Check out this excellent study by Children Now on media duopolies in Los Angeles, suggesting that the FCC's proposed changes to media ownership rules will seriously impact children's programming nationwide.
The study is entitled "Big Media, Little Kids: Media Consolidation in Los Angeles and Children's Television Programming - 2003." Read on for a brief summary:
For Free Download (327K): http://tinyurl.com/jlcxn
Summary:
The Federal Communications Commission is currently considering modifying or eliminating the same media ownership rules as in 2003. Children's advocates are concerned that any changes to these rules could negatively affect the already limited amount and types of programming available for children.
In order to inform the Commission's 2003 rulemaking, Children Now conducted the first study ever to examine the availability and diversity of children's programming in an increasingly consolidated media marketplace. Children Now selected Los Angeles as a case study for this research because it is the second largest media market in the country and two duopolies now exist among its television stations.
The study compares the children's programming schedules from 1998, when the market's seven major commercial broadcast television stations were owned by seven different companies, to 2003, after consolidation reduced the number to five. The findings suggest that changes to current ownership policies will have a serious impact on the availability and diversity of children's programming.
By Jonathan Rintels, founder of the Center for Creative Voices in Media
(Originally published at Huffington Post)
Last week, the LA Times editorialized against limits on media ownership, which the FCC is trying to eliminate or relax again after its earlier 2003 attempt was “smacked down” (in the Times’ own desperate-to-be-hip phrase) by a Federal appeals court.
Of course, the Times has the right to editorialize as it sees fit. As A.J. Liebling said, “Freedom of the press is guaranteed (only to those who own one).” And the paper did mention, as part of its un-full “full disclosure,” down in the penultimate paragraph, that it does happen to be owned by the Tribune Co., which would profit greatly if media ownership limits were lifted.
What’s noteworthy is how wrong and biased the “facts” are that the Times presented to make its case. For example, the paper marginalizes those who tried to block then-FCC Chairman Michael Powell’s wholesale lifting of ownership limits as “a motley alliance of anti-corporate zealots and conservative activists.” Hmmm…. Well, in my own full disclosure, the group I head, the Center for Creative Voices in Media, opposed the FCC in 2003, but I’m not sure which side of that alliance we’re on.
At any rate, here’s how it really went down (my own desperate-to-be-hip phrase), and what the Times doesn’t care to mention as the editorial page dutifully carries Tribune’s corporate water. It was the Republican-controlled US Congress, in a bill then signed into law by a Republican president, that overturned key portions of the FCC’s Tribune-friendly 2003 decision. Then, in 2004, a Federal appeals court overturned as “arbitrary and capricious” the rest of the FCC’s decision.
The Republican US Department of Justice then refused to join Tribune in appealing that court decision up to the US Supreme Court. In 2005, the US Supreme Court then rejected Tribune’s appeal.
So now, the FCC is starting the process of doing Tribune’s bidding all over again. So let’s see who’s in this conspiratorial “motley alliance” against Tribune’s efforts to buy up more local and national media:
President George W. Bush
Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez
United States Senate
United States House of Representatives
United States Supreme Court
Third Circuit US Court of Appeals
Now THERE’S a “motley alliance”…. The editorial also fails to mention that the FCC received over three million public comments in its media ownership proceeding, of which well over 99 percent opposed the Tribune/FCC push to allow large media companies to buy up more national and local media outlets.
At what point does “motley alliance of zealots and activists” turn into overwhelming bipartisan public consensus?
Whatever point that is on the issue of whether Big Media should get Bigger, surely we’ve passed it. The Tribune/FCC effort to eliminate reasonable media ownership limits failed not because of some marginal “motley alliance,” but because the public and its elected representatives from both parties overwhelmingly realized it was a really, really bad idea.
Reasonable media ownership limits on national and local media conglomerates are absolutely necessary to preserve competition in news, as well as diverse voices and viewpoints in our democratic discourse. With the Times’ editorial shamelessly slanting and omitting the facts to promote Tribune’s business interests over the public interest, it unwittingly proves that very point.
The free-market mantra at the FCC is that the many choices provided by the Internet mean that there's no need for preserving local TV and radio news.
But the facts suggest a very different conclusion.
Read this new report http://tinyurl.com/gsvz6
1) Stop Big Media & the FCC's New Rules!
