Archive for May, 2007
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007 by Jen Howard
In a recent article with the editor of TV Newsday, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps discussed his number one media policy goal — holding broadcasters accountable to the public interest for the privilege of using publicly owned airwaves.
Throughout the interview, Copps proved that he is not afraid to answer the tough questions. When asked why he opposes small market consolidation, given the supposed expense of helping local broadcasters “maintain their margins, maintain their profitability,” Copps drives right to the heart of the issue:
“I’m not convinced that we’re dealing with a lot of distress here… the fact of the matter is, I think most broadcast stations are still doing pretty good whether you’re talking 20% or 30% or 40% on margin. I mean, that’s not bad. I wish I had some investments like that.”
And his response to “doesn’t a business have a right to grow its profitability?” was equally straightforward. “This is an industry that a little different than most,” says Copps. “This is an industry that’s predicated on the use of the public airwaves and there is a solemn obligation that is undertaken by the broadcaster when he or she gets those airwaves for free to serve the public interest.”
A tribute to his dedication and hard work as a champion of the public interest, TV Newsday notes, “What really bugs broadcasters about Copps is that even as a member of the FCC’s Democratic minority he has been highly effective.”
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Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 by Jen Howard
Despite calls for change from the media and the viewing public, women and people of color are still grossly underrepresented in our country’s newscasts. On the heels of the national controversy sparked by Don Imus’ racist remarks last month, Media Matters has released two studies exposing the persistent lack of diversity on television news.
The first study, “Locked Out: The Lack of Gender & Ethnic Diversity on Cable News Continues,” shows how few women and people of color appear on the five cable networks (CNBC, CNN, CNN Headline News, MSNBC and Fox News Channel). In fact, besides featuring more African-American guests during the Imus scandal, members of all minority groups were “scarcely seen” as guests on the shows airing between 4 p.m. and midnight. And women comprised as little as 20 percent of all guests. The study also found that there were no minority hosts on the shows airing after 4 p.m. on any of the five networks and just a small percentage of female hosts.
The most recent report, “Sunday Shutout: The Lack of Gender & Ethnic Diversity on the Sunday Morning Talk Shows,” documents how women and people of color are rarely featured on the influential Sunday talk shows. Their analysis of NBC’s Meet the Press, ABC’s This Week, CBS’s Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday found that men outnumber women by a 4-to-1 ratio. And there were between seven to nine white guests for every minority guest, depending on the show.
When combined with the results of the Out of the Picture study, which found that only a tiny percentage of women and people of color own broadcast TV stations, an appalling lack of media diversity is revealed — both on and off the air. Only 3 percent of the broadcast television stations are owned by minorities, and 5 percent of the stations are owned by women. This imbalance has spawned mainstream media that don’t represent the views of most Americans — but make huge profits off the public airwaves.
Our country needs media policies that give more women and people of color access to our airwaves. Before the FCC considers rules that would place more control in even fewer hands, it should first address its mandate to ensure media diversity.
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Tuesday, May 8th, 2007 by Jen Howard
This week, Robert W. McChesney, president and co-founder of Free Press, and Glenn Reynolds, blogger at Instapundit.com, are discussing the future of media in a five-part series — Dust Up — on the L.A. Times Web site.
Each day, they address a different aspect of the media system — from the state of contemporary news, to citizen journalism, to the future role of the FCC. McChesney analyzes the impact of consolidation, while Reynolds examines the role of new media technologies.
In the first installment, McChesney exposes the underbelly of a commercialized, consolidated media — declining local and foreign news, overemphasis on celebrity fluff, inadequate campaign coverage, and failure to expose government corruption.
Reynolds’ installment outlines how new technologies are fragmenting Big Media’s audience while exploding the number of competitors. (Although it’s a stretch to say that a local blog is a direct competitor to a broadcast TV station.)
Today’s discussion focused on whether citizen journalism can replace traditional media. Both McChesney and Reynolds agreed that traditional media organizations have more infrastructure and resources to cover news and that the quality of mainstream journalism is rapidly eroding.
But where Reynolds sees the crisis in journalism as the result of executive mismanagement, McChesney points to the structural crisis caused by consolidation. As McChesney points out:
“Journalism cannot be done entirely on the cheap or in someone’s spare time, even the expanded spare time of the digital era. We need effective policies to promote the institutional foundation of a free press.”
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s discussion on American newspapers.
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Tuesday, May 1st, 2007 by Jen Howard
Hundreds spoke out against media consolidation last night at the fourth official FCC hearing in Tampa. Hours before the event started, local residents were arriving by the dozens, eager to sign up for their chance to testify.
Media General’s TBO.com — part of the “convergence project” that combined its TV station, newspaper and online hub under one roof — streamed the event live, but some puzzling interruptions peppered the broadcast.
>>>Click here to view the convergence project in action
Small business owners, scholars and local residents outlined the harmful impact of convergence and consolidation on quality local journalism, competition and diversity.
“My newspaper now faces competition from Centro Mi Diario, a Spanish language publication started by Media General a year ago,” said Patrick Manteiga, owner of La Gaceta, a small, family-owned, trilingual newspaper. “But I am not competing against Centro; I am competing against the unlimited resources of the Tampa Tribune, WFLA-TV and TBO.com. This kind of competition is meant to put us — and all the other independent Spanish newspapers — out of business by cutting off our revenue and separating us from our communities.”
“When media companies converge operations, managers urge or even require staffers to spend less time reporting and more time on television,” said panelist Eric Klinenberg, author of Fighting for Air and associate professor of sociology at New York University. “With cross-ownership, citizens are exposed to fewer perspectives than when TV stations and newspapers are separately owned.
Tampa’s citizens aired their concerns late into the evening — highlighting the poor quality of local news and programming, lack of diversity over the airwaves and the lack of local voices from Big Media outlets.
“To keep up with the need for ever-expanding profits, and with no real competition, dailies like the Sarasota Herald Tribune cut corners by outsourcing much of their local news coverage to freelancers like myself,” testified Brandy Doyle, a reporter at the New York Times Co.-owned paper. “And with more consolidation, it’s only going to get worse.”
The hearing also featured the usual line up of industry shills claiming that lifting ownership limits would help companies compete on new media platforms — an argument blasted by Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps.
“It is wrong to blame ownership rules — intended to protect the public interest — as the reason for failing to develop profitable business models on new platforms,” said Commissioner Adelstein. “Repurposing one local newspaper story on the radio and TV does very little for quality journalism — and it harms small business competitors, the backbone of the American economy.”
“Let’s make sure that all that new digital capacity we’re giving broadcasters returns something positive for our communities, local talent and civic issues coverage,” said Commissioner Copps. “If your local broadcaster can multi-cast half-a-dozen program streams, is it too much to expect that some good portion of that be used to enhance localism and diversity?”
A broad coalition of local and national groups worked to turn out the public to the Tampa event.
“There’s been a lot of local buzz about this hearing,” said second-generation Tampa native Lucy Griggs. “This is a rare public opportunity to talk about our media. People are really excited to be able to participate in our democracy at a national level.”
To read more about the official FCC public hearing in Tampa, visit www.stopbigmedia.com/=tampa
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