Marx Aristide on Haiti, Angela Campbell on FCC case
More this week on Haiti and how US involvement has shaped the current crisis. Also on CounterSpin: what’s at stake following the FCC’s recent decision to relax media ownership restrictions?
Conflict at CNBC’s New Dennis Miller Show
Dennis Miller’s new CNBC political talk show hasn’t even debuted yet, but it’s already mixed up in a serious conflict of interest. The conflict—brought to our attention by weblogger Roger Ailes (no relation, apparently, to the Fox News chief)—began with the show’s hiring of Mike Murphy as a consulting producer. The problem isn’t that Murphy […]
Roll Back the FCC’s Rule Changes
Over the protests of hundreds of thousands of Americans, a range of public interest advocacy groups and two dissenting Democratic commissioners, the FCC on June 2 voted to repeal or weaken some of the few remaining checks on the dominance of big media companies. Attention now moves to Congress, as a number of lawmakers attempt […]
Networks Pick up on FCC Story
The FCC’s plan to alter or eliminate media ownership limits has been getting increased media attention in the past week. Since a FAIR action alert (5/20/03) drew attention to the lack of coverage on the broadcast networks, CBS Evening News (5/29/03) aired a report focusing on the threat to local TV news posed by the […]
Will the FCC Help Big Media Get Even Bigger?
A majority of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) intends to ratify a sweeping plan to weaken or eliminate rules that limit the size and power of media companies. Among other things, the FCC’s three Republican commissioners hope to revoke the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule, which prevents a company from owning a newspaper and a TV station […]
Speak Out for Media Democracy
FAIR FACT SHEET: The FCC & Media Democracy SPEAK OUT FOR MEDIA DEMOCRACY What if you woke up tomorrow to find that Yosemite National Park had been turned over to Chevron? Or that the Everglades were now under the watchful eye of DuPont? Most people would agree: Giving corporations nearly unlimited control over a precious […]
The FCC
FAIR values the opportunity to comment on the rules currently under consideration in the FCC’s 2002 Biennial Review. Unfortunately, the complicated and technical nature of the FCC’s public comment procedure does not encourage–and some would argue actually discourages–significant participation from the public, the citizens whose interests the FCC is supposed to safeguard. In addition, the […]
Broadcast Networks File FCC Comments—But Not Stories
The review of media ownership rules underway at the Federal Communications Commission will have an enormous impact on the future of broadcasting and on media diversity. The FCC is considering repealing or altering a number of key rules that limit media consolidation. But you wouldn’t know any of this from watching network television news. Media […]
Recasting the Web
If the Bush administration lets large media conglomerates and local telephone companies have their way, the Internet as we know it—that free-flowing, democratic, uncensored information superhighway—could soon be a thing of the past. The Internet itself is not going away. Rather, technological advances, changes to the rules governing its use and the continued consolidation of […]
Media Giants Cast Aside Regulatory ‘Chains’
Last week, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals overturned one of the country’s last-remaining regulatory protections against media monopoly, and ordered the review of another. The court overturned the rule that had prevented one company from owning both television stations and cable franchises in a single market. The court also ordered that the FCC […]
FCC Moves to Eliminate Cable Ownership Cap; Move Would Also Impact Internet
The Federal Communications Commission is moving to eliminate one of the few remaining vestiges of public interest regulation on media concentration– the rules that limit the percentage of the national audience that a single cable company can reach. If existing rules limiting a single company to 30 percent of the national market are abandoned, the […]
Even Fewer Voices?
Just two days after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the FCC moved to eliminate some of the last remaining restraints on media concentration. With all eyes elsewhere, the FCC voted unanimously to “review” regulations that limit the percentage of the national audience that a single cable company can […]
FCC Moves to Lift Cross-Ownership Ban
Just two days after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the FCC began to eliminate the last remaining shreds of regulation on media concentration. With all eyes elsewhere, the FCC voted unanimously to “review” laws that prohibit the same company from owning both a newspaper and a TV station […]
The FCC, Radio & Censorship: Defining Decency
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently fined a community radio station for airing a political rap song that attacks sexual exploitation and degrading lyrics in popular music. On May 17, the FCC issued a $7,000 fine to Portland, Oregon’s KBOO, a listener-sponsored station, charging that Sarah Jones’ “Your Revolution” violated the Commission’s decency standards, which […]
FCC Moves to Intensify Media Consolidation
The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is moving to weaken or eliminate two of the few remaining broadcasting rules that protect some degree of media diversity. On April 19, the FCC voted 3-1 in favor of eliminating the “dual network” rule, which had prevented one television network from buying another. This rule change will immediately benefit […]
AOL-Time Warner:
The last few media mergers have attracted an enormous amount of press attention, and this was certainly true when America Online (AOL) announced its plans to buy media giant Time Warner on January 10. Nonetheless, certain issues were obscured in the initial press treatment of the deal, which has been called the largest business merger […]
FCC Weakens Rules, to Delight of Broadcasters
In a major relaxation of broadcast ownership rules, the Federal Communications Commission has announced it will allow networks to own two TV stations in the same city. Previously, the FCC limited a network or other company to one television station per city. Under the new regulations announced August 5, a company can own two television […]
FCC’s Interference Argument Grounded
“FCC Closes Down Unlicensed Radio Operation That Threatened Air Safety at Sacramento Airport; Fourth Report of Interference Incident in Five Months.” So reads the Federal Communications Commission’s March 20, 1998 press release applauding its own shutdown of unlicensed broadcasters who the agency claims have caused interference to air/ground communications this year in Miami and West […]
The Ascendancy of Conrad Black
There’s a new player among the global media moguls, and his name is Conrad Black. His company, Hollinger Inc., is now the third largest newspaper chain in the Western world, after Gannett and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation (New York Times, 6/24/96), with a combined circulation exceeding 10 million (James Winter, Democracy’s Oxygen). Black owns 650 […]
Stop the Sell-Off of Public Broadcasting
The last issue of Extra! (5-6/96) discussed the threat that public television stations might be sold to commercial broadcasters. One of the first such sales may be imminent–and now is the time to try to stop it. Pittsburgh is one of 30-some metropolitan regions across the country that is fortunate enough to have more than […]
