Media Consolidation Hearing Provides a Lesson in How Not to Cover the News Posted by Bob at 04/30/07 04:58 PM

(UPDATE: Thanks to reader Ben who sent in this link to one of the odd cutaways during the Media General webcast of the FCC public hearing in Tampa. You can view it by clicking here.)

Media General's news operation in Tampa is regularly cited by proponents of media consolidation to illustrate the possible benefits of allowing a single big media company to dominate a local market.

That was the primary reason the Federal Communications Commission went to Tampa to hold a public hearing on its media consolidation rules today. Lest there be any doubt, the first speaker out of the box at the hearing was Media General Vice President Dan Bradley, who used his alloted five minutes to tell the commissioners the many ways that "media convergence" had benefited the citizens of Tampa.

We were watching Mr. Bradley live online at TBO.com, a web site that is one of the many local news outlets owned by Media General in Tampa. MG also owns NBC-affiliate WFLA, the Tampa Tribune, the city's largest daily newspaper; Centro Mi Diario Spanish-language weekly; and a whole host of small newspapers in the communities surrounding Tampa.

Bradley completed his presentation and received a smattering of applause from the assembled crowd. We must admit that we were impressed with the clarity of the audio and video, which sometimes isn't very good at such live events.

Next up was Bill Carey, general manager of Tampa Bay's ABC affiliate WFTS, who is also the incoming president of the Florida Association of Broadcasters. That's when things started to get very interesting.

Carey was no more than a few sentences into his presentation when the webcast suddenly and without warning cut over to what appeared to be a WFLA news story about the hearing that had been taped earlier. Then that story was still running a few minutes later when the webcast suddenly flipped back to the live hearing.

Carey had finished his presentation by that time. Next up was Robert Dardenne, an associate professor in Journalism and Media Studies at University of South Florida-St. Petersburg.

Dardenne immediately tore into Media General and its "converged" news operation, saying it deprived citizens of diverse voices and aggressive competition among local news outlets.

After a few sentences, he had to pause because he was interrupted by loud applause and cheering from the crowd. But before he could start speaking again, the webcast abruptly cut to a young reporter standing outside the hearing room who appeared to have no earthly idea she was on the air.

We felt a little bad for her as she fussed with her hair and looked at some notes for more than a minute. She then put her hand up to her earpiece and appeared to be listening to someone. I couldn't make out her exact words, but I think it was along the lines of "Well thanks a lot for letting me know."

She then just walked away, leaving an empty camera shot of what I believe was the entrance to the meeting hall where the hearing was taking place. After what seemed like a minute or more, the screen went black.

Were we fans of conspiracy theories, this might be where we would talk about how Media General had pulled the plug when it started getting gored by the good professor. We will give them the benefit of the doubt, however, and simply assume they don't know how to use all that fancy equipment in their "converged" newsroom very well.

If you were at the hearing, we would appreciate it if you would let us know what happened when Professor Dardenne started speaking again.

You know, it's really too bad the FCC commissioners didn't get to see Media General's cutting edge newsroom in action like we did this afternoon. We bet they would have learned a lot.

comments (3)

1 Posted by Eric Deggans at 05/01/07 09:59 AM

I have a blog post up with several comments from participants in the hearing, culled from written remarks they passed on to me or notes I took uring the hearing.

http://blogs.tampabay.com/media/2007/04/fcc_comments_th.html

This should give you some idea of what happened Monday.

2 Posted by Ben Byrne at 05/01/07 10:46 AM

See the footage for yourself at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjLALt2YMAU

3 Posted by Jane Akre at 05/01/07 09:30 PM

The professor was eloquent. He talked about the depth of print, the intimacy of radio and the immediacy and visuals of television- the different qualities that different media can offer--all homogenized into a product churned out by a converged newsroom void of the sensitivities of each. (My words on the latter) He was very good. Ask him to post it.!