Industry Amnesia
Posted January 14th, 2010 by Josh Stearns
The FCC is gearing up to review the rules on how much media any one company can own. In 2003 and 2007, citizens across the country stood up against more media consolidation, but the FCC didn’t listen. Both times, the Senate and the courts had to step in to stop the rules from taking effect.
Will it be any different this time around? Not if industry groups have their way.
This week, the FCC held an initial hearing on the economic issues affecting the media industry, and it looks as though everyone has a bad case of amnesia. Bankers and representatives from investment companies and the broadcast industry repeatedly argued for more media consolidation.
These executives bemoaned their economic woes – mounting debt, declining ad revenue, shifts in technology, etc., while conveniently ignoring the fact that they dug this hole themselves. Their debt is the result of years of spending sprees, with billions of dollars spent buying up media holdings since the media ownership rules were first relaxed more than a decade ago.
Now here they are again, peddling more media consolidation as the solution to their economic troubles. It’s ironic, and incredibly maddening.
The industry is still trying to dupe the FCC into thinking that more consolidation is the answer. The FCC shouldn’t be fooled by the same arguments again.
