Hello folks, it’s not like it’s a slow news day, slow news week or slow news month so I really appreciate you stopping by this diary to read about what’s happening at the FCC.
[Shortcut: here is a link to the FreePress.net petition to register comment with FCC regarding the quadruple deregulation to be discussed & decided Nov 15th & 16th.]
I wrote here how I’d finally curtailed some social media addictions and re-activated my news reading habits in time to learn that two weeks ago, Oct 25, the FCC eliminated a 78-year-old regulation requiring corporate owners maintain a studio in the town they broadcast to. It’s called the “Main Studio Rule”. Here is why this concerned Democratic FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel:
Rosenworcel suggested that broadcasters role as first responders in time of crisis depended on their having a local presence. She said the decision would "hollow out" the unique role broadcasters play, and said it would have been better to have a waiver policy for the rule.
And if this deregulation was all in the past and there was nothing we could do I would not bother writing a diary about it. But there is a chance some groups could mount a legal challenge to deregulation in time before the studios are mothballed forever.
But first is another hearing approaching Nov 15 that will remove blocks to more consolidation, and the way to register dissent is, believe it or not, to sign a petition (I swore off petitions but broke my no-petition streak on Saturday when I discovered this was happening.) Pro-net neutrality interest group Freepress.net provides a way to register comment with the FCC before their hearing on Nov 15th and Nov 16th. What happens Nov 15th? Here is how freepress.net explains it:
Late Thursday, [Republican FCC Chair Ajit Pai] Pai released his terrible proposal. Here’s what you need to know.
Right now, in most TV markets, one company can’t own multiple TV stations unless there are eight independent voices. Pai would eliminate that restriction, opening the door to one company like Sinclair controlling two, three, four or more stations in a single market.
Another rule on the books stops one company from controlling more than one of the top-four highest-rated stations in a given market, which are usually the affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX. While Pai isn’t erasing this rule, he wants to waive it on a “case-by-case” basis.
And we know there’s yet to be a case where his FCC didn’t think more consolidation was a good idea.
Among Pai’s first moves as chairman was to restore the so-called UHF discount, an outdated regulation that lets Sinclair pretend (in front of the FCC, that is) that its national reach is smaller than it actually is. And this week [Oct 25] the FCC wiped out the rule that required licensees to actually have studios in or near the communities they’re supposed to serve.
Another case in point is Pai’s decision in the new order to bless the deals known as joint-sales agreements, or JSAs, which allow a company to run the news-and-business operations of a competing station. These sketchy arrangements are a (you guessed it) Sinclair specialty, designed to evade the existing FCC rules and give powerful companies even more dominance over local markets. Pai claims this covert consolidation — which allows shell companies to simulcast the same newscasts on multiple channels — is in the public interest.
And Pai’s proposal would really do nothing to address the abysmally low levels of media ownership among women and people of color. Despite some lip service to diversity in the order, these new rules would let the biggest companies get even bigger, swallowing up and swapping stations so they can dominate a single city or region.
Finally, Pai’s industry-written wish list includes scrapping the longstanding ban on a company owning a daily newspaper, radio station and TV station in the same market. This rule was instituted to prevent the creation of “one newsroom” towns, with all of the major outlets under the same roof. This kind of arrangement might cut costs — but it would unquestionably diminish the range of voices needed to inform the public.
While Pai’s presented this change as a Hail Mary for the struggling newspaper industry, we know how this story ends. History shows that every time we open the door to more consolidation, we get fewer journalists on the beat, less locally produced content, and more lobbyists promising the next wave of consolidation will be different.
So we have the deregulation that passed Oct 25, which is very concerning, but could be legally challenged if someone is motivated. Then we have the approaching decision Nov 15th and Nov 16th, which packs in four punches: 1) erasing the minimum independent voices per market requirement, before a conglomerate is allowed to own two, three, four stations in the same market, 2) loosening the top four stations diversity requirement, which bars one corporation from owning more than one of the top four stations (usually NBC CBS ABC Fox) in a given market, 3) granting approval to JSAs, joint sales agreements, which allow one company to run the news-and-operations portion of a competing station, and 4) removing the ban on one company owning a daily newspaper, radio station and TV station in the same market.
These are big deregulations, going through very quickly, with little public comment or notice. And it’s happening just after some of us cut back on social media after last week's congressional hearings and are looking for trusted local sources of news. And now this.
The only point among the four points above in Republican FCC Chair Ajit Pai’s proposal to be voted on Nov 15th that could even sound reasonable to ... a distracted citizen ... is the fourth point — if a newspaper could cross-promote their news coverage on a broadcast tv station, and a broadcast radio station, that might not be so bad. It might not be so bad ... as long as the same Trump-promoting corporation does not own all the stations.
But freepress.net says sure, it sounds OK, but this is what tends to happen:
While Pai’s presented this change as a Hail Mary for the struggling newspaper industry, we know how this story ends. History shows that every time we open the door to more consolidation, we get fewer journalists on the beat, less locally produced content, and more lobbyists promising the next wave of consolidation will be different.”
Again, I am looking for things we can do to protest these developments and register dissent. But in the meantime there is a petition you can sign with freepress.net that gets forwarded to FCC commissioners regarding the four-point deregulation coming at us on Nov 15th. Local news is in trouble, but we can try to save what’s here before we rush towards more deregulation. I'll write an update in the coming week if I get the chance.
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Other diaries on this topic:
- On the Oct 25th “Main Studio Rule” cancellation: Media Consolidation Back in Style: FCC Rollback Passed, Sinclair Poised to Buy Stations
From Reliable Sources:
Wednesday, Nov 8, 2017 · 2:33:10 AM +00:00 · FJA
Update: This is getting more attention (as seen in this BradBlog diary.) An OpEd was published today in the Sacramento Bee regarding Nov 15th: Stop FCC from handing local news to monopolies. The OpEd takes a much MUCH more direct tone than this diary, and brings up more points not overlapping with this diary:
“The Republican-controlled Federal Communications Commission will vote Nov. 16 to allow just one corporation to own the local newspaper plus every commercial TV station in your town. Nifty way to reduce down to just one newsroom then dictate whatever information that corporation does – and does not – want you to know in this democracy.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/california-forum/article183218161.html#storylink=cpy”
The OpEd is VERY worth reading. One point Ajit Pai argues is “Meanwhile, FCC Commissioners are in a PR frenzy to have us believe TV is dying. Chair Ajit V. Pai tweeted “Among Americans aged 18-29, online streaming is primary means of watching TV.” But that makes no sense — the FCC does not require Netflix or Hulu to maintain a news station in the town they stream to. So that means making it “even Steven” between broadcast and streaming will result in less news covered in our town. We wouldn’t want to burden corporations by asking for concessions in exchange for granting them broadcast licenses, would we?