By Rosa Maria Santana, National Association of Hispanic Journalists
Musicians, housewives, dentists, professors, politicians, Hollywood producers and retirees approached the microphone before the Federal Communications Commissioners and reprimanded them for allowing big media companies get even bigger.
Some came in business suits. Others wore Birkenstocks and dreadlocks. They were white, African American, Latino, Chicano, Asian American, Arab American, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, atheists and agnostics.
Hundreds of people from all walks of life had the same message: Stop the dominance of big media companies.
In early October, the FCC hosted its first official public hearing on media ownership in Los Angeles, bringing all five commissioners together. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said the commission will hold six official public hearings throughout the country in the upcoming months as it reviews limits in media ownership and considers changing them.
In 2003, the FCC in a 3-2 vote loosened media ownership rules and increased the number of radio and television stations and newspapers one media company can own in a city. The controversial decision sparked a public outcry. The two Democratic commissioners voted against loosening the rules. A federal appeals court blocked the changes.
"Now, we're back at square one,"? said Michael Copps, one of the commissioners who opposed the changes to the ownership rules three years ago. "It's all up for grabs, and if we're going to do a better job this time around, it's going to be because of input from folks like you."
In Los Angeles, Chicago-based Tribune Co. owns both the Los Angeles Times and KTLA-TV Channel 5.
Over and over again, the FCC heard this message: One corporate media voice controlling the media landscape of a particular city stifles diversity of opinion. Here's a sample of what was said:
"You have the keys to communications in your hands,"? said Summer Reese, who lives in a rural area outside of Los Angeles. "You are responsible for whether we hear what's going on in this country!"
"A vote against media consolidation is a vote for democracy," said Karen Wade, who works for a Los Angeles foundation that tries to alleviate the digital divide.
"Concentration of (media) ownership means that the largest population, here, in Southern California who are Latinos, over two-thirds of which are native born, who live in English don't get to see themselves on English-language television," producer Moctezuma Esparza said. "We are 28 percent of everyone who is under 30 and we're invisible in television ... That is not the American dream."
I've since read news stories that compared the energy at the Los Angeles hearing to raucous football games - and I've shook my head in disbelief.
There was more at stake than just two competing teams at a football game. The hundreds who testified were more than spectators sitting on the sidelines.
They were proud citizens who longed for the concept of a government for the people, by the people.
"Twenty years ago, when I entered this business there were 29 dominant entertainment firms, with $100 billion in annual revenue," said Patric Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America, west. Today, there are six, making nearly $400 billion.
"Fifteen years ago, less than a third of writing employment was controlled by these firms. Today, they control over 80 percent of it," Verrone said. "Homogenization is good for milk, but bad for ideas."?
Unions representing actors and Hollywood producers were in full force.
The airwaves belong to the American people and we believe it's time for them to take them back,� said John Connolly, national president of the American Federation of Television Radio Artists.
Whenever a fired-up speaker ended his or her speech, some would yell, "Amen!" as if we were in church listening to a preacher. Some triumphantly raised their arms in the air after testifying, as if they had scored a winning goal or finished singing a song at a rock concert.
A man yelled to the commissioners, "Are you listening??"
Copps and his colleague Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein - heard us. They voted against the changes three years ago and haven't backed down since.
"Some among us see our diversity as a problem to be overcome," Copps said. I say our diversity is an opportunity to be harnessed. It's our strength; it's who we are and it's what we can be. This city (of Los Angeles) contains a multitude of races, religions, traditions and stories. We need all these perspectives on whether the public airwaves here, in L.A., are being used to reflect those traditions and stories, or whether they only distort and caricaturize them.�
Amen!
I also testified. I'm concerned that 1.1 percent of all U.S. commercial television stations are owned by Latinos, even though Hispanics make up 14 percent of this country's population. I'm worried that African Americans only own 1.3 percent of all television stations, despite the fact that they comprise about 13 percent of the U.S. population.
Those statistics are unacceptable. This has to change.
In Los Angeles, hundreds gave Chairman Martin an earful.
Will it make a difference? Stay tuned.
The marriage of Comcast and NBC is bad news for consumers. But Washington and Wall Street have already bought into the idea that it's a done deal. That's why Americans need to speak out now and stop the mega-merger!
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