Archive for June, 2007
Friday, June 29th, 2007 by tkarr
Bill Moyers has put into words the anguish many feel over the pending takeover of the Wall Street Journal by Murdoch Inc.
“When it comes to Money and power [Murdoch] is carnivorous all appetite and no taste. He’ll eat anything in his path,” Moyers says in a video commentary posted on YouTube earlier today. “He hires lobbyists the way Imelda Marcos bought shoes. He stacks them in his cavernous closet along with his conscience.”
The commentary will air on PBS tonight as the closing segment of Bill Moyers Journal. (Check local listings).
“Rupert Murdoch has told the Bancrofts he’ll not meddle with reporting. But he’s accustomed to using journalism as a personal spittoon,” Moyers says. “His worst offense with Fox News is not even its baldly partisan agenda. Far worse is the travesty he’s made of its journalism. Fox News huffs and puffs, pontificates and proclaims, but does little serious original reporting.”
Now Murdoch is vying to bring under his wing one of the best national newspapers we have left. With so much of the national news agenda being filtered through the lenses of a few companies, it’s time we thought twice about the ways we allow these massive conglomerates to gobble up local outlets and dominate local airwaves for private gain.
“The problem isn’t just Rupert Murdoch,” Moyers concludes. “His pursuit of the Wall Street Journal is the latest in a cascading series of mergers, buyouts and other financial legerdemain that is making a shipwreck of journalism. … Instead of checking the excesses of private and public power, these 21st-century barons of the First Amendment revel in them. The public be damned.”
Watch the video.
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Friday, June 29th, 2007 by jhoward
Yesterday, hundreds attended an official FCC localism hearing to express their frustration with the dwindling number of locally owned radio and television stations.
 Portland Speaks Out |
“I can remember when our newspapers, radio and TV stations were locally owned,” said Elery Keene of Winslow, Maine, one of dozens who signed up to testify. “I could talk to the owners personally, and they had a vested interest in the welfare of our community. The owners of our mega media systems do not. I appeal to the FCC to fix this broken system.”
In exchange for their free use of the public airwaves, radio and TV broadcasters are required by the FCC to air programming that is relevant and responsive to the local community’s needs.
“Tonight we continue a truly remarkable grassroots dialogue about the future of our media,” said Commissioner Michael Copps. “And I hope there will be some discussion about the future of low-power radio and television, because in an age of consolidation, they are often the last bastions for media diversity and media democracy.”
All three of the major TV network affiliates in Portland were locally owned until a decade ago, when out-of-state companies Hearst-Argyle, Sinclair and Gannett snapped up the stations — and there is just one remaining local radio station owner on Portland’s commercial radio dial.
“Frankly, the FCC has failed to protect the interests of the American people,” said Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein. ” The end result is that today many stations are unattended and operated from remote locations; residents are discouraged from monitoring a station’s performance; and dialogue between the station and its community is too often non-existent.”
The commissioners listened to hours of citizen concerns about the quality of local news and programming, lack of diversity over the airwaves, and numerous presentations from local broadcasters.
“After the Telecom Act of 1996, half of the radio stations in the Midcoast area became Clear Channel properties — operated by strangers a long way from Main Street,” said panelist Chellie Pingree, former president of Common Cause and Maine state legislator. “This story could be repeated across Maine and across the country. I believe that there is much damage to be undone.”
A broad coalition of local and national groups worked to increase public awareness of the Portland event.
To listen to the hearing, visit www.stopbigmedia.com/=portland.
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Tuesday, June 26th, 2007 by jhoward
The FCC has released details of its panelist lineup for this week’s localism hearing in Portland. The two panels include both industry folks like the Maine Association of Broadcasters President Suzanne Goucher, and staunch supporters of local media like Tim Stone, who operates WSCA-LP, a low power radio station directly serving the needs of the community.
It promises to be an interesting debate.
For the full agenda, read the FCC’s release.
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Monday, June 25th, 2007 by jhoward
In anticipation of the FCC Localism Hearing on June 28, FCC Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein have published an op-ed in the Portland Press Herald asking “whether Mainers have the kind of media outlets they want and need.”
Urging the public to attend the hearing, the commissioners want to know if local residents feel they “are well-served by the media served up to them,” writing that “when it comes to the fate of the people’s airwaves — your airwaves — no voices should be as important as yours.”
