Archive for June, 2006
Thursday, June 29th, 2006 by tkarr
A standing-room only crowd of more than 400 people packed a “Town Meeting on the Future of the Media” on Thursday night, voicing concerns about greater media consolidation to Federal Communications Commissioners Michael J. Copps and Jonathan Adelstein.
The Asheville forum was the first public forum since the FCC launched its latest review of media ownership rules. “I’m sad to report that the large media companies got just what they wanted,” Adelstein said of the FCC’s new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. “Last week, they got a wide open notice that’s essentially a blank check to permit further media consolidation, without any accountability to local communities.”
“I don’t think I exaggerate at all,” Copps told the audience at Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, “in saying that the issue is whether a few large conglomerates will be ceded content control over our music, entertainment and information; gatekeeper control over the civil dialogue of our country; and veto power over they majority of what we and our families, watch, hear and read.”
The commissioners listened to more than five hours of public testimony from local residents, as well as dozens of people who traveled to the event from across North Carolina and as far away as Nashville, Tennessee. Free Press recorded all testimony and will submit it to the FCC and North Carolina’s congressional delegation.
A panel discussion before the public testimony included Wally Bowen, executive director of the Mountain Area Information Network, James F. Goodmon, President & CEO, Capitol Broadcasting Company, John Hayes, executive director, Empowerment Resource Center; David McConnville, founder, Media Arts Project; Ken Salyer, vice president/market manager, Clear Channel Asheville; Gustavo Silva, Coalición del Organazaciones Latino Americanas (COLA); and Virgil Smith, publisher, Asheville Citizen-Times.
Here’s some of what they had to say:
Wally Bowen of MAIN:
“The struggle we face today is to reclaim some portion of the public airwaves for public-interest use focused on the needs of local communities. It’s time to return the public airwaves of Western North Carolina to the people who live and work in Western North Carolina.”
Virgil Smith of the Gannett-owned Citizen Times:
“Common ownership enhances coverage, without compromising the editorial independence of the newspaper… It would open up a multitude of opportunities for additional news and information products to be provided to consumers.”
Ken Salyer of Clear Channel:
“While opposing viewpoints indicate that consolidation is a negative for local communities. We believe we’ve utilized it to the advantage of our community by combining our resources to serve the community on a larger scale than would otherwise be possible.”
Jim Goodmon disputed the altruistic motives of these large chains:
“Clear Channel didn’t buy these stations to do ‘Tools for Schools… They did it to make lots of money. It’s not about serving the community or local autonomy. They want these stations because they want more money.”
David McConville of Asheville’s Media Arts Project:
“While large media conglomerates and their paid spokespeople praise the free market and complain about government regulation, they’ve hypocritically depended on the government-granted monopolies over the past 80 years to get to where they are today.”
Opening the event Josh Silver of Free Press said:
“Despite the fact that 95 percent of the people are against further consolidation, the FCC seems to be moving in the opposite direction. Speaker after speaker in Asheville made it clear that they want policies that encourage more diverse, independent and local viewpoints. We hope all the commissioners will go out across the country and listen to the voices of real people before making such monumental media policy decisions.”
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Tuesday, June 27th, 2006 by tkarr
Asheville residents will get a say in the debate over media consolidation on June 28 during a “Town Meeting on the Future of the Media” featuring Federal Communications Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps.
The meeting is separate from six public hearings the FCC has said it plans to hold. However, comments at the Asheville hearing will be entered into the public record and given to the FCC and North Carolina officials.The event is being organized by Free Press in partnership with local groups in the Asheville community.
Wally Bowen, founder of Mountain Area Information Network and an Asheville media advocate, told the Asheville Citizen-Times that he expects a large crowd to attend and voice their opinions on media concentration. “We’re expecting possibly 500 people. The commissioners have said they will stay as long as people want to speak.” (Also read Commissioner Copps’ op-ed in the Citizen-Times)
Bowen’s group is a part of the StopBigMedia.com coalition that has formed to fight runaway media consolidation and urge the FCC to put the public interest before the self-interest of large media corporations.
Although he has called for a process of public review, FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin will be absent from this hearing in his home state. Martin has supported eliminating the three-decade-old flat ban on cross-ownership. Earlier this year he called on newspaper publishers to help justify this repeal. Martin has been reluctant to reveal the extent to which he plans to re-write ownership rules.
