FCC to Take Up Media Ownership Matters in ‘Consistent Fashion,’ Martin Says
With several proceedings at the FCC touching on media ownership including the proposed XM-Sirius merger and Tribune’s buyout, the commission has to consider all the moving parts together, Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters after the commission’s localism hearing Wednesday. “We're going to have to address them in a consistent fashion, not just on a case by case basis,” he said.
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Pressure is mounting from Congress to slow the commission’s media ownership review (CD Oct 29 p6), and some on the Hill want the commission to wrap up its proceeding on localism before taking up ownership. “I'm certainly trying to take into account all of the concern that’s been expressed by people on the Hill,” Martin said without elaborating. A few dozen media consolidation critics, some in costume, gathered outside FCC headquarters before the hearing began as part of a rally organized by Free Press. Many later testified during the commission’s public-comment period.
Martin’s comments followed the commission’s sixth localism hearing, in which Rainbow/PUSH Coalition President Jesse Jackson and other media consolidation critics tried to convince the commission that further relaxation of the media ownership rules would hurt localism in media. “Localism is inextricably linked with the rest of the commission’s regulations governing media ownership,” said Bob Edwards, national first vice president of AFTRA and former NPR host. “If commercial media are given the unfettered right to abandon their obligation to serve the public interest, they will do just that,” he said.
The FCC should wait until after the DTV transition to craft new media ownership rules, Capitol Broadcasting CEO Jim Goodmon said, adding to the chorus of voices pushing for a delay. “Why would we work on ownership regulation at the end of the era and before we really get in to this digital era,” he said. The commission’s third periodic review of the DTV transition is a far more pressing regulatory issue for many TV broadcasters than the ownership rules, he said. “We really need the third periodic to move on with the digital transition,” he said.
A Free Press analysis of the several recent FCC- commissioned ownership studies raised the eyebrows of some on the dais Tuesday. Through an econometric analysis of the ownership studies, Free Press found that the amount of local news decreases in markets with newspaper-broadcast cross ownership, Research director Derek Turner said. “We aggregated your data up toe the market level… it’s very clear what it shows,” he said. “You do see a very negative affect at the market level.”
Broadcasters do a good job serving their local communities, said Marcellus Alexander, NAB executive vice president of TV. “Local broadcasting is enjoying a renaissance in locally produced programming,” pointing to the work of stations in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and those in San Diego during the recent California wildfires. But more broadcasters than not shrugged off their public interest duties during the wildfires, said Media Access Project President Andrew Schwartzman. “Most of the commercial radio stations in San Diego had to carry the KPBS [public radio] feed because they had no capacity to meet their public interest obligations,” he said.