The op-ed ran in Sunday’s paper, alongside a feature article on the hearing spotlighting the current media ownership situation in Portland. The article used two real world examples to explain the problem of non-local ownership — and the benefits of locally owned and produced media.
On the positive side, a local radio broadcasting company decided to switch from a nationally syndicated sports program to one that is locally produced and features “year-round” discussions of local teams — a move that caused ratings to climb.
On the flip side, the non-local owner of one of Portland’s TV stations drew widespread local complaints by following the nightly newscast with “commentary taped at the station owner’s home office in Baltimore” giving local residents no opportunity to respond.
These examples underscore the driving point of the FCC Commissioners’ op-ed:
Americans want to listen to hometown talent on the radio and to see local issues and politicians covered on the nightly news. They want to know what’s really going on in their neighborhoods and to see the essentials of their lives reported accurately to the larger world.
If you’re in the Portland area, attend free local workshops to help craft your testimony. Then make sure to come out and testify.
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Friday, June 22nd, 2007 by tkarr
A study released on Wednesday by Free Press and the Center for American Progress lays bare what is obvious to many: Talk radio is a chorus of right-wing voices.
“The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio” found that 91 percent of weekday talk formats are given over to right-wing programming. No surprise, really, but good to have further evidence.
What’s more revealing is the report’s discovery that radio’s absence of real fairness and balance is a byproduct of problems in the way federal regulators dole out access to our public airwaves.
Big media lobbyists have struck a cozy bargain with allies on the Federal Communications Commission to gut ownership limits that protect localism, diversity and competition on the airwaves. Broadcasters and the FCC have shown almost complete disregard for the public interest requirements written into their licenses.
It’s the Structure, Stupid
Here’s the rub. The lack of ownership diversity spawned by this structural failure at the FCC is perhaps the single most potent ingredient in the often caustic right-wing tilt of the radio dial.
Free Press analyzed all 10,506 licensed commercial radio stations to find that stations owned by women, minorities or local owners are statistically less likely to air conservative hosts or shows. But stations controlled by group owners — those with more than three stations in a single market or that own stations in multiple towns — were statistically more likely to air conservative talk.
“Off the Dial,” a Free Press report released earlier this month, revealed a dismally low level of minority ownership of radio stations in America. While racial or ethnic minorities account for one-third of the U.S. population, they own just 7.7 percent of all commercial broadcast radio stations. (Women, who make up half the population, own less than 6 percent of full-power stations.)
The Free Press report also found that no minority-owned stations aired “Imus in the Morning” at the time of its cancellation. Moreover, minority-owned stations and minority-owned talk and news format stations were significantly less likely to air “The Rush Limbaugh Show.”
Taken together, the stark findings raise legitimate concerns about whether the companies licensed to broadcast over the public airwaves are serving the listening needs and interests of all Americans.
Right-Wing Knees Jerk
The reports’ authors recommend ways to bring more voices to talk radio. They conclude we need to restore caps on the ownership of commercial radio stations and ensure greater local accountability for broadcast license holders.
The policy proposals are in no way a call for censorship or the removal of any voice from the airwaves. On the contrary, they would result in more localized and diverse types of programming. Their aim is to restore the pact between broadcasters and their listeners: In exchange for licenses worth billions of dollars, you will address the concerns of the community across which your radio signals are beamed.
This simple prescription for more diverse, democratic and accountable radio programming has set off a firestorm among the more rabid wing of the conservative blogosphere.
The release of the report over at ThinkProgress.org was flooded by nearly 4,000 comments, most from the angry right. Their near total failure to address the substance of the report was matched only by the shrillness of their comments.
Many joined in mis-characterizing the report and its authors as calling for the Fairness Doctrine to be restored.
In reality, they never argue for a return of the Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasters devote airtime to important and controversial issues and provide contrasting views on these issues.
The report specifically states that the Fairness Doctrine “was never, by itself, an effective tool to ensure the fair discussion of important issues.”
More Voices a Rallying Cry for Everyone
The report has clearly touched a raw nerve among these folks. Perhaps their attack is prompted more out of fear than anger. Fear of a media system that better reflects the diversity of the Americans it’s supposed to serve - and one that is less of an echo chamber for those that now control what millions of people hear when they scan the dial.
