Public airwaves should always be used to best serve the public interest
Published: January 29, 2009
Updated: January 29, 2009
One only needs to hear a few minutes of most any talk radio show before hearing the term “mainstream media.” a derogatory term meaning “grand left-wing media conspiracy.”
The conspiracy theorists imply that the mainstream media is so powerful that it trumps even the mega influence of media titans like Bill O’Reilly or Rush Limbaugh.
In fact, the mainstream media got to be vast primarily by government policies allowing consoli-dation and mergers of media companies. During the Bush administration this accelerated via pro-consolidation policies of the Federal Communications Commission.
It would seem to follow that if conservatives can’t get the word out with the media that we currently have, then a more diverse ownership of the media might tend to encourage the airing of different points of view, possibly some more to their liking.
But the issue of media consolidation is dismissed by most political conservatives. The conservative think tank, Heritage Foundation has called media consolidation “a myth.”
Even the largest conservative media watchdog group, Accuracy in Media, complains about media bias but has virtually nothing to say about the increasing concentration of media ownership possibly being part of the problem.
In some respects, the media industry is not so much different from other industries that became dominated in recent years by a few powerful corporations, often through leveraged buyouts.
Media conglomerates have been able to exploit economies of scale by sharing printing facilities, reporters, etc.
In spite of that apparent advantage, most media giants — including Media General, the owner of this newspaper — have seen their stock prices plummet in the past few years.
But having consolidation of media is not the same as consolidation of the fast food or home decor industry.
The media shapes our understanding of the world. It is essential to our democracy. We depend upon the news and information we get from the media to make informed decisions and to hold our government and corporate leaders accountable.
Of particular concern is the broadcast media.While print media is largely beyond the jurisdiction of public policy, our broadcast media system wasn’t just created by the “invisible hand” of the free market. It was the direct result of policies made by Congress and the FCC.
The print media is free to operate by buying its own newsprint. But the airwaves are owned by the people. Those airwaves are no different than a public park, or a road. Private radio and TV broadcasters get to use these airwaves free of charge. In return, broadcasters are required by law to serve the public interest.
Dan Isett of Parents Television Council — a nonpartisan educational organization advocating re-sponsible media — speaking before the FCC in 2007 said “Continued media consolidation puts the corporate interest before the public interest. It is up to the FCC to maintain a media ownership policy that benefits the public and not merely those who would exploit the media landscape for their own gain.”
It seems like there should be a natural coalition of those who prefer more responsible use of broadcast TV and radio, those who think the media is too left wing, those who believe the media is too controlled by corporate interests, and those who want a locally owned media that is more likely to be more responsive to local interests, all who would see their interests served by a more diverse media ownership structure.
I think it’s time for the FCC to reverse its “anything goes” ownership structure of media consolidation. It is hard to conclude that the public interest is served by the vast majority of broadcast media offerings.
If they can’t start serving the public interest, the FCC should grant localities the right to charge them for using our public airwaves.
Legge’s column appears every other Thursday on the editorial page.
Advertisement
Reader Reactions
Liberal Flameout
President Obama may be riding high in Washington, but OBAMA 1260 is not.
The area’s only progressive talk station is changing formats, dropping such syndicated liberal hosts as Ed Schultz, Stephanie Miller and Bill Press in favor of financial news, starting next week.
The move by Redskins owner Dan Snyder, who purchased the station, WWRC, and others in Washington last summer, leaves the city without a liberal radio outlet. Program Director Greg Tantum says he thought the station could work because of enthusiasm over Obama, but that ratings collapsed to a level that could not be measured after the election.
But ratings nearly doubled, he says, at Snyder’s conservative station, WTNT, which features Laura Ingraham and Bill Bennett. Tantum said he will move Schultz to WTNT to give him another shot.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/01/AR200902…
...I posted the following on a blog the day before the election. I guess shutting down the station, it’s letting US and Obama know who really “won.“ If ratings went down it is because of the poorly-run management and technical operations, which were never remedied when the complaint was registered, if anything the problems were intended and escalated.
Submitted by CeeCee on Mon, 11/03/2008 - 11:15am.
Riding into the office today, I noticed Progressive 1260 (Washington DC) station was not broadcasting This station has been taking on the identification of Obama 1260 AM in recent weeks and advertising a counter station of McCain 570 AM.
With my suspicious nature, I decided to tune into the alter ego station to see whether that too was down. Low and behold, it was coming in extremely clear with Ann Coulter discussing Obama’s terrorist associations.
Unfortunately, I had several stops and could not call immediately to find out what was up and to register a complaint. After my last stop the radio channel was broadcasting again.
Quite honestly I should have called before this as this station’s broadcasts have been plaqued with technical difficulties such as commercials running into and over the programs, periods of nothing, programs re-looping, etc.
I called the number listed on the website and found out that it is no longer owned by Clear Channel. It’s run by Red Zebra Broadcasting owned in part by Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington NFL team, which explains all the area’s professional and college sports games pre-empting programming lately.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Zebra_Broadcasting
I called 301-230-3502 and was transferred to Greg Tantem whom I assume is the operations manager.
I politely registered my complaint. After doing so Tantem assured me that all of its stations were off air at the same time and it had been the result of maintenance and the time change, yada-yada-yada.
When I corrected him with the facts, specifically, the time (8:30 - 9:00) and guest (Ann Coulter) and rant topic (Obama’s association with terrorists) on 570 AM during which Progressive 1260 was off air until 9:00, he went into a diatribe about how he objected to my insinuation that the day before the election the progressive station would purposely be off air; the station was in the business of making money; if management were so against Obama they would have put on a country format; he worked for a station owned by “Democrats;“ and a “sensible” people would realize that this was just a glitch many stations face because of daylight savings time and maintenance problems. When I told him about the other continual problems, he told me he has only been there two weeks, and again told me a sensible and rational person would not blow this out of proportion or attribute it to trying to effect the election.
Since I never mentioned the election, I told Mr. Tantem that being a sensible person I would just register my complaint with the FCC.
Any of my fellow listeners who have noticed the same irregularities, I encourage you to do the same:
http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm
http://samsedershow.com/node/4025#comment-276743
Who decides? That’s the great thing about the 1st Amendment for once - no one should pre-determine what I may choose to listen to. Just like t.v. - you can change the radio station if you don’t like it. The public deserves to have choices outside the biased stations (tv, radio, etc) - and it is our choice - not the government’s.
Advertisement