Guild Fighting to Preserve Media Ownership Rules

The Newspaper Guild-CWA is joining with other activists to step up the fight against proposed Federal Communications Commission rule changes that would give a handful of corporate media giants even more power.

By further relaxing long-standing rules on media ownership, the FCC would dramatically reduce the few remaining independent voices in America's newspapers, TV and radio stations, as well as curb the free spirit of the Internet, activists say.

To draw attention to the pending changes, TNG-CWA is helping plan a Jan. 16 public hearing in New York sponsored by Columbia University Law School. Another hearing is being planned at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles later in the month and a third may be held in Seattle.

Michael Copps, a Democratic member of the FCC board who has broken ranks with FCC Chairman Michael Powell, called for the hearings. Under pressure, Powell - son of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell - has decided to hold a hearing of his own in Richmond, Va., in February.

The Guild, a leader in the fight for media diversity, co-sponsored a forum in October that raised serious questions about the effect of media consolidation on free speech. "One of the most important things we have to do is help people understand how fundamental this issue is to our democracy and to their access to credible information." TNG-CWA President Linda Foley said.

"We're all talking about war, about terrorism, about taxes, but we're not yet talking about how we get our news about these very critical matters," Foley said. "Reporters and editors are working as hard as ever to maintain high standards of journalism, but they're at the mercy of a shrinking number of media companies that decide which stories we'll see and hear. We can't trust that we're getting all the facts we need from media corporations that are most concerned with the bottom line and their cozy relationship with government."

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 relaxed rules that had limited radio and TV station ownership, rules designed to encourage a large and diverse number of media voices. Now the FCC is considering a further weaking of the following rules:

• The broadcast-newspaper cross-ownership rule. The rule has prohibited the two key sources of information in a community, the daily newspaper and a broadcast TV station, from being owned by the same company.
  
  
• Local TV multiple ownership rule and the radio/TV cross-ownership rule. The rules place some limits on the number of stations that any one company can own in a single community.
  
  
• National TV ownership rule. The policy limits the number of TV stations a single company can own. The current limit bars a company from controlling stations that collectively reach 35 percent of all TV households.
  
  
• Dual Network Rule, preventing one of the four major networks-ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox-from buying another network.

The Center for Digital Democracy, an organization fighting efforts to lift the rules, says the proposed changes will affect everyone, even people who depend on the Internet for information.

"These changes will have an impact in every community in the United States, where there will soon be even fewer owners of TV and radio stations, newspapers, and cable systems," the center says on its website. "Nationally, a smaller number of conglomerates will control most of the major media outlets. Given the FCC's recent policy decisions on the Internet, the few remaining dominant owners of 'old' media will have their power extended to the new online medium as well. In short, this is a huge giveaway of public resources and political power to a tiny few."