How Martin’s Plan Would Hurt Minority Owners
Posted December 6th, 2007 by Craig Aaron
The U.S. media system doesn’t look like the vast majority of Americans. People of color — who comprise a third of the population — own just 3 percent of the nation’s commercial TV stations.Martin’s proposal doesn’t merely ignore the disgraceful state of media diversity; it would actually make the situation worse.
Fact No. 8: Martin’s Plan Would Harm Minority Owners
On the surface, Martin hoped to quell critics’ concerns by claiming to relax the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership ban only in the top 20 markets and by letting newspapers combine with broadcast stations only outside of the four top-rated channels.
The problem is that nearly half of the stations owned by people of color are in the top 20 markets, and none of these are among the top four stations. That puts the few minority-owned stations directly in the cross-hairs of consolidation.
Targets for takeover
Overall, nearly 90 percent of minority-owned stations are not ranked among the top four in their respective markets. If the ban is lifted, minority-owned stations will be targeted by newspaper owners seeking to purchase a station. And increased consolidation will only decrease opportunities for people of color to enter the market and purchase stations of their own.
One of the myths manufactured by Martin and his allies is that the current ban is especially bad for minority owners, because it keeps them from establishing synergy between print and broadcast outlets. But there are currently no minority-owned companies that already own both daily newspapers and radio or TV stations. And it’s the Big Media giants — not smaller minority owners — that are pushing for these rule changes.
Who’s counting?
Martin released his new plan despite repeated requests from his colleagues, Congress and civil rights leaders to first address the crisis in minority ownership by creating an independent task force to examine the impact of consolidation — before considering any new rules.
So far, the FCC has failed even to conduct an accurate count of minority-owned stations. And a recent FCC study failed to identify 69 percent of minority owners and 75 percent of women owners. Yet Martin’s accelerated timetable leaves no time for an independent study of how his proposal will affect minority media ownership.
In rejecting the FCC’s previous attempt to overhaul media ownership rules in 2003, the federal courts specifically cited the issue of minority ownership. In addition, congressional leaders such as Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) as well as more than 20 national civil rights groups, including Rainbow PUSH, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the National Council of La Raza, have called on Martin to address the ownership diversity crisis rather than perpetuate it.
Reining in media consolidation is the only way to promote media ownership by people of color and by women. Other policies aimed at promoting minority and female ownership won’t work if media consolidation continues unchecked.
Over the next two weeks at StopBigMedia.com, we’ll be counting down the “10 Facts Kevin Martin Doesn’t Want You to Know” about his new media ownership rules, as exposed in our new report — Devil in the Details.
Next: A broken and corrupt process creates bad policies.
