FCC Votes 3-2 to Ease Media Ownership Rules
Federal regulators relaxed decades-old rules restricting media ownership today, permitting companies to buy more television stations and own a newspaper and a broadcast outlet in the same city, the Associated Press reports.
– The Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 — along party lines — to adopt a series of changes favored by media companies.
– These companies argued that existing ownership rules were outmoded on a media landscape that has been substantially altered by cable TV, satellite broadcasts and the Internet.
– Critics say the eased restrictions would likely lead to a wave of mergers landing a few giant media companies in control of even more of what the public sees, hears and reads.
– The decision was a victory for FCC Chairman Michael Powell, who has faced growing criticism from diverse interests opposed to his move toward deregulation.
– ‘Our actions will advance our goals of diversity and localism,’ Powell said. He said the old restrictions were too outdated to survive legal challenges and the FCC ‘wrote rules to match the times.’
“The FCC said a single company can now own TV stations that reach 45 percent of U.S. households instead of 35 percent. The major networks wanted the cap eliminated, while smaller broadcasters said a higher cap would allow the networks to gobble up stations and take away local control of programming.
“The FCC largely ended a ban on joint ownership of a newspaper and a broadcast station in the same city. The provision lifts all ‘cross-ownership’ restrictions in markets with nine or more TV stations. Smaller markets would face some limits and cross-ownership would be banned in markets with three or fewer TV stations.
“The agency also eased rules governing local TV ownership so one company can own two television stations in more markets and three stations in the largest cities such as New York and Los Angeles.
“The FCC kept a ban on mergers among the four major TV networks: ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox.
“The more you dig into this order the worse things get, said Michael Copps, one of the commission’s Democrats. He said the changes empowers “a new media elite” to control news and entertainment.
Fellow Democrat Jonathan Adelstein said the changes are likely to damage the media landscape for decades to come.
“The rule changes are expected to face court challenges from media companies wanting more deregulation and consumer groups seeking stricter restrictions,” AP said.
Journalist organizations of color had urged a delay in the FCC vote. Condace Pressley, president of the National Association of Black Journalists, said in a statement last week: “Relaxation of the rules does not benefit the cause of newsroom diversity. However if the FCC is determined to make the change, NABJ feels strongly about working with the commission to assure as best we can that newsroom diversity does not suffer.”
Giants to Grow “Even Bigger and More Powerful”
“The Federal Communications Commission is about to make big, powerful media corporations in this country even bigger and more powerful,” wrote media writer David Shaw Sunday in the Los Angeles Times.
“It now appears all but certain that the FCC will vote — probably [today] — to significantly relax the ownership rules that have long kept alive, if only barely, a sense of competition and independence among the nation’s news media.
“Big mistake.
“. . . If you think local TV news is bad now, if you think there’s a stultifying sameness to most of what passes for news and commentary in the electronic media today, wait till you see what happens when Rupert Murdoch and Mickey Mouse rule the world.”
Demise of Black Radio News Linked to Consolidation
“According to the National Association of Black-owned Broadcasters (NABOB), there were only 30 African-American owned broadcast facilities in the United States in 1976. Today, NABOB boasts 220 member stations — and local Black radio news is near extinction,” write the editors of BlackCommentator.com, the product of broadcast journalists Glen Ford and Peter Gamble.
“With some notable exceptions, Black owners are as culpable as white corporations. . . . Blacks supported the business ventures of many of the very people who now electronically starve and abuse them.”
“As the FCC under Colin Powell’s totally corrupted son, Michael, conspires to complete the mega-consolidation of the nation’s airwaves . . . Black “stand-alone” stations, typically operated by businesspeople with longstanding roots in the community, have been forced out — or have cashed out. News has most often been jettisoned in favor of ‘talk’ — the seductive format that ranges from quality syndications that do have value to a national audience but provide little to sustain local struggles, to vapid, ‘barber shop’-type offerings, eclectic blocks of time filled with chatter, signifying nothing.”
Univision Bonds With Viewers — and Dems Lose
“Congressional Democrats are unwisely focused on the weakest — and most self-serving — reason to sound the alarm about Univision’s attempt to buy Hispanic Broadcasting Corp.,” writes Frank del Olmo, associate editor of the Los Angeles Times.
“The real reason Democrats should worry about Univision is that Spanish-language TV connects with its audience in a deeply personal way – far more than English-language media do. Spanish-language TV reporters often got the names of Latino casualties in the Iraq war before the Pentagon officially announced them, for instance, because grieving families would call their local Univision (or competitor Telemundo) station after being informed of their loss by the military, in effect reaching out to an institution they knew would respond to their pain,” says del Olmo.
