MEDIA
MEDIA
FCC's Reruns
Earlier this week President Bush announced the elevation of Federal Communications Commission member Kevin Martin to the position of agency chairman, an in-house promotion that does not require confirmation by the Senate. Described as "a boyish-looking 38-year-old with sandy blond hair and Harry Potter-style glasses," Martin is a Bush loyalist who critics claim has "a similar set of values, which are not always in tune with consumer interests," as his predecessor Michael Powell. Though a media analyst said the appointment of Martin was "less a shift in policy than in leadership style," the future of our airwaves and press will be shaped by some big decisions that Martin will soon have to make. As freedom of speech and press are building blocks upon which democracy is founded, we can only hope that Martin chooses to serve the interests of the public rather than the pockets of the corporations.
ONE STATION FOR THE NATION?: Though the "FCC's main duty is to manage the public airwaves," Powell's ideology came under fire for his tendency to place commercial interests "first, second and third among priorities." This observation was highlighted by his attempts to pass through "the most significant relaxation of media ownership rules in three decades." The drastic rewrite of the media consolidation rules included allowing "a single TV network to acquire local stations that reach up to 45% of the national audience" and a partial lifting of cross ownership restrictions on broadcast and print organizations in the same market. Right now, five companies from the "Big Ten" already control an "approximately 75 percent share of broadcast and cable prime-time viewing."
MARTIN MIGHT MAKE IT HAPPEN: After an overwhelming public pushback, a federal appeals court ordered the FCC to reconsider the rules which employed "several irrational assumptions and inconsistencies." Unfortunately, the court-ordered and public-demanded rewrite will now be headed by new FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a "free-market conservative" who "doesn't oppose consolidation" and has made "arguments for eliminating" the cross-ownership rules.
PLAYING CULTURE COP: With the time he freed up by letting media consolidation run wild, Powell utilized an arbitrary and overly "vague standard of indecency" to start a witch hunt of broadcasters and entertainers – in four years, total FCC fines levied soared from $48,000 in one year to over $7.7 million last year. Yet, in commenting on the Powell-Martin transition, the Parents Television Council stated, "the FCC has been delinquent in its stewardship of the public airwaves" and applauded the new chairman as "a stalwart leader on the issue of indecency." Martin is supported by this group – which "has been second to none in increasing the number of annual indecency complaints from 111 in 2000 to a million-plus last year" – because of his "aggressive approach in the so-called indecency cases," often dissenting when the rest of the FCC did not punish or did not punish enough.
SETTING PRIORITIES, RESTORING MEDIA DEMOCRACY: When the House was debating legislation "vastly increasing the fines" the FCC may impose for violation of indecency laws, Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) bemoaned, "If this legislation is enacted, the real victim will be free expression and Americans' First Amendment rights," since "broadcasters, particularly small broadcasters, will have no choice but to engage in a very dangerous cycle of self-censorship." (Look what happened to Buster.) With media consolidation and the threat of egregious fines, the government is effectively allowing a "small handful of individuals to decide what the whole nation is permitted to see, hear or think." And for all their focus on what is appropriate viewing for the people, Powell and the FCC have neglected Sinclair Broadcasting's "Sovietization" of the airwaves, the administration's obsession with payola and taxpayer funded propaganda scandals. If he is truly committed to working in the public's interests, Martin needs to address those issues, as well as the ever growing digital divide, to really start fixing our media.
FCC's Reruns
Earlier this week President Bush announced the elevation of Federal Communications Commission member Kevin Martin to the position of agency chairman, an in-house promotion that does not require confirmation by the Senate. Described as "a boyish-looking 38-year-old with sandy blond hair and Harry Potter-style glasses," Martin is a Bush loyalist who critics claim has "a similar set of values, which are not always in tune with consumer interests," as his predecessor Michael Powell. Though a media analyst said the appointment of Martin was "less a shift in policy than in leadership style," the future of our airwaves and press will be shaped by some big decisions that Martin will soon have to make. As freedom of speech and press are building blocks upon which democracy is founded, we can only hope that Martin chooses to serve the interests of the public rather than the pockets of the corporations.
ONE STATION FOR THE NATION?: Though the "FCC's main duty is to manage the public airwaves," Powell's ideology came under fire for his tendency to place commercial interests "first, second and third among priorities." This observation was highlighted by his attempts to pass through "the most significant relaxation of media ownership rules in three decades." The drastic rewrite of the media consolidation rules included allowing "a single TV network to acquire local stations that reach up to 45% of the national audience" and a partial lifting of cross ownership restrictions on broadcast and print organizations in the same market. Right now, five companies from the "Big Ten" already control an "approximately 75 percent share of broadcast and cable prime-time viewing."
MARTIN MIGHT MAKE IT HAPPEN: After an overwhelming public pushback, a federal appeals court ordered the FCC to reconsider the rules which employed "several irrational assumptions and inconsistencies." Unfortunately, the court-ordered and public-demanded rewrite will now be headed by new FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a "free-market conservative" who "doesn't oppose consolidation" and has made "arguments for eliminating" the cross-ownership rules.
PLAYING CULTURE COP: With the time he freed up by letting media consolidation run wild, Powell utilized an arbitrary and overly "vague standard of indecency" to start a witch hunt of broadcasters and entertainers – in four years, total FCC fines levied soared from $48,000 in one year to over $7.7 million last year. Yet, in commenting on the Powell-Martin transition, the Parents Television Council stated, "the FCC has been delinquent in its stewardship of the public airwaves" and applauded the new chairman as "a stalwart leader on the issue of indecency." Martin is supported by this group – which "has been second to none in increasing the number of annual indecency complaints from 111 in 2000 to a million-plus last year" – because of his "aggressive approach in the so-called indecency cases," often dissenting when the rest of the FCC did not punish or did not punish enough.
SETTING PRIORITIES, RESTORING MEDIA DEMOCRACY: When the House was debating legislation "vastly increasing the fines" the FCC may impose for violation of indecency laws, Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) bemoaned, "If this legislation is enacted, the real victim will be free expression and Americans' First Amendment rights," since "broadcasters, particularly small broadcasters, will have no choice but to engage in a very dangerous cycle of self-censorship." (Look what happened to Buster.) With media consolidation and the threat of egregious fines, the government is effectively allowing a "small handful of individuals to decide what the whole nation is permitted to see, hear or think." And for all their focus on what is appropriate viewing for the people, Powell and the FCC have neglected Sinclair Broadcasting's "Sovietization" of the airwaves, the administration's obsession with payola and taxpayer funded propaganda scandals. If he is truly committed to working in the public's interests, Martin needs to address those issues, as well as the ever growing digital divide, to really start fixing our media.
posted by T. Scott Brineman at 6:54 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home