The Price of Free Airwaves (FCC license renewals )

[LynnTheDem]

June 2, 2007

As a member of the Federal Communications Commission, I often hear how fed up Americans are with the news media.

The F.C.C. already has powerful leverage to hold broadcasters to their end of the bargain. Every eight years, broadcasters must prove that they have served the public interest in order to get license renewal. If they can’t, the license goes to someone else who will.

The problem is that, under pressure from media conglomerates, previous commissions have eviscerated the renewal process. Now we have what big broadcasters lovingly call “postcard renewal” - the agency typically rubber-stamps an application without any substantive review.

Just recently, the F.C.C. made news because it fined Univision, the Spanish-language broadcaster, a record-breaking $24 million. Univision claimed that its stations offered three hours of children’s educational programming per week - one of the few public interest rules still on the books - in part by showing a soap opera involving 11-year-old twins.

That was the right decision. But, viewed closely, it also illustrates just how slipshod our renewal process has become.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/02/opinion/02copps.html?_r=2&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

WOW. Imagine what the FCC would do to a US station that participated in a coup to overthrow a US government and was the "bunker" for the coup leader!

[Selatius]

1. Nothing. The coup already happened...in 1963.

The FCC would renew their license citing a corporation's 1st Amendment right, established by the US Supreme Court.

Any Democratic administration who tried to revoke a broadcast license because a corporation failed to protect the public good would necessarily be labeled another iteration of Stalinism.

[LynnTheDem]

2. Yet here's an FCC commissioner not only pointing out that record

fine against Univision for having less than the 3 hours of children's programs they claimed...but *gasp* also pointing out that licences for public airwaves should not be renewed if the station does not fulfill its obligations.

What a novel idea. :sarcasm:

[ixion]

3. ah yes, but I am wary of government agents who speak of the 'public interest'

because the government seems to really loathe the public, for whom it works, and so "public interest" could be things like faux terror warnings and stories about duct tape and/or doing "god's work".

So when a government functionary starts fining stations for not supporting the public interest, to me that signals some deeper issue, like Univision wouldn't "play ball" and promote the neocon agenda, for example.


CBS, ABC and NBC... none of these companies exist for the good of public interest in any way, shape or form, from what I can see, and yet I don't see any talk of fines being levied in their direction.

[leftchick]

4. the station owners would be in GITMO

that is for sure.

[KharmaTrain]

5. The Last License Revocations Were Decades Ago

This is the so sublime it's absurd. The FCC regulated itself out of the broadcasting business...gave our public airwaves to large corporations and have never looked back. The last major license revocations were of RKO-General...who helped funnel illegal cash to Repugnicans...in the late 70's. Since then the license process has been a total joke.

As far as their "fines"...now ya think they collected? Think Univision paid 24 million? Think again. The fines are probably being appealed and leave it to the beltway lawyers that Univision will never pay a dime. But that number sure sounded good and almost had you fooled the FCC really works.

BTW...as far as American broadcasting...we've already had the coup...where you been?

[Toots]

6. I don't think just a coup would do it. A naked breast might though

If it involves violence then it is a go no matter what but let a part of the human body get some exposure and the cry become "shut it down"

[EFerrari]

7. Copps is an authoritarian and he wants to make Bush a dictator --

Oops! Too late!

[slipslidingaway]

8. K&R n/t