Prometheus 6   

Media muscle mutes many voices as cap scrap looms
By ELIZABETH GUIDER

HOLLYWOOD -- Is it a rush to judgment or a long-overdue overhaul of archaic rules?

Increasingly vocal pundits are arguing both sides of this question as June 2 approaches: That's the deadline set by the FCC to decide what to do about decades-old regs that limit broadcast reach and ownership.

What's at issue?

How many media outlets one company can own in the same market and a national cap barring one broadcaster from owning TV stations that reach more than 35% of the national audience. Another rule up for review bars a broadcaster from owning a newspaper in the same major market.

The most impassioned voices have been coming down on the Bush administration against a relaxation of these rules. But then again, an equally impassioned set of voices was raised in protest against a war in Iraq, and they fell on deaf ears. The Bushies ignored those protestations, and they show every sign of doing the same on media deregulation.

… In some of the more provocative anti-dereg remarks -- which are not likely to win the speaker many friends at the studios and even fewer in D.C. -- Jonathan Taplin, a vet producer and currently CEO of video on demand provider Intertainer, suggests there has been a long-standing, politically conservative effort to move the media toward consolidation.

"I believe it was a very brilliant strategy planned by Newt Gingrich and the Republican right in the early '80s with two major allies in the media business: Lowry Mays at Clear Channel and Rupert Murdoch at News Corp.," he told the L.A. gathering.

Step one was to get rid of the Fairness Doctrine, which was instituted in 1949 and was for 30 years the sine qua non test for renewing broadcast licenses.

With Gingrich and company pushing hard and a Republican FCC, the fairness doctrine was phased out in 1987.

Step two was to remove media ownership caps.

Gingrich shepherded through his newly controlled congress the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which essentially eliminated the public service obligations of local stations -- and benefited, among others, May's Clear Channel and Murdoch's Fox netlet.

These two actions, killing the fairness doctrine and deregulating ownership rules, have led us to what Taplin argues is "media oligopoly."

"If the FCC and Congress continue to roll over for the media cartel, our democracy is in peril. Two companies will own 80% of the nation's radio stations. Five companies will own 80% of the nation's TV stations. Four companies will own 70% of the nation's cable systems."

That may be why 88% of respondents to a survey of senior execs just conducted by the Hollywood Radio and TV Society said they believed consolidation was harming the industry.