Click here to learn more about the Asheville hearing.
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Friday, June 23rd, 2006 by tkarr
Communities across the United States should take note of what the FCC is doing and speak out before the federal agency allows the conglomerates to “gobble up” more local media, writes Ryan Blethen of the Seattle Times.
In a Times editorial Friday, Blethen calls on Americans of every persuasion to demand that the FCC hears their concerns about big media control of local news and information:
“Write your congressmen. Write your senators. Go to the public meetings the FCC plans to hold around the country. Tell the FCC to ensure that your press stays independent. If your newspaper or TV station is not covering this issue, ask the editor or producer why not.
“It is time to panic. Our democracy will only suffer if the bland, monolithic media machine is allowed to suck up more press outlets.”
Earlier in the week, a Seattle Times editorial called upon the FCC to have hearings across the country. “Let them come here, and this community will give them an earful,” the paper wrote.
In fact, a public hearing starring at least two FCC commissioners is set for June 28 in Asheville, North Carolina. The event – the first of its kind since the FCC announced its plans to rewrite ownership rules on Wednesday – is being facilitated by StopBigMedia.com coordinator Free Press, in partnership with local activists and media reform groups. (For more about the Asheville hearing visit www.freepress.net/future/=asheville) .
“We’re going to do more studies and more hearings than have been done before,” FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters on Wednesday. “We’re going to have a longer comment period, so we’re going to try to seek greater public input.”
We need to watch Martin closely and hold him to this commitment. It’s clear who he’s been listening to in the debate over concentration. He has supported eliminating the three-decade-old flat ban on television-newspaper cross-ownership and in April called on newspaper publishers to join him to help justify the repeal.
When in 2003, Martin’s predecessor Michael Powell faced broad public opposition to further media consolidation, his response was to attend no further public hearings. This time around Martin can’t pull a “Powell” and close his office to the concerns of the people he really represents.
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Wednesday, June 21st, 2006 by caaron
The Federal Communications Commission today launched its latest attempt to change longstanding rules on local media ownership. StopBigMedia.com called for greater public involvement and more details on the specific changes Chairman Kevin Martin actually plans to push through later this year.
At a meeting today in Washington, the FCC issued a “Notice of Proposed Rulemaking,” the first step in any new media ownership regulations. But Martin did not outline exact rules the FCC could implement by the end of the year.
“This innocuous-looking document initiates the single most important public policy debate that the FCC will tackle this year,” said Commissioner Michael Copps. “Don’t let its slimness fool you. It means that this Commission has begun to decide on behalf of the American people the future of our media. It means deciding whether or not to accelerate media concentration, step up the loss of local news and change forever the critical role independent newspapers perform for our country.”
The commissioners voted to launch the new process with partial dissents from Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Copps.
“The manner in which the Commission is launching this critical proceeding is totally inadequate,” Adelstein said. “It is like submitting a high-school term paper for a Ph.D. thesis. The large media companies wanted, and today they get, a blank check to permit further media consolidation.”
The new rulemaking allows 120 days for public comment, and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin pledged at today’s hearing to hold “half a dozen” public hearings and conduct independent studies. Numerous members of the StopBigMedia.com Coalition responded:
“For far too long, media policy in this country has been made behind closed doors in the public’s name but without our informed consent,” said Robert W. McChesney, president of Free Press. “Despite overwhelming public opposition to greater media consolidation from across the entire political spectrum, the FCC and industry lobbyists are trying to sneak through the same misguided rules rejected in 2003. Chairman Kevin Martin appears to have learned little from the last ownership rules debacle. But the public’s views are clear: Big Media is already big enough.”
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Monday, June 19th, 2006 by caaron
As the Federal Communications Commission takes the first steps toward enacting sweeping changes to the nation’s media ownership rules, a diverse alliance of consumer, civil rights, labor and media reform groups is speaking out against greater media consolidation.
The FCC is expected to start a new rulemaking process this week that could allow a handful of media corporations to swallow up more local television channels, radio stations and newspapers. A draft proposal indentifying which rules are up for revision is expected to be considered at the FCC’s June 21 meeting.
The StopBigMedia.com campaign is mobilizing broad public opposition to any FCC ruling that would hand over more control of local media to the nation’s largest media corporations. Working together with millions of Americans, we will make the public voice heard before the FCC allows big media to become even bigger.
Take a look around — and get ready.
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