participate in our democracy, we need more diverse sources of information — not fewer.”

Common Cause on Monday released a report in collaboration with the Media Access Project and Econometric Research and Analysis highlighting process problems at the FCC and offering recommendations to the FCC on being more responsive to the public interest. The report is available at www.commoncause.org/PainlessFCCReforms.”

Actually this morming the Wall Street Journal ran a front page story saying that the industry was “Seething”

OTHE MEDIA NEWS”

Explosion at News Corp Building Evacuates 700

A small explosion rocked the News Corp. building in midtown Manhattan on Monday, leading to the evacuation of about 700 people. The explosion occurred on a top floor that houses heating and cooling systems. Fox News Channel and the New York Post are located on lower floors.

IWM: Hollywood Writers Reject Oscars, Golden Globes

The Writers Guild of America, West, will not allow its members to write for the Golden Globes on Jan. 13 nor the Academy Awards on Feb. 24, according to a source close to the guild. Jon Stewart, who is slated to host this year’s Academy Awards, is yet to comment.

64 journalists died covering news in ’07 – Yahoo! News

Should Media Make Mass Killers ‘Famous’?

AP: NEW YORK – “Just think tho,” wrote the 19-year-old Omaha shooter in his suicide note. Should the media have denied Robert Hawkins the odious fame he coveted, by refusing to identify him by name? It’s an intriguing idea, and one that’s been suggested by several media columnists since the horrible rampage earlier this month.

NOT EVRYONE SUPPORTS THE STRIKE FOR THE SAME REASONS
Writers Strike Opens Door for Non-Whites on TV

The News Dissector