“Our goal is not less speech, it’s more speech,” said Ben Scott, policy director for Free Press and co-author of the report. “We want more voices on the radio.”
Isn’t conservatism all about localism? What could be more local than radio programming that’s rooted in the community?
This sort of independence and diversity in the media should be a rallying cry for true conservatives and not cause for division and alarm.
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Friday, June 22nd, 2007 by caaron
Yesterday, the Center for American Progress and Free Press released a new study on political talk radio, which found a striking imbalance between conservative and progressive programming.
The study found:
- On the 257 news/talk stations owned by the top five commercial station owners, 91 percent of the total weekday talk radio programming is conservative, while just 9 percent is progressive.
- Each weekday, 2,570 hours and 15 minutes of conservative talk are broadcast on these stations compared to 254 hours of progressive talk — 10 times as much conservative talk as progressive talk.
- A separate analysis of all of the news/talk stations in the top 10 radio markets reveals that 76 percent of the programming in these markets is conservative and 24 percent is progressive, although programming is more balanced in markets such as New York and Chicago.
As the new report shows, this gap can’t be explained by consumer demand or the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine. And trying to reinstate the latter or regulate content isn’t the answer. The real issue is media ownership.
The disparity between progressive and conservative talk is a result of the disappearance of local media owners caused by the unrelenting media consolidation of recent decades. Economies of scale reward the big chains for piping in syndicated content – which is overwhelmingly conservative – at the expense of serving local needs and covering local communities.
What’s the solution? CAP and Free Press suggest three sensible steps:
- Restore local and national caps on the ownership of commercial radio stations
- Ensure greater local accountability over radio licensing
- Require commercial owners who don’t abide by public interest obligations to pay a fee to support public broadcasting.
Read the full report (pdf).
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Wednesday, June 13th, 2007 by jhoward
The Seattle Times — one of the few mainstream news outlets to consistently spotlight media issues — this week editorialized about Off the Dial, the new study by Free Press on radio station ownership.
The editorial describes the “depressing” lack of female and minority owners and the small number of women and people of color who are in upper management of corporate radio chains as the “ill effects” of consolidation.
But the authors find hope in the “correlation between minority- and female-owned stations and a market having both conservative and liberal programming.”
These results, says the Seattle Times, are “encouraging for democracy,” because they show “that a diversity of ownership creates an environment on the radio dial where diverse viewpoints are aired.”
The editorial closes with a word of advice to the FCC:
“The Federal Communications Commission should take Free Press’ work to heart. This is an important study that shows the nation’s impaired airwaves could be improved if new rules and laws are created to encourage female and minority ownership of radio stations.”
Read the Seattle Times editorial: “Female/Minority Power Needed in Radio“
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Tuesday, June 12th, 2007 by jhoward
The Federal Communications Commission will hold its first localism hearing since 2004 in Portland, Maine on June 28.
Previous localism hearings were held in Charlotte, N.C.; San Antonio, Texas; Rapid City, S.D.; and Monterey, Calif. The localism hearings are part of a larger set of initiatives “to enhance localism among radio and television broadcasters” put forth by former Chairman Michael Powell in 2003.
As it turns out, Portland provides a great example of the devastating impact of media consolidation on local broadcasters. Pro-consolidation policies at the FCC and in Congress have led to the loss of Portland’s local media ownership.
All three of the major TV network affiliates in Portland were locally owned until a decade ago, when large conglomerates Hearst-Argyle, Sinclair and Gannett snapped up the stations. Now there are no locally owned and operated full-power commercial Portland TV stations. After Hearst-Argyle purchased the only local, female-owned TV station in 2004, there are no female TV station owners — and no TV stations are owned by racial and ethnic minorities.
The radio market in Portland isn’t much better in terms of local broadcasters. In total, non-local owners control nearly 80 percent of Portland’s commercial radio stations. There is only one local owner in the Portland market, Atlantic Coast Radio, which controls six stations. None of Portland’s 26 commercial radio stations are owned women or people of color.
If the FCC eliminated the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban, then the Portland Press Herald (owned by Frank Blethen, an outspoken opponent of media consolidation) would be a tempting target for a takeover by the market’s top TV station owner, Gannett. The official public hearing in Portland provides an opportunity for citizens in Maine to tell the FCC how they feel about this prospect.
