CWA: Jobs, Media Diversity at Risk if FCC Rolls Back Rules

Fighting to keep the Federal Communications Commission from once again easing media ownership rules, hundreds of people turned out in Los Angeles this week for a seven-hour hearing in front of the full five-member commission.

Speakers included Jim Joyce, vice president of NABET-CWA, who said CWA's broadcast, Guild members and printers "will be profoundly affected by changes in the media ownership limits."

"Our members know what happens when one company owns more than one TV station or a major TV station and the monopoly newspaper in the same market," Joyce said. "The owner merges operations, slashes jobs, and reduces the quantity and quality of the news."

A huge outcry from a grassroots coalition of Americans ranging from union members to children's advocacy groups to the National Rifle Association helped push back some of the FCC's proposed changes three years ago.

Joyce said Los Angeles is a "poster child" for the effects of media concentration on diversity, noting that NBC, for instance, owns KNBC as well as two Spanish-language stations. When the facilities were combined, 10 percent of the workforce, mostly employees from Telemundo, lost their jobs.

"Before NBC bought Telemundo, each of the stations had a separate news operation. They were competitors. Now the news operations are commingled. Two assignment editors — one for KNBC and the other for the Spanish-language stations — coordinate coverage, and send one crew to shoot video for all three stations," he said. "The two Spanish-language stations often use the same reporter who carries a four-sided microphone. The reporter displays the KVEA letters for the KVEA voice-over, and then flips the microphone to read the same script for KWHY."

Fox, Univision and Viacom-CBS own two stations each in Los Angeles. Joyce said the CBS stations "extensively commingle, sharing reporters and often airing the same news story" and has cut union jobs.

"While these changes may be more "efficient," they do not advance the goals of competition, diversity, and localism," he said. "This is not good for democracy."

Joyce deflated the claim by media owners that they need to merge operations to save local stations and newspapers, saying local TV news typically has 50 percent profit margins and newspapers 20 percent or better.

"Media owners have themselves to blame for decline in audience share," he said. "To earn super-profits, they cut staff and resources. As quality declines, audiences drift away. A vicious cycle sets in. Media companies that invest in quality journalism see growth. But too many media owners choose instead to boost profits through mergers and more cuts."