FCC RULING
Limits eased for media owners
WASHINGTON - A sharply divided Federal Communications
Commission on Monday relaxed or eliminated several key media ownership
restrictions, holding that the decades-old rules were out of date with a
rapidly changing media landscape populated by hundreds of cable, satellite and
Internet choices.
The changes
would permit a new wave of consolidation among newspaper, television and radio
companies, which proponents say will increase competition and produce more and
better news. Opponents fear the new rules place too much power over public
opinion in the hands of a few giant media corporations.
By a 3-to-2 vote
along party lines, the five-member commission largely lifted the 28-year-old
ban that prohibited a newspaper from buying a television or radio station in
the same city. Additionally, the commission allowed broadcast networks to buy
more stations at the local and national levels.
At the same
time, the commission upheld a rule prohibiting a major network (ABC, CBS, NBC,
Fox) from buying another network, and it tightened regulations on local radio
ownership, seeking to stanch the widespread consolidation that followed
Congress' decision to lift national radio ownership limits in 1996.
Both sides
claimed they were voting in the public interest and for free speech. The
commission's three Republicans, led by Chairman Michael K. Powell, said the new
rules were needed because federal courts have tossed out prior ownership
restrictions, leaving no checks to consolidation in place.
But the two
Democrats, led by Michael J. Copps, said the Republican solution will harm free
speech as more and more local media operations are absorbed by large
corporations, creating homogenized news and entertainment and pushing unpopular
and minority viewpoints off the airwaves. The Republicans backed away from
drafting rules they feared would judge content. Monday's vote was the
culmination of months of intense corporate and public lobbying, as each side
fought to either sweep away or tighten the ownership rules. Media companies
such as News Corp. and Walt Disney Co. said their businesses were hamstrung by
obsolete rules that prevented their broadcast networks and stations from
competing effectively with the burgeoning cable broadcast industry.
In order to keep
providing free, over-the-air programming, broadcasters claimed to need the
additional revenue brought in by owning more television stations. On the other
side, the FCC received more than 500,000 postcards and e-mails spurred by
advocacy groups as disparate as Common Cause and the National Rifle Association
protesting the changes, saying any further concentration of media ownership
will keep their voices off the air.
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