Safire: Regulate the F.C.C.

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "John F. McMullen" <observer () westnet com>
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2003 01:45:01 -0400 (EDT)
To: "johnmac's living room" <johnmacsgroup () yahoogroups com>
Cc: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Subject: Safire: Regulate the F.C.C.

> From the New York Times --
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/16/opinion/16SAFI.html

Regulate the F.C.C.
By WILLIAM SAFIRE

The Federal Communications Commission  in business to protect the public's
interest in our nation's airwaves  has by a 3-to-2 vote opened the
floodgates to a wave of media mergers that will further crush local
diversity and concentrate the power to mold public opinion in the hands of
ever-fewer giant corporations.

This troubles some readers, listeners and viewers who don't like
homogenized news or one-size-fits-all entertainment forced down their
throats. When I inveighed against this impending sellout a couple of weeks
ago, thousands  no kidding, an unprecedented torrent  of e-mails came
roaring in, many beginning "Though I consider you a rightwing nutcase on
most issues, I'm 100% with you against this big-media power grab."

John McCain, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, was also startled
by the public reaction to the Floodgate scandal: "750,000 people sent
messages to the F.C.C.," McCain tells me. "This sparked more interest than
any issue I've ever seen that wasn't organized by a huge lobby."

Here's what happened: a single media giant, up to now allowed to own
television stations reaching slightly more than a third of the nation's
viewers, will soon  thanks to Floodgate  be able to reach nearly half, a
giant's giant step toward 100 percent "penetration." And as for
"cross-ownership"  the ability for newspapers to buy TV and radio stations
in the same city and vice versa  the F.C.C. as much as said "c'mon in,
local domination by a media powerhouse is fine."

Now it's up to Congress to overturn the ruling by the roundheeled F.C.C.
On Thursday, Senate Commerce will mark up a bill put forward by Ted
Stevens, Republican of Alaska, to roll back the penetration to 35 percent.
It will be amended by Byron Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, to roll back
the cross-ownership.

Where does Chairman McCain stand? The maverick whose hero is the
trust-busting Teddy Roosevelt is uncharacteristically torn. He's against
regulation in principle and admires F.C.C. Chairman Michael Powell, so he
won't support Stevens's rollback to 35 percent (which McCain thinks will
pass in committee, and which he won't fight) or support Dorgan's amendment
on cross-ownership (which McCain thinks is doomed  "the fix is in on
cross-ownership").

But I can feel the Arizonan coming around. "There's already too much
concentration in radio," he says, as only four companies reach almost all
listeners in the U.S. in what some of us remember as a blessedly local
medium. "That could be the miners' canary. We'll hold hearings on that."
(He should call in artists to examine how one radio combine gained a
stranglehold on popular music.)

McCain's hesitancy means that this week's strong hand for diversity and
diffusion of power is Stevens. With conservative allies like Trent Lott
and Kay Bailey Hutchison joining most Democrats, Stevens has the votes for
his bill. Dorgan tells me that if he cannot get a modified version of his
cross-ownership rollback amendment passed, there is another way  through
the Congressional Review Act  of bringing the issue to the floor.

Forgive the inside baseball (this is beginning to read like a Bob Novak
column), but the legislative intricacy shows how a power grab engineered
by a seemingly unstoppable lobby has at least a chance of being stymied by
an aroused public resentful of media manipulation.

Media moguls slavering for massive mergers don't worry about any Senate
action described above. They are sure they have Billy Tauzin, Republican
of Louisiana and chairman of House Commerce, in their pocket, and think
they can kill any rollback in the House.

Mebbeso, but never underestimate the political sagacity of an old Senate
bull like Stevens, who doesn't get his bills passed for show. There may be
some serious homeland-security angles to communications legislation that
would be of interest to House conservatives and could form the basis of
House-Senate cooperation.

The effect of the media's march to amalgamation on Americans' freedom of
voice is too worrisome to be left to three unelected commissioners. This
far-reaching political decision should be made by Congress and the White
House, after extensive hearings and fair coverage by too-shy broadcasters,
no-local-news cable networks and conflicted newspapers.

Listeners, viewers and readers are interested. You should see this stack
of mail.

Email: safire () nytimes com

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
*** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use
has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The
'johnmacsgroup' Internet discussion group is making it available without
profit to group members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving
the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of
literary, educational, political, and economic issues, for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. I believe that this constitutes a
'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of
the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for
purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission
from the copyright owner.

For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml


   "When you come to the fork in the road, take it" - L.P. Berra
   "Always make new mistakes" -- Esther Dyson
   "Be precise in the use of words and expect precision from others" -
    Pierre Abelard
   "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
    -- Arthur C. Clarke
   "Bobby Layne never lost a game. Time just ran out." -- Doak Walker
                          John F. McMullen
                 johnmac () acm org johnmac () cyberspace org
              ICQ: 4368412 AIM & Yahoo Messenger: johnmac13
                  http://www.westnet.com/~observer


------ End of Forwarded Message

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To manage your subscription, go to
  http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/