Cover-Up: FCC Buried Evidence to Protect Friends in Big Media
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There’s more on the story that under former FCC Chairman Michael Powell a federal study was buried that found media consolidation was harmful to local news reporting.
The study was commissioned in hopes it would show that consolidated ownership didn’t negatively impact local communities. The Associated Press reported Wednesday afternoon that upon seeing the results, it was ordered that “every last piece” of the study be destroyed.
Powell suppressed the 2004 study to protect the interests of his friends in the corporate media lobby. It revealed that locally owned stations produced more local news than those owned by media giants — such as ABC/Disney, Fox Television, Viacom and Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Here’s the study that Michael Powell didn’t want you to see: “Do Local Owners Deliver More Localism?” It shows that, on average, locally owned broadcasters devote an additional 20 to 25 percent of their newscasts to local news stories — approximately 5.5 more minutes per half hour broadcast. It also found that Network owned and operated stations (belonging to ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) aired significantly less local news.
The report was an inconvenience to Michael Powell, who, throughout his tenure at the FCC, aided efforts by large media companies to further consolidate their power over local news outlets.
Had it seen the light of day, the FCC and their Big Media allies could no longer deny that locally owned media do a better job of covering local news.
While Powell has left the FCC, his legacy is being carried forward by FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. The new chairman has made it clear that he intends to side with Big Media interests in the current rewrite of FCC ownership rules.
During Martin’s confrimation hearings earlier this week, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) asked him about the report, which was given to her by a whistle-blower, and pledged to pursue an investigation into its cover-up.
>> Watch Boxer grill Martin on the report.
On Thursday Free Press, Consumers Union and the Consumer Federation of America (all StopBigMedia.com Coalition members) sent a formal letter to the FCC urging Martin to: “immediately seek an independent investigation, through the Office of the Inspector General, to determine the circumstances under which the public was denied access to this important, taxpayer-funded research.”
In July, Martin kick started the latest effort to rewrite FCC rules when he asked the public to comment on his plans to let conglomerates buy up more local news outlets.
The only way to stop media is through public involvement in the rule making. Act now to rollback media consolidation and defend local control of our media.
[…] Stop Big Media has a leaked copy of the report the FCC doesn’t want us to see. […]
September 14th, 2006 at 6:52 pm[…] The whistleblower who made this report public, a former FCC lawyer, claims that “senior managers at the agency ordered that ‘every last piece’ of the report be destroyed. ‘The whole project was just stopped, end of discussion.” Not sure who those “senior managers” are. Some sites are claiming that the order to destroy was given by former FCC head Michael Powell (son of Colin Powell). This would make sense, as he created the localism task force, but I haven’t seen any evidence yet that Powell gave the kill command (Powell even hearing about the report). Powell has stepped down, and is being replaced by another pro-”free media market” commissioner, Kevin Martin. At his renomination hearings, Senator Barbara Boxer smacked him around a bit with news about this report, if you feel like watching the video. Martin has solemnly promised to find out what happened regarding the report, and says “it is unclear why this report was never released to the public.” Actually, it’s really, really clear. […]
September 15th, 2006 at 2:21 pmThe report the FCC doesn’t want you to read…
Four prominent public interest media reform groups — Free Press, Consumers Union, the Consumers Federation of America, and Media Access Project — have issued a letter to FCC Chair Kevin Martin urging him to investigate the allegations that important …
September 15th, 2006 at 4:37 pm[…] So it’s an especially big deal when the FCC buries, burns, or ignores reports that contain evidence that deregulation hurts consumers and local communities, aside from it being further evidence of secrecy and malfeasance in the federal government. One of the reports said consolidation in television station ownership resulted in less local news coverage; the other said deregulation of the radio industry had resulted in marked consolidation. […]
September 29th, 2006 at 8:37 am