From Portland Press Herald, June 28, 2007

By Gregory D. Kesich

Mainers were asked to speak for the country about news media performance Thursday night when the Federal Communications Commission held a rare public hearing at Portland High School.

The federal agency that licenses television and radio stations is gathering views on how local media perform their public service obligation in an era when more outlets are owned by out-of-state corporations. Public comment will be used to shape proposed policy changes that could further relax or restrict ownership arrangements.

Thursday’s hearing was attended by several hundred people, 150 of whom signed up to make two-minute statements to the commissioners.

Many were employees of television and radio stations who came to trumpet their community service despite the lack of local ownership. Others were members of organizations that campaign for stricter regulation of media ownership and public access to the airwaves.

Some, like Mark LaPointe of Durham, came because they were fed up with what the news media offer.

He said his definition of public service “is keeping elected officials accountable. We need news, not just something ripped off the AP (news service) and disseminated again and again. This is creating arguments based on false facts.”

In an opening statement, FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein asked people to share their views, pointing out that this was the fifth of six planned public hearings, and the only one in the Northeast.

“I wish we were going to every community in the country … but we are not,” Adelstein said. “You speak for many towns like the one you live in and love.”

Media ownership in southern Maine has changed dramatically in the past decade. Since 1998, all three network affiliate television stations and the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram have been bought by out-of-state companies.

WCSH (Channel 6) is owned by Virginia-based Gannett Co., WGME (Channel 13) by Sinclair Broadcast Group in Baltimore, and WMTW (Channel 8) by Hearst-Argyle, based in New York.

The Press Herald/Telegram is owned by Blethen Maine Newspapers, a subsidiary of the Seattle Times Co., which owns newspapers in Washington state and Maine.

Radio in Portland is dominated by three large conglomerates: Citadel Communications, Saga Communications and Nassau Broadcasting Partners.

Thursday’s hearing had its roots in the 2003 effort led by former FCC Commissioner Michael Powell to further deregulate media ownership. The goal included allowing companies to own more stations — including multiple stations in the same market — and allowing cross-ownership of television and newspapers, which is currently barred in most circumstances.

Congress and the U.S. Court of Appeals in the 3rd Circuit rejected the proposals. There were also more than 3 million public comments from people who protested the changes.

Now the commissioners say they are starting the process again, and while relaxing ownership rules is still on the table, so is the introduction of performance standards for broadcasters, such as the ones that existed before the 1980s spelling out the kind of public service they are expected to provide.

Commissioner Michael Copps said the new rules can replace the current license renewal process with one that puts specific requirements on broadcasters, regardless of where their owners reside.

“I’m not talking about micro-regulation, but there can be some viable standards that are in the public interest,” he said.

Adelstein and Copps are the Democrats on the commission, which by law can have no more than three members of the same party. GOP commissioners Deborah Taylor Tate and Robert M. McDowell also attended the hearing. Commission Chairman Kevin Martin, also a Republican, was in Washington, where his newborn baby is hospitalized.

McDowell said he looked forward to hearing people’s opinions on media performance.

“Localism is not just a good idea, it’s the law,” he said. “We want to know how we’re living up to it.”

After opening statements, the commission heard from a panel of news executives, station operators, academics and a Maine politician.

Dick Gleason, president and general manager of five central Maine radio stations, pleaded with the commission to hold off on new regulations.

Gleason described the local service he provides, including a 30- minute “swap shop” program every weekday, a weekly French- language program and high school sports. Gleason said he can do that because those features deliver an audience to advertisers who support the programming.

Putting government-manda-ted public service programs on the air that no one listens to will not benefit the public and will hurt the financial structure of his business, he said. Some deregulation of radio stations, such as allowing broadcasts to originate outside the station’s community, has let his local company charge lower advertising rates, benefiting the community.

“Localism is won and lost in the marketplace,” Gleason said. “As long as the organization is getting the job done, the people are getting what they want.”

But the marketplace does not solve all problems, said Emily Sapienza, a broadcaster with WRFR in Rockland, a low-power community radio station.

“What about the people who don’t want to hear what the majority wants?” she asked.

C. Edwin Baker, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, said consolidation of media ownership puts news decisions into too few hands. Encouraging diverse media ownership, articularly local ownership, will prevent concentration of power, which is bad for democracy, he said.

John Christie, publisher of the Kennebec Journal, in Augusta, and the Waterville-based Morning Sentinel, which are also owned by Blethen Maine Newspapers, said he has worked for large newspaper chains that don’t put the highest priority on good journalism.

“Corporately owned media outlets may … have good intentions

about localism, but in my experience, those intentions take a back seat to earnings,” Christie said.

He has a news staff much larger than typical newspapers owned by large chains, which enables his papers to produce more local content, he said. And he has been given an unlimited budget to go to court when necessary to get access to public documents or meetings.

“Annual five-figure legal bills for small newspapers like mine will not survive corporate-style budgeting,” he said.

Several Maine politicians pointed out the effects of media consolidation in this state. In a video-recorded statement from Washington, U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, recalled how during his first campaign, he and his rival debated in prime time on each of the locally owned network affiliate stations in Portland. During his last campaign, after all three stations changed hands, Allen and his opponent were offered two debates, including a 10-minute segment within a 5:30 p.m. newscast.

Chellie Pingree, the former national president of Common Cause and one of several candidates hoping to fill Allen’s seat when he runs for the U.S. Senate next year, said changes to FCC rules have weakened the public’s ability to make informed decisions at election time.

After describing how the consolidation of local radio stations in the midcoast has limited the amount of news and public service broadcasting in the region, Pingree called on the commission to take action.

“I believe that there is much damage to be undone,” she said.