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The Troubling Arc of Media Concentration
Editorial
The United States once had a rule that no company could own more than 40 radio stations. In 1996, the Federal Communications Commission repealed the rule. By Dec. 31, 2003, Clear Channel Communications Inc. of San Antonio, Texas, had amassed 1,182 U.S. radio stations, including KUBE-FM and KJR-AM/FM here. It also owned 145,895 billboards nationwide, including almost every one in Portland and Seattle.
Business success is a good thing, and is as necessary in the news industry as any other. But it is not the only thing. Our democracy requires a diversity of voices and of owners. The growth of Clear Channel shows what can happen when all restraints come off.
The FCC's proposal regarding TV stations is not to take all restraints off, but to cut a large slice off a loaf already diminished. Companies that were allowed to have TV stations reaching no more than 25 percent of the U.S. market until 1996, and no more than 35 percent until last year, would go to 39 percent. Where owners have been allowed two TV stations they generally would be allowed three. And for the first time, it would be generally permitted for one company to own a TV station and a daily newspaper in the same city.
Media owners who itch for this authority swear they are business people, not propagandists, and have no intent to flavor the flow of information. But ownership brings that ability. Compare the tone of CNN with Fox News, or Fox with National Public Radio.
Five owners now dominate American television: Viacom, which owns CBS; Disney, which owns ABC; News Corp., which owns Fox; General Electric, which owns NBC; and AOL Time Warner.
If the FCC lets these companies get bigger — and that is the proposal — they will. And once they are big, their bigness will not be undone.
The news industry in America is already far down the road to media concentration — too far, in our view. Last summer, when the FCC proposed to go further, there was a roar from the public, and the House of Representatives voted 400-21 to stop it right there. Courts have since intervened, and it is not clear what will happen.
But FCC Chairman Michael Powell has not given up on his quest to allow big media companies to get bigger. Our representatives should be prepared to stop him again.
Editorial
The United States once had a rule that no company could own more than 40 radio stations. In 1996, the Federal Communications Commission repealed the rule. By Dec. 31, 2003, Clear Channel Communications Inc. of San Antonio, Texas, had amassed 1,182 U.S. radio stations, including KUBE-FM and KJR-AM/FM here. It also owned 145,895 billboards nationwide, including almost every one in Portland and Seattle.
Business success is a good thing, and is as necessary in the news industry as any other. But it is not the only thing. Our democracy requires a diversity of voices and of owners. The growth of Clear Channel shows what can happen when all restraints come off.
The FCC's proposal regarding TV stations is not to take all restraints off, but to cut a large slice off a loaf already diminished. Companies that were allowed to have TV stations reaching no more than 25 percent of the U.S. market until 1996, and no more than 35 percent until last year, would go to 39 percent. Where owners have been allowed two TV stations they generally would be allowed three. And for the first time, it would be generally permitted for one company to own a TV station and a daily newspaper in the same city.
Media owners who itch for this authority swear they are business people, not propagandists, and have no intent to flavor the flow of information. But ownership brings that ability. Compare the tone of CNN with Fox News, or Fox with National Public Radio.
Five owners now dominate American television: Viacom, which owns CBS; Disney, which owns ABC; News Corp., which owns Fox; General Electric, which owns NBC; and AOL Time Warner.
If the FCC lets these companies get bigger — and that is the proposal — they will. And once they are big, their bigness will not be undone.
The news industry in America is already far down the road to media concentration — too far, in our view. Last summer, when the FCC proposed to go further, there was a roar from the public, and the House of Representatives voted 400-21 to stop it right there. Courts have since intervened, and it is not clear what will happen.
But FCC Chairman Michael Powell has not given up on his quest to allow big media companies to get bigger. Our representatives should be prepared to stop him again.
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