He adds: “As the Latino vote has grown over the last few years, Republican campaign consultants have shown more skill and creativity than Democrats in using Spanish-language TV. . . . The national Democratic Party has been either too lazy or too cheap.”
House Democratic Caucus Chairman Bob Menendez of New Jersey alleged that Univision Communications was seeking to secure federal approval of its $2.4 billion merger with Hispanic Radio by airing an increasing amount of programming that supports President Bush’s nomination of Miguel Estrada to a key federal appeals court post, the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported last week.
Minority-Ownership Plan Doesn’t Impress
A plan to give people of color and women a leg up in certain radio-station purchases didn’t appear likely to help Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell win Democratic support for his media-deregulation plan, reports Media Week.
“Included in the plan is an effort to correct an anomaly that has created monopoly radio markets or allowed owners to exceed certain ownership limits. While those owners would be able to hang on to the clusters, they would either have to be broken up if sold or, if kept as a unit, be sold to minorities or women.
“Democratic Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein told Dow Jones Newswires in an earlier interview he could support a concept that would allow sale of clusters to minority owners. But in a statement Thursday following a Wall Street Journal article on Mr. Powell’s minority sales plan, Mr. Adelstein said it does little to fix problems for minority owners that he believes will result from Mr. Powell’s broader plan to deregulate.”
Paper Proposes End to Ban on Indian Nicknames
The Star Tribune would drop its nine-year-old ban on American Indian nicknames in sports pages under a tentative policy being circulated among staff and American Indian groups for comment, the Associated Press reports.
“In a memo to staff on Friday, Editor Anders Gyllenhaal characterized the planned shift as a matter of accuracy in reporting,” the AP said.
“At a time when newspaper accuracy and balance are constantly challenged, our commitment to direct and straight-forward reporting has to be the priority,” Gyllenhaal wrote.
“Gyllenhaal said the paper intended to replace the ban with a series of guidelines aimed at being sensitive to readers while leaving language decisions in the hands of writers and editors,” said AP.
“Last year, the Native American Journalists Association asked news organizations to stop using sports mascots and nicknames that depict American Indians by 2004.”
Star Tribune Managing Editor Scott Gillespie is to discuss the paper’s decision at a NAJA plenary regarding usage of Indian mascots on June 19 at NAJA’s annual convention in Green Bay, Wis.
“Write Friendly or Be Reported to Negro Central”
“The Wichita branch of the NAACP has asked to meet with Mayor Carlos Mayans amid concerns that he is targeting black leaders and black-owned businesses in recent city investigations. Many of the same people also have wondered the same about The [Wichita] Eagle,” writes Mark E. McCormick, leader of the Kansas newspaper’s crime and safety reporting team, in a Sunday column.
“Some questioned The Eagle’s decision to run these articles on the front page,” he continued. “Others wondered whether the newspaper, with Mayans, had black leaders in its crosshairs. Still others criticized the black reporter who wrote the articles,” writes McCormick, speaking of reporter Van Williams.
“. . . Such pressure represents the corner that black journalists find themselves in: File friendly, noncritical articles, or be reported to Negro Central and have your racial identity card canceled.”
Survivors of 1921 Riot Sue Tulsa Tribune
In conjunction with the 83rd anniversary of the Tulsa Race Riot of May 31, 1921, survivors of the Oklahoma tragedy filed a civil lawsuit Friday in the Western U.S. District Court, Kansas City, Mo., naming the Tulsa Tribune newspaper, the estate of editor and publisher Richard Lloyd Jones Sr., the estates and family trusts of Jones family members and members of the Ku Klux Klan in Tulsa for their actions that started one of the worst race riots in U.S. history, said lawyer Jim Lloyd of Tulsa.
The suit alleges that the spark that ignited the flames was the Tulsa Tribune’s inflammatory front-page headline and editorial “To Lynch Negro Tonight” written by Richard Lloyd Jones, owner, publisher and senior editor. The story urged punishment of a local black youth accused of molesting a white girl. The complaint describes how panicked editors persuaded Jones to remove the story from later editions. Paperboys sent out to retrieve first editions returned with several dozen, but hundreds of copies had already passed from hand to hand. It was too late. Large groups of whites began to gather outside the jail, while dozens of blacks from the other side of town showed up to prevent a lynching. Rioting broke out and hundreds of blacks were killed and more than 3,000 left homeless, said Lloyd in a news release and in an interview with Journal-isms.
Lloyd said it was the first wrongful death lawsuit to arise out of the riots. A $100,000 reward will be offered for a copy of the “To Lynch Negro Tonight” story, he said. While the statute of limitations normally is two years, a legal doctrine called “tolling the statute of limitations” extends that if there has been an effort to hide or conceal evidence, Lloyd said. He had been a member of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot Commission initiated by the state Legislature in 1997. The two survivors participating in the suit are Rosella Carter, 103, and her son, James Dale Carter, 84, he said.
