FCC tries to pull a fast one with new rules on media ownership
Don't look now, but the Federal Communications Commission is once again trying to ram through changes in media-ownership rules before anyone notices.
And this time one of the major players in the changes is our city's own benevolent Chicago Tribune, which continues to put its corporate interests ahead of obligations -- real or imaginary -- to serve the public interest.
Yet in that the Trib is only indicative of what's going on in general with the media. Increasingly, media are either being bought up by conglomerates -- like Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. or GE's NBC -- or morphing into their own corporations, like Tribune Co. At that point, profit becomes paramount, and it absolutely affects what you see, hear and read on TV and radio and in the paper.
At least, corporate-owned newspapers and not independent family-owned papers like the one you're reading now, Aware One.
While I'm usually the first cynic to pooh-pooh anything done in Congress or in the government at large, these FCC rules and regulations, again, absolutely affect programming. The consolidation of media ownership almost always leads directly to a bland uniformity.
"The FCC is faced with a choice," said S. Derek Turner, research director at the grassroots media watchdog agency Free Press. "Listen to the concerns of Wall Street, or listen to the concerns of Main Street. The public is tired of these companies using our airwaves as personal ATMs. They want the FCC to say 'no' to more consolidation, and say 'yes' to local accountability, diversity in ownership and the public interest."
Even so, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin recently announced he wants to push through new ownership rules by the end of the year, with a vote set for mid-December. Why the sudden rush?
One of the motivating factors is the pending sale of Tribune Co. to Sam Zell. Some 35 years ago, the FCC, in a surprisingly activist attempt to expand diversity in the media, banned cross-ownership of a newspaper and a TV or radio station in the same city. But the Trib already owned WGN Channel 9 and WGN 720-AM, so it got by on grandfather status. With the sale, however, the Trib should be subject to that cross-ownership ban. At very least, it will need temporary waivers for the $82 billion sale to go through.
FCC Commissioner Michael Copps is one of two Democrats opposed to deregulation on the five-person FCC, and at a recent public hearing he wondered aloud: "Did you ever notice the FCC is always ready to run the fast break for Big Media, but it's the four-corner stall when it comes to serving the public interest?"
Just so in this case. At every FCC public hearing this year, including the one in Chicago at Operation PUSH in October, the public outcry has been adamant against additional consolidation. More than 800 people attended Chicago's eight-hour session, with about 200 reading statements into the record. The vast majority argued against consolidation.
A recent poll by the Media and Democracy Coalition found 70 percent of the people consider media consolidation a problem, with 57 percent against co-ownership of a TV or radio station and a newspaper in the same city. Yet Martin proposes allowing TV-newspaper cross-ownership, although for some reason he arbitrarily declines to extend that to radio. He reportedly would allow the Tribune deal to go through if WGN-AM is sold. And with the three-two Republican majority on the FCC, he has the votes to push it through next month.
Yet not so fast. The rush to deregulate actually drew more scrutiny to the issue, with the effect that it could complicate the Trib sale even more. "There is going to be a firestorm of protest," said U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat, "and I will be carrying the wood." Media consolidation being one of the few issues progressive liberals and libertarian conservatives agree on, he was soon joined by none other than Sen. Trent Lott, the Mississippi Republican, in sponsoring legislation telling the FCC to slow down.
"We do not believe the commission has adequately studied the impact of media consolidation," they wrote in a joint release. "We strongly encourage you to slow down and proceed with caution."
They've put together the Media Ownership Act of 2007 to insist on just that -- more study about the needs of the people, less urgency for corporate benefit -- and our own Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Dick Durbin have signed on as co-sponsors.
If representative government is just too slow or faceless for your needs, however, you can always join the local grassroots group Chicago Media Action in its plan to carol outside the Tribune Tower downtown with protest songs from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Dec. 7. If it's the season of giving, the CMA rightfully intends to give 'em hell.
In the air
Remotely interesting: The top presidential candidates reveal their favorite shows in the Dec. 3 TV Guide. Barack Obama likes "M*A*S*H" and "The Wire," Hillary Clinton likes "The Ed Sullivan Show," John Edwards likes "Boston Legal" (ack), John McCain likes "Prison Break" (predictably), Mitt Romney likes "Lost" and Fred Thompson likes "SportsCenter." So vote accordingly.
John Fogerty records a show for the next season of "Soundstage" at WTTW Channel 11's studios tonight. … Kathy Griffin addresses the backlash from her anti-Jesus acceptance speech at the Emmy Awards and deals with various celebrities in the new stand-up special "Straight to Hell," recorded here in Chicago, at 8 p.m. today on Bravo.
End of the dial: Arbitron is delaying the rollout of its Portable People Meter technology to measure radio ratings for six months in Chicago, from March to September of next year. It will stick with the old pencil-and-paper diary system until then.
WCKG 105.9-FM is changing its call letters to WCFS to better suit its "Fresh" music format of female-friendly easy-listening music.
-- Ted Cox