The American public likely will see and hear less diversity in news, entertainment and opinion as a result of sweeping new proposals approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) June 2. Despite hundreds of thousands of e-mails and letters from consumers opposing the rule, commissioners voted 3–2 to wipe out decades-old limits on the number of local TV, radio and newspaper outlets a corporation could own. Led by FCC Chairman Michael Powell, the commission’s Republican majority approved elimination of current media ownership rules—a move media watchdog groups say will give corporations unprecedented control. Under the new rules, a single company can own a newspaper and a television station in the same city and broadcast networks can buy more stations at the national and local levels.

"The Federal Communications Commission's 3-2 decision today to substantially eradicate safeguards on media ownership does our democracy irreparable harm and puts giant corporate interests head and shoulders above those of average working people," says AFL-CIO President John J. Sweeney. "This unacceptable abrogation of regulatory responsibility by the FCC's Republican majority is sure to unleash a feeding frenzy of corporate acquisitions."

At the same time, recent studies by the Center for Public Integrity found companies that stand to benefit from the June 2 vote paid for some commissioners’ travel and entertainment. Viacom, which owns CBS, sponsored seven trips, costing $9,581. Viacom spent $6,901 to bring FCC Media Bureau Chief W. Kenneth Ferree and Susan Eid, a top legal advisor to Powell, to a company management conference in March 2002.

Powell took the most expense-paid corporate trips among the active commissioners during the period covered by the center’s study—44 trips costing $84,921. The FCC officials often served as speakers or panelists at the events but many times went only as attendees. They often stayed for entire events at luxury hotels in locations around the world. FCC officials took a total of 330 such trips to Las Vegas during the period, 173 to New Orleans, 102 to New York and 98 to London. Other popular destinations included Orlando, Fla.; San Francisco; Miami; Anchorage, Ala.; Palm Springs, Calif.; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Beijing, according to FCC travel records.

In addition, the center found that FCC officials met more than 70 times with telecommunications and broadcast officials and lobbyists to discuss the new rules. The private sessions included dozens of meetings between broadcasters and the agency’s five commissioners and their top advisors.

Powell, who attended four such private meetings, according to the center, refused to extend the public review period for the proposals, saying that a single February hearing in Richmond, Va., was sufficient. As a result, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps offered to take part in hearings organized by grassroots groups. Thousands of people across the country spoke out in unofficial public forums attended by Copps or Jonathan Adelstein, the two Democratic members on the five-member commission.

While the rule changes, proposed last fall, received little coverage in the media—whose parent corporations, such as General Electric Corp. (owner of NBC and MSNBC), and Rupert Murdoch (owner of Fox News) supported the consolidation—media mogul Ted Turner recently came out against them. Writing in The Washington Post, Turner said the rule changes “will stifle debate, inhibit new ideas and shut out smaller businesses trying to compete. If these rules had been in place in 1970, it would have been virtually impossible for me to start Turner Broadcasting or, 10 years later, to launch CNN.”

Saying the public’s right to receive information from diverse sources is in serious jeopardy, the AFL-CIO Executive Council earlier this year urged the commission to maintain current media ownership rules, saying the proposed changes threaten the foundations of the nation’s democratic society. “Media ownership matters...because an informed public is the bedrock of our free and open society,” the council said in a February 2003 statement.

More

Read AFL-CIO President John Sweeney's statement on the FCC action.

Read the full Center for Public Integrity reports on FCC travel and entertainment and meetings with industry officials.

Read “Time Is Running Out to Stop a New Media Monopoly” in America@work.

Read the AFL-CIO Executive Council’s statement on media monopolies.

Check out “Democracy Unhinged,” an AFL-CIO Professional Employees critique of FCC studies.

Read “Monopoly or Democracy,” by Ted Turner.