Last week an enormous controversy surrounded Sinclair Broadcasting's decision not to air ABC's Nightline on Friday, a program that recognized the U.S. servicemen and women who have died in Iraq. Numerous prominent Americans, including Senator John McCain [R-AZ], strongly criticized Sinclair for its actions.
There is an important issue here that goes to the root of the problem of today's media: the sheer corruption of our policymaking process has put far too much power in the hands of reckless media conglomerates. The decision by Sinclair not to air the tribute to the fallen soldiers wasn't a journalistic decision; it was a business decision awash in politics.
Sinclair doesn't want to broadcast material that it thinks will put the Bush Administration in a bad light, because Sinclair is deeply connected to the Bush Administration. Its top executives have flooded the Bush-Cheney campaign coffers with contributions: $16,000 in hard money and more than $120,000 in soft money to Bush and his allies. In return the Bush Administration has supported relaxing media ownership rules, which would allow Sinclair to gobble up more TV stations. It's corrupt policymaking; whether those policymakers are Democrats or Republicans is immaterial.
This is not a free market. Sinclair is granted government monopoly licenses to scarce channels (at no charge) to engage in TV broadcasting. There's tremendous amount of profit at stake for Sinclair if it can own more stations: Less competition means less pressure to produce expensive programs that the public might want — like quality news — and more power to bombard people with material they don't want, like advertising.
Sinclair and Media Ownership Rules
In June 2003 the FCC voted 3-2 to deliver the goods to Sinclair and its corporate media cronies by radically relaxing media ownership rules. A Federal Court put the FCC's revised media ownership rules on hold in September, so it could consider whether the FCC had actually interpreted the statute correctly. We'll know its decision any day now. And we'll keep you posted on developments as they happen. It's imperative that we act quickly and strategically as soon as the Federal Court ruling is released.
The important lesson from the Sinclair incident is this: if the rules changes go through, huge companies like Sinclair and Clear Channel will be able to dramatically expand the number of TV stations and other media they own. Instead of keeping Nightline off of eight stations, Sinclair could keep it off dozens. Eventually programs like the tribute to fallen soldiers will no longer be produced because no station will carry them.
Free Press and the Fight
Free Press is responding to the recent actions of Sinclair by lauching an investigation into how well Sinclair stations have been serving the public interest. We also continue to do what we can to stop the ownership rules from being loosened, and are addressing other important media policy issues such as spectrum allocation and cable rates. Go to the Free Press website, www.freepress.net, to learn more about what we and others are doing.
Free Press exists because a future where owners like Sinclair can stifle important content is unacceptable. And that's why media reform activism is exploding across this nation.
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