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LOSS OF DIVERSITY, LOCALISM AND INDEPENDENT
VOICES HARMS THE PUBLIC INTEREST:
SOME RECENT EXAMPLES
Media
Concentration and Local Markets
The Information Policy Institute
The Columbia Institute on Tele-Information
The National Press Club, Washington, DC
March 11, 2003
LIMITS ON BROADCAST OWNERSHIP PRESERVE INDEPENDENCE AMONG THE MOST POWERFUL ELECTRONIC VOICES IN OUR SOCIETY
TV station and network owners do not hesitate to promote their economic and political interests in their day-to-day operating decisions.
1. News Corporation
News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch decided not to include CNN and the BBC on his cable offerings in China because they have offered unflattering portraits of the Chinese government's stand on human rights issues. Murdoch understood that his ability to continue broadcasting in China was at stake, and he made a business decision to exclude such programming. (1)
2. Anti-War Commercial
A recent Washington Post article points to Comcast's blanket refusal to air
an anti-war commercial, reminding us of the power of cable operators to control
content distributed over the cable platform at critical times of public debate,
and affirming that counting the cable owner (or satellite distributor) as a
single voice is the correct approach. (2)
3. Telecom Act Coverage
An analysis of the networks' coverage was conducted by author Dean Alger using
the Vanderbilt TV News Archive to assess how the three prime network news shows
covered the Telecom Act of 1996 - as a whole, as it went through the congressional
process. (3) The analysis found that the ABC,
CBS and NBC network news combined devoted only 19.5 minutes to the Telecom
Act during the entire 9 months it was in the process (early May 1995-early
February 1996); and most of that was about the v-chip and the "Internet
Decency Act" side issues.
Most crucially and tellingly, there was essentially no meaningful coverage of
the elimination or reduction of ownership limits and the probable consequences
of such actions for more concentrated control of mass media, nor was there meaningful
attention given to the give-away of the extra spectrum for transition to digital,
high-definition TV. (4)
RESTRICTING CROSS OWNERSHIP OF NEWSPAPERS AND TELEVISION STATIONS ENSURES THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT SOURCES OF LOCAL NEWS AND INFORMATION ARE INDEPENDENT
1. Tampa, FL
In Tampa, Florida, Media General, Inc. (Media General) owns both the Tampa Tribune newspaper and WFLA-TV. Recently it has taken both operations and housed them under one roof, yet the decision to co-locate led to a loss of editorial and journalistic integrity even before the actual move. Others wonder how the cozy, inbred relationship between the newsrooms might affect their coverage of each other. Tribune TV writer Walter Belcher offered a chilling example, saying editors forced him to lay off criticism of WFLA for nearly a year prior to the opening of the News Center [which housed the Tribune and WFLA news operations in the same space to facilitate their integration], supposedly to avoid ill will between the staffs. "I told them that maybe I should just stop writing about TV altogether," Belcher says with a laugh. "I eventually went back to [covering WFLA] in February, but I still felt like I had to be careful and explain some things more clearly." (6)
2. Dallas, TX
A.H. Belo Corporation (Belo), owner of the Dallas Morning News and WFAA-TV argues that its joint ownership of the Morning News and WFAA-TV "has had no noticeable impact on the intense level of diversity and competition in the Dallas/Fort Worth marketplace." (7) That is likely because of Belo's decision that the Morning News should stop all TV criticism in order to stay away from any critical reporting about its sister station. Then there is a question of how the Morning News would cover the station. Because the two share Belo as a parent, the newspaper has often been criticized as being too soft on its sibling. But now that the two were officially partners, the News decided it could no longer cover WFAA objectively. Rather than exclude the one station from its coverage, the News halted all TV criticism. (8)
3. Milwaukee, WI
Milwaukee has also been described as an example of cross-ownership leading to model behavior. A closer examination reveals anything but model behavior, this time involving a publicly financed sports stadium project. Journal Broadcast Corporation (Journal) operates the Milwaukee Journal as well as WTMJ-TV, WTMJ-AM and WKTI-FM in Milwaukee. All are leaders in their service area. In comments to the FCC, the Journal noted that "the radio and television stations have been totally independent from the newspaper in both program and editorial content," and that the outlets have been critical of each other. (9) At a key moment, on an issue of great public import that directly involved the private interests of the company, that appears not to have been the case.
