by Pete Shanks
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Task Force on Localism held
a public meeting in Monterey on July 21st, and left with no doubt about
what the public thinks: They should support local and diverse ownership
of radio and TV stations. In other words, they should reverse their
policy of deregulation and insist on ending media monopolies.
Pete Shanks and Laura Cameron were there as representatives of the local
Chapter of the NWU to present a Resolution to that effect, which had
been passed unanimously by the Steering Committee. Earlier in the day,
they also attended a Labor Press Conference at which different unions
and activist groups called for similar changes. (If you’d like more
background on the FCC, start at media-alliance.org and explore from there.)
The evening meeting started a little late – and ended only when we were
about to be ejected from the room, at almost midnight. The first half
was devoted to testimony from invited panelists; the best part came when
the public got to speak. Chairman Powell had found a scheduling conflict
(hey, he picked the date!) and wasn’t there. His ally, Commissioner
Abernathy (the kind of Republican who looks like the mom of the prom
queen), chaired the panel, while Belva Davis of KQED moderated (well,
tried to rein in) the rest of us.
Commissioners Copps and Adelstein, the intelligent minority on the
five-person board, did show, as they usually do; they were eloquent and
commendably brief in advocating for “an affirmative action program for
the public interest” (Copps) to counteract “market failure” (Adelstein).
Some of the panelists parroted the industry line &/or patted themselves
on the back. Others, however, made some excellent points, such as:
“We need electronic green space in the strip mall of commercial media.”
– Sean McLaughlin, Maui Community TV
Most striking, perhaps, was an analysis of TV news coverage in the
run-up to the last election. It was lousy. And in California it was
unusually bad, with only 9% of the time being devoted to all “local”
(including state-wide) issues. Moreover, the bigger the corporate owner,
the less the coverage. The audience was shocked, shocked and horrified,
and greeted a call for monitoring news coverage with sustained applause.
Then John P. Connolly of the American Federation of Television and Radio
Artists presented the results of a poll of media workers. They are
appalled by the direction their industry is taking (who knew?). The room
burst into such loud applause that even the Chair admitted that he
“struck a chord with the audience.”
Indeed he did. And when the panelists finally quit, the good stuff
started – almost three hours of two-minute testimony, and all but
unanimous. One panelist did try, rather paternalistically, to “correct”
some of those who were complaining about political coverage, and was
shouted down with cries of “It’s our turn!” Other than that
exceptionally reasonable rowdyism, the evening was conducted with
general good humor and politeness; corporate self-justifications were
met by and large with stony silence, criticism of deregulation with loud
applause. It was a one-sided crowd – our side.
Half a dozen volunteers for charities like the United Way dutifully
thanked their TV and radio sponsors; but virtually everyone else called
for – at a minimum – a return to the pre-1996 era of regulation. That
included, incidentally, people who own local radio stations, one of
which did broadcast the event live. There was admittedly one employee of
Clear Channel, who freely admitted he must be “the bad guy” – and even
he called for technical regulations to prevent the demise of
elss-than-50,000-watt AM stations.
Many people made the important point that having one meeting in Monterey
was ridiculous, if the idea was to gather opinion from the western
states. No one was fooled by this token of consultation. Everyone wanted
more public input. And you still can tell them what you think: The
Localism Task Force is taking comments by mail or email, at their
website www.fcc.gov/localism
