>>Quit trying to regulate the choices Americans make when they turn on the radio or TV.
There are 15000 radio stations alone to choose from. If consumers choose to listen to a select few......that's their choice.<<
Moenmac -
I think you missed the point completely. The FCC has always had regulations on the books that restrict any single company from owning too many media outlets in one city.
The idea is to give listeners more choice, not less. If one company owned every newspaper, every radio station and every TV station in your town, then that company would be in charge of virtually all the news you would read, see, or hear.
The FCC has already relaxed those regulations to allow large companies to own more than one television station in a city, plus a newspaper, plus radio stations, etc. But there are still some restrictions to prevent any one company owning too many media outlets in one area.
Now, the FCC plans to adopt a set of proposals to relax the regulations much further, so that a small handful of companies could own virtually every radio station, newspaper, television station and network in the country. There have been exactly 2 public hearings on this, while the Chairman of the FCC has had dozens of meetings with industry execs from Viacom, Disney, etc. Many of these meetings have taken place in the context of all-expenses-paid-trips to Las Vegas and Paris, among others.
There has already been a tremendous amount of consolidation in the media. The big question is, do we really need more consolidation? Do we need fewer but larger companies controlling more of what you see, read or hear than they do now? Is there some kind of problem that this change will solve? Remember that consolidation in an industry doesn't create jobs. Quite the contrary, consolidation leads to layoffs. So there isn't even an economic argument in favor of these proposed changes.
This is not an issue that pits liberals against conservatives. William Safire is no liberal. You are not incorrect that this is about controlling the choices Americans make when they turn on radio or TV. What this will do is to put much of that control squarely in the hands of five large companies. Those companies are: Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., which owns Fox, Viacom (CBS), Disney (ABC), GE (NBC) and Clear Channel (which has a vast network of radio stations).
Rupert Murdoch and Viacom's Mel Karmazin personally lobbied the FCC commissioners in a series of meetings while the proposals were being drafted in late January and early February.
People on both sides of the political divide are alarmed about this, but the Bush Administration has weighed in in favor. Pleas from various quarters, including Congress, to delay the June 2nd vote date, have gone unheeded by Chairman Powell. He doesn't feel that he needs to hear more from the public because there have already been two whole public hearings, after all. Guess how many of those two hearings he attended personally?
Don't take my word for it. Do some investigation on your own. Find out what other conservatives think. See if you think the FCC is truly acting in the public's interest.
- Allen |