There was a move for public financing of a new stadium for the area's major league baseball team, the Brewers. The Journal Group's AM radio station has the contract for broadcasting the Brewers' games. In late 1994, the CEO of the Journal Group, Robert Kahlor, became head of the Milwaukee committee championing public financing for the stadium, and even registered as chief lobbyist. This was a much-debated issue. Indeed, when it came to a vote in the state Senate (in fall 1995) it was decided by one vote. How did the Journal Sentinel media cover this big, contentious issue?
"The Journal Company's newspaper, TV-news shows and news-talk radio station all marched in lock-step supporting the public financing position" (Beckman). In the case of the newspaper, that avid support appeared in the paper from the news pages to sports page columnists to the editorials. The other two TV stations, while not such avid boosters, generally reported on the public financing position in positive fashion. Thus, the citizens of Milwaukee, despite the contentious nature of the issue, did not have antagonistic voices in the main media to rely on. The dominant news outlet, the metro paper, had a financial interest in getting the stadium built, which directed its coverage. A veteran local media analyst, who had also been a journalism professor for years (David Beckman), noted, "this case is a classic example of how a media monolith defeats the purposes of free and open debate" in the main media that people rely on and which dominate the public arena and overwhelmingly define the public discourse.
There's no doubt that conflicts of interest have created some serious lapses in editorial judgment. Milwaukee's Journal Communications, owner of the city's Journal-Sentinel newspaper and WTMJ TV and radio stations faced intense criticism when publisher Robert Kahlor allowed the paper to shed its watchdog role become a cheerleader for a new baseball stadium funded primarily with public money. Not only did Kahlor chair the governor's stadium commission, but also he spent more than $25,000 of Journal company cash lobbying state lawmakers to support public funding.
No coincidence, say local critics, that WTMJ stations also carry Brewers games. "All four Journal media lost almost all objectivity," says Dave Beckman, retired professor of mass communications and media columnist for the city's alternative weekly, Shepherd-Express. (10)
4. Columbus, OH
A similar case involved the Dispatch Company in Columbus, Ohio, which is controlled
by the Wolff family, who own the Columbus Dispatch, the main metro newspaper,
WBNS-TV, and WBNS-AM and FM radio stations. A little over ten years ago it also
started a chain of suburban weekly newspapers in the region. With all of those
papers, they have 78 percent of all print advertising revenue in the metro region,
according to CM Media executives. CM Media, which owns the alternative Columbus
weekly and a series of suburban weeklies, sued the Dispatch company in the early
1990s on antitrust grounds, saying that the Dispatch was establishing the weeklies
and holding down ad costs - predatory pricing - in order to keep down CM Media
as a significant challenge to their dominance in Columbus media. The Wolff family's
other holdings include a bank, an investment company, and a printing company.
Another case of a sports team and cross-ownership is telling, with different details. The Dispatch's Wolff family is part owners of the Columbus pro hockey team. Besides the usual boosterish coverage of the team connected by ownership to the media outlet that is now too common, there were proposals to build a new hockey stadium. The overt outcome of this was different from in Milwaukee, however. Public financing proposals lost twice in ballot measures. The Wolff family and an insurance company financed the building of the stadium itself. But, since then the city has given land, easements, clean-up, infrastructure and other assistance, subsidized to the tune of "at least $80 million," which the alternative weekly (The Other Paper) has documented, in what coverage they could muster. Had a family that owned the TV station gotten such subsidies in a city with an independently-owned newspaper, the investigative juices of the paper's reporters and editors would have been flowing and front page coverage would have been produced from the one local mass medium that has the resources for in-depth investigation. The Dispatch has not, however, covered this huge subsidy. Instead, it has been all boosterism of the team and the stadium. Once again, a case of cross-owned newspaper and TV station failed the local democratic process.
Note also that the Dispatch editorialized in favor of the Telecom Act, saying (7/18/95), "The telecommunications bill passed by the senate ... is a worthwhile effort at getting government out of the way and letting the affected companies freely reshape their industries." The benefit to the Dispatch/Wolff family's TV station was not mentioned.