That's right friends, it's deja vu all over again. The Federal Communications Commission just announced it's re-considering rules that will allow Clear Channel and a handful of corporate media giants to grow even larger and more unaccountable.
In 2003, working together, we beat back these same, awful rules. Will you help us Stop Big Media this time around?
For starters, let's bring the FCC Commissioners to hear the Bay Area's concerns directly and get them on record. Sign the petition below by the Youth Media Council and MA to demand the first-ever FCC public hearing in Oakland. More action steps are soon to follow.
TAKE ACTION: Bring the FCC to Oakland, Sign the Petition today!
http://action.media-alliance.org/petition.php?pid=6
BACKGROUND INFO: http://tinyurl.com/jl73h
UPDATE- LOS ANGELES: The two Democrats on the FCC have just agreed to an unofficial public hearing with MA and partners in L.A. on August 31st. Help get the word out to friends in Los Angeles, see the details on our Media Events calendar at http://tinyurl.com/gwlyt .
2) FREE JOSH WOLF - Defend Press Freedom and Independent Media
Josh Wolf, a freelance videographer, is in the federal jail in Dublin because he insists on upholding the First Amendment in a precedent-setting case for bloggers and mediaworkers. He was taken into custody August 1 for refusing to let a federal grand jury have unedited footage that he shot during an anti-G-8 demonstration in San Francisco in July, 2005.
The Bush Administration's action is a direct violation of press freedom and has a chilling effect on the independent role we all need mediaworkers to play to keep power in check. Mediaworkers are not an arm of the government. This case also features the federal government's pre-emption of California's Shield Law for Journalists, a hard-won and important protection.
An appeal of Josh's case is pending before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Meanwhile, Josh sits in jail and his legal expenses continue to pile up.
What can you do now?
a) DONATE to Josh's Defense: http://joshwolf.net/grandjury/donate.htm
b) IN SF, CALL your Supervisor to vote YES on 8/15
A city resolution supporting Josh and press freedom will be voted on at SF City Hall on Tuesday 8/15. MA and allies were able to add a clause expressing SF's support for legislation pending in DC for a national shield law for journalists.
Supes Mirkarimi, Ammiano and Daly are co-sponsors. Please call your rep to urge their support and thank them. Contact info: http://tinyurl.com/rqv3c
Look to our site shortly for info on the push for the federal shield law.
c) READ about Josh's case and help get the word out:
The Chronicle editorial "Free Josh Wolf" http://tinyurl.com/hy87c
Background and timely updates at http://www.joshwolf.net
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3) CA Cable Reform: Sacramento gets an earful
Earlier in the summer we asked you to contact your reps in Sacramento about an important bill on what's being called "cable competition reform" but is really about AT&T wanting to get their hands in everything. Their lobbyists are really throwing their cash around and causing a race to the bottom regarding phone/video/Internet services to low-income communities and support for community media resources.
Thanks to your hundreds of emails and phone calls, and the hundred-plus people we helped mobilize with our allies to testify in Sacramento, the members of the CA Senate Committee took the time to seriously address our concerns with the bill. The Committee made substantial amendments to the bill and voted unanimously to send it to the Appropriations Committee.
As part of the amendments, a timetable for buildout of a fiber infrastructure was established: AT&T will no longer be able to claim that providing satellite TV service to low-income communities is equivalent to providing fiber to affluent communities.
The Appropriations Committee is hearing the bill today. There is still much to be improved on this bill and the time is short.
We will keep you posted, stay tuned...
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4) Net Neutrality news
Also earlier this summer we were raising the red flag over the future of the Internet and an issue called Net Neutrality by some. As founding members of the Savethe Internet Coalition working on this issue, we're proud to say we've helped beat back the threat...for now.
The threat hasn't gone away of complete privatization by the several companies that own "the pipes" - AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner.
What has changed is that Congress doesn't want to touch this with a ten foot pole in this election year, due to a truly massive outpouring by concerned members of the public and basically every non-profit and business that's not one of the 4 giants mentioned above. From Google and the NRA to hundreds of Chambers of Commerce and the Green Party, we've shifted the landscape on this one thanks to you and our partners
in the SavetheInternet Coalition.
We'll know more when Congress comes back from August recess, so stay tuned and stay strong during the rest of your summer, and beyond :)
To support this work, please go to http://tinyurl.com/pkp9k
Many thanks,
Jeff Perlstein
Executive Director, Media Alliance