[Mediapolitics] Fighting Media Monopoly

[Art McGee]

http://www.sfbayguardian.com/37/18/news_ed_monopoly.html

San Francisco Bay Guardian

January 29, 2003

Editorial

Fighting Media Monopoly

If you want to see a perfect example of exactly what's wrong
with big national chains taking over and consolidating
control of local news media, tune your radio to 106 FM,
where KMEL once broadcast as one of the most important and
groundbreaking commercial stations in the country.

Ten years ago, KMEL, which dubbed itself "the people's
station," helped bring hip-hop to the mainstream, helped
launch the careers of a number of big local artists, and
offered valuable political shows. As Jeff Chang reports,
during the mid 1990s, a heated competitive battle between
KMEL and KYLD encouraged cutting-edge innovation -- and gave
local rappers abundant chances to get their music heard.

Then Clear Channel (a giant media conglomerate) bought both
stations. The competition ended -- and so did the
innovation.  Local artists were ignored. Public-affairs
programming became little more than an afterthought. Today
KMEL and KYLD share the same playlists and offer the same
sort of drab, predictable material much of the time.

And while infuriated community activists in San Francisco
fight an uphill battle to make Clear Channel executives in
San Antonio, Texas, pay attention to their local needs, the
Federal Communications Commission is preparing to change the
rules of media ownership -- in a way that will guarantee
that Clear Channel's destruction of KMEL is repeated over
and over again nationwide.

As Camille T. Taiara reports, the FCC is considering
eliminating the rule that now prohibits that same company
from owning daily newspapers and TV stations in the same
market, as well as the rule that bars any one broadcast
company from owning stations that reach more than a combined
35 percent of the households in the country, and the rule
that prevents the four major broadcast networks from merging
with one another.

Together the changes represent (even by the FCC's own
account) "the most comprehensive look at media ownership
ever undertaken" by the agency. In theory, the new rules
could allow General Electric (which owns NBC) to merge with
Westinghouse (which owns CBS) and Disney (which owns ABC) --
and then buy Clear Channel, which owns more than 1,200 radio
stations in the country. If that giant company bought or
merged with, say Hearst Corp., then KNTV-TV, KGO-TV, and
KPIX-TV (along with KGO and KCBS radio) would be owned by
the same company that controls the San Francisco Chronicle
-- which would also own seven local radio stations.

The community would lose what little diversity of viewpoints
remains among competing voices. The companies would gain the
huge profits that come from monopoly control of a market.

FCC chairman Michael K. Powell likes to say that ownership
rules are no longer needed in the Internet era, when media
choices abound. But that's just silly: the vast majority of
people in the United States still get all or most of their
news -- the information they need to make decisions, from
voting to shopping and a whole lot in between -- from one
daily newspaper and one TV news show. And increasingly, the
big players in the Internet (including Web site operators
and providers of online access and broadband) are controlled
by the same handful of big communications corporations.

By most accounts, the FCC's decision is a foregone
conclusion. The panel, chaired by Bush appointee (and rabid
deregulator) Powell, will almost certainly go ahead with the
rule changes. The only real chance to restore the
regulations lies with Congress -- and that's a long shot at
best.

There are some steps local communities can take: San
Francisco, for example, can demand as a condition of its
cable TV franchise that AT&T open its lines to all Internet
service providers. The city can also demand more -- and
better -- local programming on AT&T's community channels.

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors -- along with every
county board and city council in California -- should also
pass a resolution opposing the FCC rule changes and calling
on Congress (and their local congressional representatives)
to pass strong legislation restoring tight controls on media
ownership. The media companies have immense power; only a
strong grassroots counterattack can begin to prevent the
next big step in the wholesale consolidation of news media
in the United States.

P.S.: The big media chains aren't the only ones trying to
crush competition. As Savannah Blackwell reports, federal
and state attorneys general filed charges this week accusing
the SF Weekly's parent company, New Times Corp., of
illegally colluding with Village Voice Media to end
alternative newspaper competition in Los Angeles and
Cleveland. The New Times-VVM deal was, and is, an
embarrassment to the alternative press and a sad indication
that an industry that grew up challenging and competing with
the big-monopoly dailies has become increasingly dominated
by companies that act just like the monopolists.

Jeff Chang article:
http://www.sfbayguardian.com/37/18/cover_kmel.html

Camille T. Taiara article:
http://www.sfbayguardian.com/37/18/news_fcc.html

Savannah Blackwell article:
http://www.sfbayguardian.com/37/18/news_newtimes.html

-end-

Art McGee
Communications & Technology Consultant
amcgee at freeshell.org
1-510-967-9381
Circuit Riders International
<http://npogroups.org/lists/info/riders>
NPO/NGO Media & Technology Calendar
<http://amcgee.freeshell.org/mtcalendar.html>
APC ActionApps Content Management System
<http://www.apc.org/actionapps>
Public Internet Access Centers
<http://www.connectnet.org>
Public Wireless Access Points
<http://www.80211hotspots.com>