5. Atlanta, GA
Atlanta, a city kept in check for decades by a tradition of two competing newspapers,
the Journal and the Constitution, suffered from the merger of the two. With
Cox owning a TV station, it is now a large market with a very high level of
concentration and cross-ownership. The editorial staffs no longer presented
two viewpoints, and the number of state government reporters plummeted from
twelve to three. It soon became clear that there were not enough government
reporters as the news was very one-sided. Bad press led to the paper increasing
statehouse-reporting time by six percent, but the consensus is that the coverage
has not recovered to its pre-merger quality. (11)
SMALLER, LOCAL BROADCAST MEDIA PROMOTE THE PUBLIC INTEREST
1. Television News
"But overall the data strongly suggest regulatory changes that encourage heavy concentration of ownership in local television by a few large corporations will erode the quality of news Americans receive.
Among the findings:
· Smaller station groups overall tended to produce higher quality newscasts than stations owned by larger companies-by a significant margin.
· Network affiliated stations tended to produce higher quality newscasts than network owned and operated stations-also by a large margin.
· Stations with cross-ownership-in which the parent company also owns a newspaper in the same market-tended to produce higher quality newscasts.
· Local ownership offered some protection against newscasts being very poor, but did not encourage superior quality." (12)
2. Radio
"A Giant Radio Chain Perfecting the Art of Seeming Local,"
"In the studio with Evan and
Jaron," Mr. Alan began. "How are you guys doing?"
The artists reported that they had just come from skiing at nearby Sun Valley,
then praised the local scene … "Yeah, we've got some good people here."
Later, he asked Boise fans to e-mail or call the station with questions for
the performers.
But even the most ardent fan never got through to the brothers that day. The
singers had actually done the interview in San Diego a few weeks earlier. Mr.
Alan himself had never been to Boise, though he offers a flurry of local touches
on the show he hosts every weekday from 10 a.m. to 3 p. m. on the city's leading
pop station. (13)
"The Trouble With Corporate Radio: The Day the Protest Music Died"
"Senator Byron Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, had a potential disaster
in his district when a freight train carrying anhydrous ammonia derailed, releasing
a deadly cloud over the city of Minot. When the emergency alert system failed,
the police called the town radio stations, six of which are owned by the corporate
giant Clear Channel. According to news accounts, no one answered the phone at
the stations for more than an hour and a half. (14)
______
(1) Frank Ching, "Misreading Hong Kong," Foreign Affairs, May, 1997.
(2) "Comcast Rejects Antiwar TV Spots," Washington Post (Jan. 29,
2003), p. A7.
(3) Alger, Dean, MEGAMEDIA: How giant Corporations Dominate Mass Media, Distort
Competition and Endanger Democracy (Rowman & Littlefield, 1998), Chapter
6, The Media and Politics (Harcourt Brace College, 2nd edition, 1996).
(4) Also see Albert Karr, "Television News Tunes Out Airwaves Auction Battle,"
Wall Street Journal, May 1, 1996, p. B1
(5) This section is taken from "Reply Comments of Consumers Union, et al.,"
In the Matter os Cross-Ownership of Braodcast Stations and Newspapers, Newspaper/Radio
Cross-Ownership Waiver Policy," MM Docket N. 01-213, 96-197, December 3,
2001, Chapter VI.
(6) Joe Strupp, "Three Point Play," Editor and Publisher, August 21,
2000, p. 23.
(7) "Comments of Below Inc.," In the Matter os Cross-Ownership of
Braodcast Stations and Newspapers, Newspaper/Radio Cross-Ownership Waiver Policy,"
MM Docket N. 01-213, 96-197, December 3, 2001, pp. 8-9.
(8) Lucia Moses, "TV or not TV? Few Newspapers are Camera Shy, But Sometimes
Two Into One Just Doesn't Go," Editor and Cable, August 21, 2000, p. 22.
(9) Journal, p. 2.
(10) Bill McConnel, "The National Acquirers: Whether Better for News or
Fatter Profits, Media Companies want in on TV/Newspaper Cross-ownership,"
Broadcasting and Cable, December 10, 2001.
(11) Roberts, Gene, Leaving Readers Behind, 10.
(12) Project for Excellence in Journalism, Does Ownership Matter in Local Television
News: A Five-Year Study of Ownership and Quality, February 17, 2003, executive
summary.
(13) Anna Wilde Mathews, "A Giant Radio Chain is Perfecting the Art of
Seeming Local," Wall Street Journal, February 25, 2002, p. A-1.
(14) Brent Staples, NY Times Feb. 20, 2003
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