Reform News

Reform News
January 27, 2004

Comments of
The Action Coalition for Media Education
Board of Directors
6400 Wyoming Blvd NE
Albuquerque, NM 87109
(505) 828-3377
FAX (505) 828-3142

Dear Chairman Powell:

The Action Coalition for Media Education (ACME) is significantly alarmed about the current policy initiatives the Federal Communication Commission is considering related to media ownership regulations. ACME is a coalition comprised of hundreds of educators, parents, students, researchers, and activists, all of whom are committed to promoting media education and preserving democracy. We believe the current market conditions are prohibiting the FCC from protecting the localism, independence and diversity that are central to media democracy; and further deregulation would escalate the massive concentration of money and power, leading to additional deterioration of democratic media.

ACME Board Members were pleased to learn that the FCC has decided to hold a public hearing in Virginia. As Commissioner Copps has stated in the past, there is no issue more "fraught with serious consequences for the American people than the media ownership rules." Consequently, we urge the FCC to support Commissioner Copps in his efforts to facilitate hearings throughout the United States of America.

Since it's inception in 1934, the FCC has been charged with seeking public participation in decision making and protecting the "public interest". Public involvement, since the September 12, 2002 release of the Notice of Proposed Rule Making, has been minimal, at best. The FCC is evaluating policy considerations, about a venue that has the "near ubiquitous, pervasive power to completely alter the beliefs of every American?" the potential elimination of these regulations is being called, "the most radical view of media consolidation that any democracy has ever supported?" while in addition being "exclusively driven by ideology and business interests?" this is all according to, past FCC Chairman Reed Hundt. With concerns such as these being voiced by a past FCC Chairman and similar concerns being voiced by current FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, it would be potentially disastrous to move forward with out an educated and informed public debate.

Because of corporate media consolidation in the wake of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, news outlets have devoted scant attention to the current round of hearings. We are now in a situation where the responsibility the media has to inform the public is in direct conflict with the indisputable financial gains facilitated by further deregulation. This illustrates our point: the need for vigorous and widespread public debate on the question of further relaxing caps on media ownership.

The omission of coverage speaks directly to how the excessive consolidation and vertical integration of the mass media threatens media democracy. How can the media industry claim, "news gathering operations are independent of their corporate interests" when in the midst of major policy evaluation coverage is practically nonexistent? The public, unless they search out the few independent media sources left, does not hear about media ownership. The three major news networks reach 20-25 million households; cable news channels reach an additional 3 million---these are the main sources of information for many Americans, and they are not covering this debate. Not coincidentally, these players would reap financial benefits with these proposed changes in policy.

Media conglomerates are desecrating American democracy; they have put their financial interests ahead of their obligation to inform the public. Mass media providers have received federal funds, subsidies, monopoly rights to spectrum or cable; the acceptance of these public assets indicates incumbency to utilize them to inform American citizens about all pressing public issues.

ACME believes the business interests of commercial media have gone unchallenged for too long. The FCC must facilitate meaningful public policy debate related to media ownership regulations to preserve the definition of "public interest," which has been approved judicially and congressionally, " to promote diversity based on independent ownership designed to expand competition, meet local community needs, and protect the viewing/listening public's First Amendment rights to hear and be heard."

In closing, when discussing media and democracy the late, Senator Paul Wellstone stated the following, "global media corporations wield enormous influence over the formulation of public policy. Yet they often have direct economic stakes in the outcome of our public policy debates. What?s more, ordinary citizens have almost no say in the way these conglomerates operate. Yet, we know that what?s good for global media corporations is not necessarily good for America."

We respectfully ask that the commission do what is good for all Americans.

Sincerely,
The Action Coalition for Media Education Board of Directors:
Jacques Brodeur, Alison Brzenchek, Annemarie Charlesworth, Beth Cunningham, Peter DeBenedittis, Bob McCannon, Kim McCarten, Vaishali Sirkay, Sara Voorhees, Rob Williams

Crunch Time at the FCC

Commissioner Michael Copps' article in The Nation

FCC HEARING: PLUS RULE CHANGE EXPLANATION

Greater Richmond Convention Center to be Locale for February 27 Field Hearing

Washington, DC - As announced on January 23, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will hold a one-day field hearing on Thursday, February 27, 2003, in Richmond, Virginia, to facilitate participation by the general public in its review of broadcast ownership regulation. The Commission is now announcing that the hearing will be held at the Greater Richmond Convention Center, 403 N. Third Street, Ballroom Building, Level 1, Meeting Room 15AB. The hearing will be from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

The purpose of the hearing is to give the general public another opportunity to voice its opinions about broadcast ownership rules. The FCC's goal is to promote competition, diversity and localism in the media. Recent court decisions reversing FCC ownership rules have emphasized that any limits must be based on a solid factual record, not on predictive judgments alone. In late 2001, FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell created the Media Ownership Working Group and tasked it with developing a solid factual foundation for re-evaluating FCC media ownership policies.

The FCC is asking the public to offer comments on how the agency can develop broadcast ownership rules that provide citizens with viewpoints from a diversity of sources and enhance the marketplace of ideas. The FCC said that the public will benefit from rules that reflect the modern media environment and are able to withstand future judicial scrutiny.

Chairman Powell, in his December 4, 2002, announcement of the public hearing, said that the FCC had chosen Richmond as a location so it could hear from citizens of a mid-sized city. Chairman Powell said the information gathered at this hearing would supplement commentary from the FCC media ownership roundtable held in October 2001 and the extensive record that has already been accumulated.

In the 1996 Telecommunications Act, Congress required the FCC to review its media ownership rules, many of which were adopted decades ago, to determine "whether any of such rules are necessary in the public interest as a result of competition." In 2001, the FCC began rulemaking proceedings on two of its broadcast ownership rules - the Newspaper/Broadcast Cross-Ownership Rule and the Local Radio Ownership Rule. In September 2002, the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) asking for public comment on its four other broadcast ownership rules, and consolidated all three proceedings into a single Biennial Review. Two of these six rules have been remanded to the FCC by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The six rules and the year they originally were adopted are:

1. Newspaper/Broadcast Cross-Ownership Prohibition (1975)
2. Local Radio Ownership (1941)
3. National TV Ownership (1941): remanded by D.C. Circuit
4. Local TV Multiple Ownership, aka "Duopoly rule" (1964): remanded by D.C.Circuit
5. Radio/TV Cross-Ownership Restriction (1970)
6. Dual Television Network Rule (1946)

An agenda for the hearing will be released in the near future. The hearing is open to the public and seating will be available on
a first come, first served basis. All interested persons are invited to attend.

Requests for reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities should be made by sending an e-mail to: fcc504@fcc.gov. Include a description of the accommodation you will need including as much detail as you can. Also include a way we can contact you if we need more information. Make your request as early as possible; please allow at least 5 days advance notice. Last minute requests will be accepted, but may be impossible to fill. Contact the following Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau staff: for sign language interpreters, CART, and other reasonable accommodations, contact Helen Chang, 202-418-0424 (voice), 202-418-0432 (TTY), hchang@fcc.gov; for accessible format materials (braille, large print, electronic files, and audio format) contact Brian Millin, 202-418-7426 (voice), 202-418-7365 (TTY), bmillin@fcc.gov.

Interested members of the public may also participate in this proceeding by filing comments electronically using the Commission's Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) and ECFS Express at www.fcc.gov.

For further information, contact Amelia Brown (202) 418-1400.