End the Big Broadcast Swindle

Television and radio broadcasters get to use our public airwaves for free. It’s a great deal … for them, at least. For the rest of us, it’s just another corporate giveaway.

These broadcasters rake in billions in profits using our public property. And what do we the public get from them in return? Next to nothing.

The original idea was to offer commercial broadcasters free access to our airwaves in exchange for programming that serves the needs of our communities. This is the core of the Federal Communications Commission’s public-interest bargain. But over the years broadcast industry lobbyists have trampled this social contract in their rush to maximize profits.

Instead of covering the issues communities say matter the most, broadcasters have shuttered their newsrooms, laid off journalists and aired cookie-cutter programming often produced by other stations.

Now the FCC is about to review its media ownership rules — including rules that promote localism, competition and diversity on the airwaves. (This Thursday, the FCC will hold a public hearing in Atlanta on just this topic. You can watch live and participate in the conversation here.)

These ownership rules need to be strengthened and enforced. But the FCC has a track record of creating policies that cater to industry at the expense of the news people need:

1. The agency is reportedly planning to re-introduce a Bush-era policy that would consolidate local media even further in the hands of a few corporate interests. This rule change would allow a single company to own a newspaper and a TV station in the same city. The public, along with bipartisan members of Congress, passionately opposed this so-called Martin Rule in 2007. Ultimately, the courts found that the FCC had failed “to remain ‘open-minded’ about the issues raised” and to give the public a meaningful opportunity to participate when it adopted the rule. As we made clear in our letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski yesterday, “The Martin Rule was bad policy when it was adopted in 2007. It has not improved with age.”
2. The FCC has repeatedly neglected its responsibility to correct dramatic inequalities in the broadcast industry. A Free Press survey of broadcast licenses in 2007 showed women and communities of color are grossly underrepresented among broadcast owners. Members of Congress and even the courts have repeatedly demanded action by the FCC, yet the agency has done next to nothing to fix this problem. Not one of the 11 studies the FCC commissioned to inform its proposed rule changes looks at race or gender.
3. The FCC has turned a blind eye to “covert consolidation,” a practice in which corporations control two or three TV stations in the same community. Just last week, the FCC denied a complaint against Raycom Media in Hawaii, which broadcasts the same news on three stations in Honolulu. Covert consolidation leads to copycat news programming and has left over 100 communities with few to no choices of local news broadcasts. The FCC committed to investigating the impact of covert consolidation during its review, but it remains to be seen what action the agency will take.

It’s time for the FCC to address these serious problems once and for all.  By signing this letter to the FCC, you’re helping Free Press launch a new initiative to reverse decades of bad policy.

We need to put the public interest back into the public airwaves. It begins today with you.

Free Press is a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media. Free Press does not support or oppose any candidate for public office. Through education, organizing and advocacy, we promote diverse and independent media ownership, strong public media and universal access to communications.