Expect Resistance & Library Autonomous Zone

“My beef with big media” by Ted Turner. Washington Monthly July/August, 2004.

To get a flavor of how consolidated the industry has become, consider this: In 1990, the major broadcast networks–ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox–fully or partially owned just 12.5 percent of the new series they aired. By 2000, it was 56.3 percent. Just two years later, it had surged to 77.5 percent.

This is interesting seeing that Turner’s one of the big media players. Perhaps he’s just mad because AOL Time Warner forced him to resign as Vice Chairman last January, 2003.

[Thanks Nancy!]

Corporate Media and Local Interests / Downsizing the monster

The issue is whether a few large conglomerates will be ceded content control over our music, entertainment and information; gatekeeper control over the civic and political dialogue of our country; and veto power over the majority of what we and our families watch, hear and read. Rather than learn the lessons of radio concentration, the FCC plunged ahead and voted to visit a policy of “Clear Channelization” on the rest of our media.

FCC member Michael J. Copps seems to have the right perspective when it comes to media concentration. The thing I question is, since 2.3 million (!) people responded to the last rules changes (99.9% against), the Congress has overturned the FCC changes in their entirety, and the US Court of Appeals has weighed in against the changes, why is there a need for ANY public hearings?! The public has spoken loudly and clearly. It’s time for the FCC, supposedly the steward of the public’s airwaves, to listen to the feedback, stop wasting time and regulate the airwaves in a way that doesn’t give monopoly control to a few large corporations. Come on already!

For more information and background, see NOW’s website on Media Consolidation or the Center for Digital Democracy.

AlterNet: Media Reformers Look Beyond Philadelphia

The June 24 federal appeals court decision against the FCC loosening of media-ownership rules marks a win for millions of Americans concerned about consolidation of media outlets, but the campaign against big media is far from over, advocates say.

This isn’t the end, however. The FCC rules were sent back to the FCC, not completely dismissed. For more background and information on how to get involved, go the Consumer Federation of America’s (CFA) site on media ownership.

Also check out the handy hallikainen.com to view the current and historical rules changes and submit comments directly to Michael Powell.

[Thanks Deborah Caldwell-Stone]

A law unto themselves, by John Naughton
Sunday June 13, 2004
The Observer.
This article describes a draft treaty at a World Intellectual Property Organization meeting that could have world wide consequences.

Experience over the last decade has shown us how established industries react when they are threatened by new technology. First they go into denial. Then they resort to legal countermeasures - which invariably fail. Finally they nobble legislators, seeking to persuade them to enact laws that will protect the old business models.

While Declan suggests that the FCC is no longer needed, we see today’s Wall Street Journal has a story that describes new problems, caused by technological changes, that, it seems to me, may require more regulation, not less.
. Airports Clash With Airlines Over Wi-Fi by Amy Schatz. Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.:
Jun 8, 2004. pg. B.1. [requires subscription].

…the airlines are asking the FCC a
crucial question: whether a landlord has the right to bar tenants from
setting up individual Wi-Fi networks.

Why the FCC should die

Declan McCullagh argues pursuasively that the FCC has outlived its usefulness and has become a major source of “bureaucratic malfeasance” (media centralization, restricting first amendment rights…). I agree with the first part of his thesis. However, his solution of privatizing the whole spectrum is completely off the mark. The airwaves are owned in common by all citizens, not space to be owned and sued over like land. The FCC is supposed to be protecting that “space” for the common good, and we as citizens need to hold the FCC accountable to us, not the monster media conglomerates. His solution would speed the movement toward media centralization, definitely *not* a good thing! Interesting food for thought though.

Its justification for existence was weak 70 years ago, but advances in technology since then have eliminated whatever arguments remained. Central planning didn’t work for the Soviet Union, and it’s not working for us. The FCC is now an agency that does more harm than good.

Bill Moyers | An Eye On Power: Address delivered at the Newspaper Guild/Communication Workers of America dinner on May 19, 2004.

as secrecy grows, and media conglomerates put more and more power in fewer and fewer hands, we have witnessed the rise of a new phenomenon-a quasi-official partisan press ideologically linked to an authoritarian administration that is in turn the ally and agent of powerful financial and economic interests that consider transparencies a threat to their hegemony over public opinion. This convergence dominates the marketplace of political ideas in a phenomenon unique in our history. Stretching from the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal to Rupert Murdoch’s empire to the nattering nabobs of know-nothing radio to a legion of think tanks bought and paid for by corporations circling the honey pots of government, a vast echo chamber resounds with a conformity of opinions, serving a partisan worldview cannot be proven wrong because it admits no evidence to the contrary. When you challenge them with evidence to the contrary-when you try to hold their propaganda to scrutiny-you’re likely to wind up in the modern equivalent of a medieval iron maiden, between the covers, that is, of an Ann Coulter tirade, or wake up in an underground cell at FOX News, force fed leftovers from a Roger Ailes snack, and required for 24 hours a day to stare at photographs of Rupert Murdoch on the walls of the cell while listening to a piped-in Bill O’Reilly singing the Hallelujah Chorus in praise of himself.

[thanks t r u t h o u t]
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Journalism.org- The State of the News Media 2004

This site provides a comprehensive look at the state of American journalism divided into the major journalism sectors. Much original and aggregated data found here.

The Center for Public Integrity has expanded its Web-based, one-of-a-kind media ownership search to include network designations for television stations and information on the nation’s largest newspapers.

The search was built using FCC data and supplemented by hundreds of hours of research by Center staff. Simply plug in a zip code or city name and find the owner of every radio station, television station and cable television system in the area.

Check out Robert McChesney.com. You’ll find a collection of his works on media, politics and communication theory. His weekly radio show, “Media Matters” is archived on the site so you can stream audio interviews with folks like Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation magazine, Amy Goodman, producer and co-host of Democracy Now, and Michael Copps, FCC Commissioner. Good stuff.