Tennessee Voices: FCC should not give the media giants an unfair edge over independents

The FCC held a hearing recently in Nashville on easing media ownership rules. Hundreds of citizens spoke out against this change, with good reason.

Right now, five media conglomerates — Viacom, Disney, Time Warner, News Corp. and NBC/GE — control much of what you see, read and hear in the media, including the big four television networks, many cable channels and a large percentage of radio, publishing, movie studios, music, Internet and other sectors. And the FCC is considering giving them even more — free of charge.

n 1945, the Supreme Court declared, "The widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources is essential to the welfare of the public, that a free press is a condition of a free society." As the federal agency charged with regulating the mass media, the FCC long had rules in place to promote just that.

But over the years, the rules designed to foster production of independent news and entertainment have been weakened, starting with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which allowed the consolidation of ownership of the publicly owned airwaves into a few corporate hands. And the public interest has suffered greatly.

Today, only a limited number of rules remain that prevent any person or company from owning all of the media outlets in cities such as Nashville. Congress has virtually eliminated the rules restricting radio ownership to allow one company, Clear Channel, to own radio stations in every market in the country. In Nashville alone, Clear Channel owns five of the largest stations on the air.

Corporate dominance of local markets has translated into less public interest reporting on consumer, environmental, minority and labor affairs. Unbelievably, media companies are no longer required to present more than one side of an issue.

Voice tracking — the prerecording of the supposedly live breaks of a broadcast — is rampant now, and means there is not an actual person in a studio during a broadcast to report on what is actually happening at the time, including severe weather situations, natural disasters and even national emergencies.

Now the FCC is considering eliminating the few rules that remain that keep one company from having absolute control over our local media: cross-ownership rules, which prevent companies from owning a television or radio station and the major daily newspaper in the same area and the local ownership caps that limit a company from owning more than one television station in most markets.

These changes will have a serious impact on the diversity of viewpoints and coverage of local issues. A single corporate owner of media outlets gains immense influence over what information is available to the public. Sensationalism and focus on entertainment over substance — already a mainstay of corporate media — will increase, and serious talk and solid reporting about issues of local import will be cast aside in favor of mass-produced programming that ups the bottom line.

Our media are more than a money-machine; they are a cornerstone of democracy. The public interest should be served first, not shareholders. Let the FCC know what you think at www.fcc.gov/ownership/comments The airwaves belong to the public. Let's keep it that way.