FCC cites studies in reviewing owner rules
By Edmund Sanders
Los Angeles Times
Media consolidation has not reduced the diversity of programs on television and radio, although concentration of ownership may result in more TV commercials and similar slants in news coverage, according to government studies released yesterday.
The Federal Communications Commission commissioned the 12 studies as part of its review of media-ownership rules, which cap the growth of broadcasters and restrict TV stations from merging with newspapers and radio stations in the same market.
Over the past 18 months, appellate judges in Washington have repeatedly overturned or remanded the FCC's media-ownership rules, saying they lack adequate justification. As a result, FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell has said his agency will unveil a new set of media-ownership rules by next year.
"The FCC is going to use these studies to provide the justification for all these future rules," said Richard E. Wiley, a former FCC chairman.
Rule changes could determine whether two top-rated Honolulu TV stations, Fox affiliate KHON (Channel 2) and CBS affiliate KGMB (Channel 9), can be kept by Indianapolis media conglomerate Emmis Communications Corp., which has owned both stations for nearly two years under temporary FCC exemptions.
The studies released yesterday and prepared by the FCC and various universities, generally offered support to Powell and large media companies seeking to repeal or relax the rules.
One study, conducted by Joel Waldfogel at the University of Pennsylvania, suggested that consumers are increasingly using the Internet as a substitute for television news. Because of the rise of the Internet, some have argued that the media-ownership rules are no longer needed.
Those findings, however, appeared to be contradicted by a Nielsen Media Research survey of 3,000 consumers, who said they still relied mostly on broadcast TV, cable news and daily newspapers to stay informed. In this study, more than 83 percent said they relied on television for national news, while 21 percent said they used the Internet.
FCC officials declined to comment further on the surveys, saying they did not want to spin the results in any particular direction.
Jeff Chester, founder of the Center for Digital Democracy, questioned whether the studies offered an unbiased view of the media rules. "The studies released today reveal a deeply flawed perspective that — while ratifying the chairman's view — fails to adequately assess the realities of the news and entertainment media marketplace," Chester said. "A research agenda on this critical issue should be developed and conducted outside of the FCC — not with staffers who must please the chairman."
Although some worry that increased media consolidation will result in less local programming, a study by FCC staff concluded that network-owned TV stations provided 23 percent more local news and public-affairs programming than network affiliates.
The same study concluded that TV stations that are jointly owned with newspapers received higher ratings, won more awards and produced more programs. Those results will provide ammunition to media corporations that are seeking to repeal the newspaper-television cross-ownership ban.
A study by David Pritchard of University of Wisconsin found that of 10 commonly owned newspaper-television combinations, five had a similar slant in covering the final weeks of the 2000 presidential election, while five had different slants. The FCC will provide interested parties with 90 days to comment on the studies and the proposed rule changes.
