Media Ownership Hearings Begin in California

From the Associated Press, October 4, 2006:

The battle over media consolidation began with hundreds of people, including actors, writers and musicians, imploring the Federal Communications Commission to prevent media conglomerates from growing even bigger.

Two FCC public hearings on the topic Tuesday resembled baseball playoff games with attendees whooping, clapping wildly and even booing as the five commissioners sat quietly and listened for more than seven hours.

Commission Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, has said he backs a repeal of the rule that restricts a company from owning both a newspaper and broadcast station in the same city.

With most U.S. cities supporting only one daily newspaper and usually 3 or 4 local news stations, allowing one company to own a newspaper and a TV station in a single market would give them dominating control over how people get their news. Repealing this restriction might also lead to a media conglomerate cutting back staff at either the newspaper, the TV station, or both, and produce content for both outlets out of the cut-back newsrooms.

There are arguments for repealing this restriction, however:

Several speakers supported lifting some restrictions, noting that advertisers were shifting their spending to the Internet and cable channels even as local TV stations find it more expensive to provide news coverage of their communities.

Paula Madison, president and general manager of KNBC in Los Angeles, noted that 90 percent of local content is provided by the largest media companies in the market, contrary to the "big media is bad media assumption."

At some point, putting newspapers and local TV stations under a single ownership umbrella, may be a financial necessity, but that should be a last resort. Ms. Madison's assertion may that 90 percent of local content is provided by the largest media companies may be true due to the disproportionate market share of conglomerates to local owners, but according to the recently released FCC report on local tv news stations, locally owned stations provide more local content per half-hour.

Interesting quotes from the hearing:

"Homogenization is good for milk, but bad for ideas." Patric Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America, west

"Locally owned newspapers, TV news and radio used to be the rule and not the exception." FCC member Michael Copps