Media Consolidation

For decades the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has blocked the dominant newspapers in the large cities in the United State from owning/being owned by the television stations in the same cities. Were the media in a city to be overly controlled by one company, that company could control the information available to most citizens about the government, and thus could control public voting; the result would be very bad for democracy. Moreover, media conglomerates now control media in so many cities, that further consolidation of newspaper and television media ownership could affect national elections. The problem would continue to grow as the country continues to urbanize, and as the largest metropolitan areas continue to gain population.

Now Kevin J. Martin, the Chairman of the FCC has proposed to change FCC policy to allow just this kind of media consolidation. Worse, he has done so without adequate public consultation, and without allowing adequate time for the public to mobilize to oppose the plan. You have only until mid December to register disapproval.

Read more about this plan in Bill Moyer's Journal's website.

Martin is a Republican lawyer who served in the 2000 Bush-Chaney campaign and transition team. He has been a Commissioner of the FCC since 2001, and chairman of the FCC since 2005.

Common Cause writes about Martin's plan:

It's eerily similar to what happened in 2003, when Michael Powell's FCC voted for rules to allow massive media consolidation without public input. Under the rules approved by the FCC four years ago, one company would have been able to own up to three television stations, the local newspaper, the cable system and up to eight radio stations in one media market.

After the FCC's misguided 2003 vote, more than 3 million Americans voiced their concerns about media consolidation to the FCC and Congress. In the Senate, a resolution rolling back the rules sponsored by Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND), passed overwhelming. Media activists sued the FCC over the rules changes, and they were vindicated by a federal district court in Philadelphia. In 2004, the court threw out the flawed rules, in part because the FCC had not considered public input in the rulemaking.