FCC Buries Report Showing Local Owners Do More Local News
Posted September 13th, 2006 by Craig Aaron
At yesterday’s Senate reconfirmation hearing for FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, California Democrat Barbara Boxer expressed outrage that the FCC had suppressed a two-year-old study showing that locally owned stations produce more local news than those owned by media giants.
StopBigMedia.com has obtained a copy of the draft report – and it’s a blockbuster.
Titled “Do Local Owners Do More Localism? Some Evidence from Local Broadcast News,” the study shows locally owned stations produced five-and-a-half minutes more local news in a half-hour newscast than their consolidated competitors — meaning 33 more hours of local news per year.
The study also found:
- Locally owned stations also aired 3.5 more minutes’ worth of on-location local news reports than non-locally owned stations.
- Network owned and operated stations (those owned by ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) aired significantly less local news.
- Owners who controlled stations in multiple markets aired less local news content.
- Station owners who also control newspapers did not air more local news content.
- Owners who also controlled radio stations aired significantly less local TV news content.
The report was originally commissioned in 2004 by former Chairman Michael Powell – who hoped to show that media concentration didn’t impact localism. But when his own researchers found the opposite result, he buried the results.
Someone leaked a copy to Senator Boxer – who scolded the agency for failing to make such significant findings public.
“Now this is not a matter or national security, for God’s sake,” Boxer said. “This is important information about issues that are key to the people. So I don’t understand who deep-sixed this thing. I’m going to get to the bottom of it and find out if any commissioners saw this.”
Martin – who was a commissioner at the time — denied any knowledge of the study but promised to read it and fold it into the long-mothballed localism proceeding started by Powell.
Click Here to file your comments about the cover-up to the FCC
Click here to listen to the hearing
Click here to read the full report
[...] Stop Big Media [...]
September 14th, 2006 at 6:17 pm[...] In 2004, the FCC “ordered its staff to destroy all copies of a draft study that suggested greater concentration of media ownership would hurt local TV news coverage,” the AP reports. StopBigMedia.com has a copy of the study. [...]
September 15th, 2006 at 9:14 amFCC Buries Report Showing Local Media Owners Do More Local News…
“This report doesn’t show that greater media control is in the public’s interest — kill it!”…
September 15th, 2006 at 12:11 pm[...] Locally owned media does news better, concludes the FCC in a report it tried to hide. Why does deregulation always seem to scr*w the consumer? (Hat tip Granny.) [...]
September 15th, 2006 at 2:17 pm[...] Media is reporting that the former shill for corporate media giants, FCC Chairman Michael Powell, buried a report he commissioned in 2004 because it showed that locally-owned broadcasters produce more local news than stations owned by [...]
September 4th, 2007 at 10:24 am[...] Research shows that locally owned broadcast TV and radio stations give more time to local news and public affairs programs that are of concern to local people. Additional research shows that local ownership leads to a greater diversity of viewpoints on the airwaves. And common sense suggests that a large number of local owners in a given community are going to foster more competition than a few mega corporate owners. These three principals – localism, diversity, and competition – are at the heart of the FCC’s mission. [...]
February 12th, 2008 at 10:55 am