In his 1983 book, The Media Monopoly, author Ben Bagdikian predicted that “If mergers, acquisitions and takeovers continue at the present rate, one massive firm will be in virtual control of all major media by the 1990s.”

Bagdikian wasn’t far off.

Media ownership rules that could be approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) by the end of May would lift current limits on the number of TV, radio and newspaper outlets a corporation could own and open the way for an unprecedented media consolidation—placing the “public’s right to receive information from diverse sources” in serious jeopardy, according to a recent statement by the AFL-CIO Executive Council. The council condemned the FCC’s efforts to accelerate consolidation and urged the commission to maintain current media ownership rules.

When Bagdikian wrote The Media Monopoly in the 1980s, he cited 50 corporations “that control what America sees, hears and reads.” Today, that number is five: AOL, Disney, Fox, General Electric Co. and Viacom.

	“As media resources are controlled by just a few companies, the result is less diversity in news coverage, and as a result, less participation by citizens in public life.” —CWA President Morton Bahr

Diversity eliminated

The new rules would further the consolidation accelerated by the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, which raised the number of radio stations a company can own in a single listening area from two to eight, and eliminated the national ownership cap. Since then, Clear Channel Communications has burned a wide swath across the nation, buying up more than 1,200 stations by 2001—making it by far the largest radio owner in the country, according to the watchdog group Media Access Project (MAP).

Under the proposed FCC rules:

• Owners of a broadcast station could own daily newspapers in the same market and vice versa.
• One company could own broadcast stations that reach more than 35 percent of U.S. households.
• There would be no limit to the number of radio stations a company could own in a single listening area.
• A company could own two or more TV stations in a given market.
• Major TV networks—ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC—could merge, forming a megaconglomerate.

“The consolidation of the media is a danger to our democracy,” says The Newspaper Guild/Communications Workers of America President Linda Foley. CWA-affiliated unions submitted testimony to the FCC proposing an alternative to the changes under consideration, as did the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

“Our journalist members know their general managers often receive mandates regarding the types of stories to be investigated and reported,” says AFTRA President John Connolly. “There are several examples of local stories being ‘killed’ because they dealt with topics that corporate management did not want to see reported.” 

	Take Action   Sign a petition urging the FCC to retain ownership rules. Read the AFL-CIO Executive Council statement on media monopolies. Check out Democracy Unhinged, an AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees critique of FCC studies.

Keeping the public in the dark

Despite the magnitude of the proposed changes—which could make it possible for corporations such as behemoth Clear Channel to buy all commercial radio stations in the nation—few Americans are even aware the new rules are being considered. In fact, 72 percent of the public has heard nothing about the media ownership debate, according to a February poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press and the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

“I’m...particularly concerned that we are on the verge of dramatically altering our nation’s media landscape without the kind of debate and analysis that these issues so clearly merit,” said FCC Commissioner Michael Copps during the only formal public hearing on the proposed rules.

 “FCC leadership under [Chairman Michael] Powell hasn’t been open to having hearings,” says MAP Deputy Director Cheryl Leanza. Media analysts, including the nonprofit Center for Digital Democracy, widely believe Powell supports the consolidation, citing Powell’s 2000 statement that “I start with the proposition that the rules are no longer necessary.” Powell, along with two other Republican commissioners who support media consolidation, is in the majority on the five-member ­commission.

Recognizing that a single hearing was not sufficient but unable to schedule formal hearings on his own, Copps, says Leanza, called on grassroots groups to sponsor more public forums—and they did, with several held in March and April. At the first such gathering in Seattle, more than 500 people took part.

Copps in turn credits unions with helping get out the word.

“I think [unions] have done a thoroughly commendable job in making members and all Americans aware that something of significance is going to implicate the democratic dialogue,” says Copps.

	From America@work, May 2003.

Jobs eliminated

Since June 2000, an estimated 70,000 media workers have been laid off. In radio, following elimination of ownership caps, there now are fewer employees than in 1982, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The proposed rules would speed up industry job loss, says Foley. And if you’re trimming jobs, “you’ll have fewer people covering news,” she says. “That means less news.”

The lack of media coverage on the issue reflects its own corporate self-interest, says Foley. The less input by the public, the more likely it is media consolidation can take place. As Copps says, “How do you put the genie back in the bottle once the rules are loosened and eliminated?”