Stay tuned to www.stopbigmedia.com/=portland for more details.
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Wednesday, June 6th, 2007 by jhoward
A new study from Free Press exposes the devastating impact of media consolidation on radio ownership diversity. Off the Dial — the first comprehensive analysis of female and minority radio ownership — found that women and people of color control just one-eighth of the country’s full-power radio stations despite comprising two-thirds of the population.
“Consolidation continues to push out female and minority owners and raise insurmountable barriers that shut out prospective buyers,” said S. Derek Turner, research director of Free Press and author of the study. “Any FCC policies aimed at promoting media diversity are doomed to fail if the destructive impact of consolidation is ignored.”
On a national teleconference yesterday, FCC Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps joined national civil rights and women’s rights leaders in blasting the commission’s pro-consolidation policies for pushing out female and minority owners.
Commissioner Copps:
“This study ought to be call ‘The Shame of the Media.’ Off the Dial presents fresh and challenging evidence about the lack of female and minority ownership in the radio industry. My fervent hope is that we can harness the shame of our failures and recommit ourselves to creating a media that reflects the diversity of the American people.”
Commissioner Adelstein:
“Women and people of color have been left off the dial because the FCC has pursued policies that are far off the mark. These misguided policies have denied two-thirds of the American people an opportunity to serve the needs of their communities. The Commission needs to thoroughly study this report and develop a comprehensive strategy to remedy this injustice.”
Off the Dial found that the average local radio market has 16 white male-owned radio stations — but just one female-owned station and two-minority owned stations. Overall, the study found:
- Women own just 6 percent of all full-power radio stations, even though they comprise 51 percent of the population.
- People of color own just 7.7 percent of stations but make up 33 percent of the population.
Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis (D-Calif.):
“I commend Free Press for compiling this thorough report on the lack of diversity in radio station ownership. The incredibly low numbers of women and under-represented minorities that own radio stations run contrary to the public interest. As the FCC re-examines media ownership rules, I urge them to pay close attention to this report and the disturbing statistics showing that we need more diversity among owners of radio and other media.”
Gloria Steinem, founder of GreenStone Media:
“In this country radio has become among the least democratic media and I’m in mourning for this. It has become bad enough so that it has got to get better — there’s nowhere else we can go. It’s become very clear that the connection between ownership and programming is direct. We need to have programmers that share the experiences of the people that they are programming for.”
Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition:
“All day, all night, all white, clearly does not represent the diversity of American culture. When people of color own just 7.7 percent of radio stations but make up 33 percent of the population, we see how poor public policy decisions continue to lock more of the ‘Rainbow’ out of opportunities.”
Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women:
“Commercial radio may be one of the most unfriendly environments for women and people of color. Media consolidation has created an almost unbreakable glass ceiling at the top. The FCC must take action to promote more diverse ownership and end the white male stranglehold on the airwaves.”
Brent Wilkes, national executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens:
“Latinos own less than 3 percent of U.S. radio stations but make up 15 percent of the population. These alarming statistics suggest that women and people of color have very few stations available to serve the needs of the community. LULAC urges the FCC to do better.”
Female and minority owners are more likely to be local radio station owners and more likely to own a single station. Female and minority owners were more also more likely to have a female president or CEO and employ women as general managers.
Carol Jenkins, president of The Women’s Media Center:
“That women are acutely under-represented in ownership is part of the larger crisis of representation and participation in the media overall. In the case of radio, it’s a pipeline issue: When 85 to 90 percent of general managers and program directors are men, women simply don’t acquire the skills to run — and then own — radio stations.”
Off the Dial follows Out of the Picture, an analysis of broadcast television stations released last year, which found similarly low levels of female and minority ownership.
Mark Lloyd, chair of the Media and Telecommunications Task Force at LCCR:
“Our entire federal government, from the FCC to Congress and the courts, is to blame for the shameful lack of media diversity this important report reveals. We must begin to hold our representatives responsible for licensing who gets access to the public spectrum. And a licensing scheme that has locked out women and minorities since the early 1920s must be corrected to reflect America in the 21st century.”
Read Off the Dial: How Media Consolidation Diminishes Diversity on the Radio.
Listen to the national press call.
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Moyers on Murdoch
