North Carolina Speaks Out on Media Consolidation
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.”