AOL Adds Content Targeting People of Color
Nearly two years after adding “AOL Latino,” America Online is launching a section for African Americans called “AOL Black Focus,” reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“The moves also are part of a strategy at AOL to create content and services to attract advertisers and subscribers,” the paper said.
“Belinda Hankins, AOL executive director for African-American business, said she hopes her company will also develop more content for Asian-Americans, gays and lesbians, and senior citizens,” the paper reports.
“We can’t continue to speak to 30 million users in the same voice,” Hankins said.
Blair, Cooke: “Wannabees Who Drank the Kool-Aid”
“[Jayson] Blair’s mug shot now hangs with former Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke’s in the Black Professionals Hall of Shame, journalism division,” writes Leon E. Wynter in the Los Angeles Times. “But they are not professional black America. They just played black professionals on a vicious episodic reality TV show, ‘I Wannabe a Fair-Haired Boy.’
“I don’t believe in the concept of racial authenticity, but in one important sense the Wannabes aren’t even seen as ‘black’ until they mess up,” continues Wynter, the former “Business and Race” columnist at the Wall Street Journal.
“In trying to gain their own advantage, I just wish the Wannabes would avoid drinking their own Kool-Aid. That’s the only explanation for believing you can get away with skipping the journalism and going straight to fiction while still in the newsroom.
“I knew Janet Cooke and witnessed her tragic farce from a front-row seat at the Post. I don’t know Jayson Blair, but from what I’ve read, as black folks they have one thing in common: a laser focus on where the power is. Cooke was the darling of the top white-men-in-charge and their favored white-boys-on-the-way-up. Blair, according to reports, was obsessed with being hip-deep in the white social networks that seem to determine success in the Times newsroom.”
Lalo Alcaraz “La Cucaracha” cartoon.
Newspapers Re-Examine Policies on Contributors
In the wake of the Rick Bragg controversy, which last week prompted the New York Times national correspondent to resign amid scrutiny over his use of an uncredited stringer, newspapers nationwide are re-examining their own policies regarding datelines, bylines and credit for contributors, with several already invoking new rules to make clear who is doing the work and from where, reports Editor & Publisher.
Editor Quits N.Y. Times What-Went-Wrong Panel
“A powerful committee formed at The New York Times to revisit the Jayson Blair reporting scandal and suggest changes in newsroom practices was jolted yesterday by the resignation of a key member,” Paul D. Colford reported in the New York Daily News.
“Sources said Nancy Sharkey, an editor who works in staff development and training, quit because she was concerned the committee had become prosecutorial, sowing fear and confusion in the newsroom.”
Confidence in News Media Slips
Public confidence in the media, already low, continues to slip. Only 36 percent, among the lowest in years, believe news organizations get the facts straight, a USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll shows.
“However, the poll reports, the lack of confidence is at odds with the opinions of people who actually have been in the news. Of 262 adults who said they had been part of a story covered by the media, the perception was far more favorable: 78 percent found the coverage had been accurate,” USA Today reports.
GOP Set Precedent for Affirmative Action
Take note, writers on affirmative action: “In arguing the Michigan cases before the Supreme Court, lawyers for the plaintiffs insisted that the use of race as a factor in determining student admissions is “impermissible because of the constitutional command of equality,” writes Jack Bass, professor of humanities and social sciences at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, in a New York Times op-ed. “They argue that the Constitution is ‘colorblind.’ That argument, however, overlooks an important legal precedent,” Bass writes.
“John Minor Wisdom — the legendary jurist and scholar for whom the federal courthouse in New Orleans is named — addressed that issue in a 1966 case, United States v. Jefferson County Board of Education. Although the case is best known for having transformed the law in terms of school desegregation, it also provided the initial constitutional rationale for affirmative action.
“Judge Wisdom asserted: ‘The Constitution is both colorblind and color-conscious. To avoid conflict with the equal protection clause, a classification that denies a benefit, causes harm or imposes a burden must not be based on race. In that sense, the Constitution is colorblind.
” ‘But the Constitution is color-conscious to prevent discrimination being perpetuated and to undo the effects of past discrimination. The criterion is the relevancy of color to a legitimate government purpose.’
“There is no question of the ‘effects of past discrimination’ he was referring to: the legacy of slavery. Before the Civil War in most Southern states, it was illegal to teach slaves to read and write. Almost a century later, segregated schools with black students in the South often received less than a quarter of the per-pupil financing of schools with white students.
“Likewise, we see a legacy in the significant disparities between whites and African-Americans in terms of collective income and educational attainment. These directly affect the standardized test scores that play such a large role in college admissions.”
