STOP BIG MEDIA—Hundreds of people, from community leaders to musicians, actors, writers, and concerned citizens, lined up early to attend the FCC hearing in Los Angeles on October 3rd. Out of the more than 100 people that testified before the FCC, only one person supported greater media consolidation.

CALPIRG Testifies Before FCC: Stop Media Consolidation

In October CALPIRG Advocate Emily Rusch testified before the five members of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), urging them to prevent further media consolidation. CALPIRG is part of a large coalition of organizations working to put public pressure on the FCC not to weaken rules that prevent big media corporations from owning even more of what we see, hear, and read on television and in the newspapers.

Joining CALPIRG at the Los Angeles hearing were the Reverend Jesse Jackson Jr., Mike Mills from the band R.E.M., U.S. Representatives Diane Watson and Maxine Waters and nearly 1,000 other concerned citizens and organizations. The FCC is currently considering new rules to allow one corporation to own more than one television station in a region and allow television and newspaper cross-ownership in a region.

The last decade has seen a steady decline in independently owned media outlets. Now, just six companies own the television channels watched by 75 percent of Americans. Just one radio corporation, Clear Channel, owns more than 1,200 stations. Fewer than 275 of the nation’s 1,500 daily newspapers remain independently owned, and more than half of all U.S. markets are dominated by one paper.

It is essential that Californians get the choice to see and read and hear a variety of viewpoints before they make up their minds on important issues facing the state and nation. In 1945, the Supreme Court declared that “the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources is essential to the welfare of the public, that a free press is a condition of a free society.” More media consolidation means less diversity and competition, which harms American democracy.
Greater media consolidation also harms local news reporting. The FCC’s own studies found that locally-owned television stations aired 3.5 more minutes worth of on-location local news reports than non-locally owned stations and that network-owned and operated stations (such as those owned by ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) aired significantly less local news.

In 2003, the last time the FCC tried to relax media ownership rules to allow greater media consolidation, CALPIRG worked with diverse groups, including the National Rifle Association and Moveon.org, to stop the rule changes and 3 million Americans sent in comments in protest. Ultimately, the courts overturned the proposed rules and sent the FCC back to the drawing board.

Now CALPIRG is urging the FCC to strengthen, rather than weaken, their rules preventing media consolidation. The Los Angeles hearing was the first of six public hearings around the country on media ownership. CALPIRG will continue to put pressure on the FCC to stop big media from getting bigger.