A New Opportunity to Craft Media Ownership Rules

A NEW OPPORTUNITY TO CRAFT MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle 11/5, AUTHOR: FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein]
[Commentary] The public airwaves belong to the public. In the exchange for the free use of the airwaves, radio and television broadcasters are required to serve the needs of your community. It's the job of the Federal Communications Commission to ensure that the airwaves foster a competitive, diverse and locally responsive media marketplace. The FCC sets limits on media ownership that affects every citizen's exposure to news, information and entertainment programming. The laws that govern the FCC say we are to maximize the diversity of viewpoints to which Americans are exposed. We are not to allow a few media giants to dominate our media landscape. Three years ago, three million citizens nationwide, from the left of the political spectrum, to the right, and virtually everyone in between, expressed their opposition to a FCC plan to relax media ownership rules. Eventually, an appeals court sent the rules back to the FCC, and chastised the agency for its failure to make sensible rules that served the public's need for competition, localism and diversity. We need to continue to hear your voice about the effects of media consolidation in your communities. Share your concerns on media ownership and inform us about the types of programs that will most benefit your local communities. I urge you to provide insight on how the FCC can best ensure an open rule-making process, so that we can serve the public interest with maximum effectiveness. Remember, your views can influence media policy decisions that affect people across the nation for generations to come. I will do everything in my power to ensure that, in the pending review of media ownership rules, we are more receptive to the views of the public. After all, the law says we are to promote the public interest, not the interests of the media companies that use the public airwaves.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/1...