In the Press

BOSTON HERALD

Eyeing new rules on media ownership

January 16, 2003

By Greg Gatlin

Some opponents of media deregulation yesterday said they heard a tide turning in Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell's comments about his concerns over growing media consolidation.

But proponents of dismantling long-standing limits on media ownership said they expect Powell will go forward with previously avowed intent to lift those restrictions.

Powell, who has pushed for easing ownership rules, assured a Senate panel Tuesday that the FCC wouldn't let one company dominate local airwaves or other media outlets when it revisits restrictions on ownership of TV stations, newspapers and other media.

Parties on both sides will debate the issue at a forum in New York today at Columbia University.

Some said they heard in Powell's comments a momentum shift in the debate over whether regulators should dismantle long-standing limits on ownership of the nation's media outlets.

``We were surprised, yet pleased with statements Chairman Powell made regarding what he labeled as overzealous concerns harbored by consumer groups,'' said Michael Turner, president of the Information Policy Institute, a New York think tank that focuses on issues related to the flow of information.

Still, others yesterday said Powell may have been tailoring his words in front of powerful legislative leaders.

``They're going to loosen all these rules,'' said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy.

John Sturm, chief executive of the Newspaper Association of America, said he's not overly concerned with Powell's comments. Sturm said lifting a ban on one entity owning a newspaper and a broadcast station in the same market is among the least controversial ownership measures up for debate.

Sturm noted that some opponents of easing media ownership regulations have not opposed lifting the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban.

One purpose of that ban, established in 1975, was to preserve a diversity of viewpoints in local media. Since 1975, the commission has granted a handful of waivers.

The FCC commissioned a study of the 2000 presidential campaign by 10 cross-owned newspaper-television combinations. It found common ownership of a newspaper and TV station did not result in a predictable pattern of news coverage or commentary.

In five of the 10 combinations, the slant of the TV station coverage was noticeably different than the same company's newspaper coverage, the study said. In the other five combinations, both the newspaper and the TV station had similar slants.

``The existing grandfathered newspaper-broadcast (combinations) have separate editorial viewpoints,'' Sturm said. ``That is the culture of newspapers, and it's supported by data. There is no loss of diversity in a market that has newspaper-broadcast crossownership.''

Lifting the cross-ownership ban wouldn't be so bad on a case-by-case basis, Chester said.

``The problem is media giants assembling a media empire that would satisfy the ambition of a Roman emperor,'' he said. ``What Tribune Co. and others want to do is swallow up whole parts of a comunity's media environment.''

Chester says opposition to easing regulations on TV network audience reach, station ownership and other media ownership limits is mobilizing from Hollywood to Washington.

``(Powell's) definitely feeling the heat, and if we can continue this, we may be able to slow down this train wreck for our democracy,'' Chester said.

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