The Media Ownership Endgame

THE MEDIA OWNERSHIP ENDGAME: MARTIN'S OPENING GAMBIT ON NEWSPAPER-TV CROSS OWNERSHIP
[SOURCE: Tales from the Sausage Factory, AUTHOR: Harold Feld]
[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has carefully studied the mistakes of Michael Powell, studied the strategies of the media reform movement, carefully considered his own strengths and weaknesses, and set up his game plan with a determination to win. Martin is targeting the folks in Congress and the vast majority of people who only sort of follow the media ownership rulemaking with half an ear, if at all. And for that vast middle ground, he has pitched this perfectly. For those millions of voters, and the Senators and Representatives outside the Commerce Committees who represent them, the fact that I'm unhappy, neo-cons are unhappy, and industry is unhappy must mean that Martin is striking an appropriate balance. It is worth noting that, substantively, the rule changes are somewhat more expansive than Martin makes them out to be. The current FCC waiver standard is that waivers are not supposed to be granted except in extraordinary cases, although the FCC will usually give temporary waivers for a couple of years to give companies time to divest properties. And for the last 10 years, while the newspaper cross-ownership rules have been in flux, the FCC has been pretty liberal about granting temporary waivers. But Martin's waiver standard really doesn't call for much: merger proponents just need to say “I pledge that I do more news and promise to keep the editorial boards separate — really I will. And if you don't let us co-own the newspaper and the TV station, the newspaper will just die, I know it!” Holding the line at just effective elimination of the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule after 7 years of assault from the Bush Administration and the DC Circuit is a major accomplishment. It's just not enough. Martin will have pulled off what he set out to do since he first became a Commissioner and started preaching that the newspaper broadcast cross-ownership rule was obsolete. And that would be a tremendous loss for all of us. Because we are having the wrong conversation here if the question is limited to “how much more consolidation should we allow?” This is about what do the facts tell us about our media world. Our media world remains desperately anemic for want of diverse ownership. We won't cure that by bleeding the patient any further -- no matter how reasonable such an approach may seem.
http://www.wetmachine.com/totsf/item/921

* FCC Chairman's Slick PR Can't Disguise Big Media Giveaway
[SOURCE: The Huffington Post, AUTHOR: Josh Silver, Free Press]
[Commentary] Martin is pushing this massive giveaway to Big Media even though the overwhelming majority of the public -- at six official public hearings and in hundreds of thousands of comments filed with the FCC -- has told him: 1. The media are not serving local communities. 2. He should not allow the largest media companies to get even bigger. This is not just a slap in the face of the thousands of people who have testified and sent letters to Chairman Martin, but also a snub of Congress who has been calling on him to slow down and address outstanding concerns about the impact of more media consolidation on minority ownership and localism.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-silver/fcc-chairmans-slick-pr-c_b_724...

* A compromise at FCC
[SOURCE: The Boston Herald, AUTHOR: Editorial staff]
[Commentary] The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has come up with an exceedingly modest proposal to change the so-called cross-ownership rule, but one which is clearly aimed at saving the nation’s newspapers. While Martin’s rhetoric acknowledges the drastically changed media environment that has developed in the past 32 years the cross-ownership ban has been in effect, his proposal represents a far more timid solution than simply lifting the ban. And this is no time for timid.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view.bg?articleid=10...

* When It Comes to Selling Media Consolidation, FCC Chair Kevin Martin Hasn't Learned Much
[Commentary] Two things are obvious: Martin wants to cast this rules change as a boon to press freedom -- something I don't think the public is about to swallow. And in drafting a proposal criticized by broadcasters, the newspaper industry, consumer advocates, politicians and even the commission's Democratic members, he didn't learn much from former FCC Chairman Michael Powell's example.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-deggans/when-it-comes-to-selling-_b_7...

* What New FCC Rules Mean for Media
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16288420&ft=1&f=102...

* Zell committed to Tribune buyout despite FCC plan
Billionaire investor Sam Zell is committed to his $8.2 billion plan to buy out Tribune Co despite its opposition to a plan by a top government regulator to change media ownership rules that affect the deal's outcome, a source familiar with the matter said Wednesday.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=businessNews&storyid...

* FCC Chairman Proposes Relaxation of Cross-Media Rules
[SOURCE: AdAge, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=121973