Media Deregulation

I'm against it...
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FCC Flooded With Letters Opposing Media Consolidation

By MARK WIGFIELD

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
WASHINGTON -- A letter-writing campaign opposing media consolidation is flooding the electronic mail room of the Federal Communications Commission.

The FCC has received nearly 1,700 comments on a proceeding that could result in the agency dismantling many of its media-ownership restrictions. Many of the comments stem from a campaign organized by consumer groups, which oppose the proposed changes.

"The commission should be reaching out to the public and they're not," says Jeff Chester, head of the Center for Digital Democracy. The center's Web site is one of those providing an easy way to file critical comments electronically with the FCC.

The commissioners are likely to take notice of the volume of letters, but not necessarily to what the writers advocate, according to a former FCC insider who is now an attorney and asked not be identified.

The letter campaign is "obviously somewhat ginned up," the attorney noted, because it was prompted by interest groups instead of spontaneously arising from citizens. "What's worse is if it is ginned up and nothing happens."

But when a pending issue "is getting serious attention, the FCC will at least sit up and see if the concerns are valid," the attorney said.

Likely to receive more careful scrutiny from the FCC are comments from the industry itself, which wants the commission to dismantle the rules, or those associated with it, such as the Writers Guild, which wants the status quo preserved.

The commission will also base its decision on a dozen studies it has commissioned. Comments on those studies were due this week.

The FCC is reviewing six rules setting national and local limits on ownership of television and radio stations, as well as restrictions on cross-ownership of newspaper and television stations or television and radio stations. Some of the rules are decades old, dating to an era when there were three networks and no cable channels.

But critics say dismantling the rules will leave news and information in the hands of a few corporate power brokers.

In Illinois, North Central College communications professor Stephen Macek said in an interview he joined Chicago Media Watch three months ago and filed a letter through the watchdog group's Web site to voice his concerns.

"This is a significant issue and could change the media landscape for the worse," he said. While some members of the group are academics or in the media, others "are just ordinary citizens who are fed up."

But a 42-page filing from Walt Disney Co. (DIS), owner of the ABC network, told the commission that the public interest "would be served by broad and principled deregulation of broadcast ownership." ABC said it has increased the amount of time devoted to local news broadcasts, a measure of a station's commitment to the public interest, when it buys formerly independent stations.

Consumer groups are also making their own extensive filings. On Friday, the Consumer Federation of America released a study predicting that most newspapers would be bought by television stations under changes proposed by the FCC, and that most media markets would be controlled by fewer than four owners.