Civil rights, media activists protest lifting media consolidation ban

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HICAGO (NNPA) — Despite the impassioned and at times virulent testimony of hundreds of media activists, civil rights leaders and public policy experts here, it appears that Kevin Martin, Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), remains poised to lift the 30-year cross-ownership ban, which would allow a new flood of media consolidation to sweep the nation. About 1,000 people crowded the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition’s headquarters on September 20 for the fifth FCC public hearing before all five commissioners.

“I encourage the FCC to re-examine media rules which have created an environment of unchecked disregard for its minority listener ship and viewer ship,” said Dorothy R. Leavell, publisher of the Crusader Newspaper Group and chairwoman of the National Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation. “The FCC’s deregulations have produced zero benefit for the African-American community as a whole. It has impaired our broadcast media--forcing many Black broadcasters into smaller, less profitable markets, or pushing them off the air altogether.” Invited by Commissioner Jonathan Aldestein, Leavell joined a panel which included representatives from the corporate media, the Illinois Broadcasters Association, WVON and the National Black Media Coalition.

Hip Hop recording artist, KRS-One, in town to promote an album, invited himself on the panel and gave a stirring testimony to the applause of many in the audience. “I represent independent artist who can’t get their records played on this homogenized, corporate-controlled radio,” he said. “Its time we began to shut these stations down. If they won’t play positive music, if they won’t support artists who are trying to uplift the community, then we need to turn them off and shut them down for good.”

Activists and consumers in the nation’s third largest media market hoped the hearings would encourage the FCC to foster media diversity, increase localism, eliminate further media consolidation and advance minority ownership. However, hours before the public hearing, Martin reportedly told a group of Chicago Tribune investors, “There have been many positive aspects of that cross-ownership, as demonstrated by the ability to try to have other outlets for the news, which has been very important in trying to sustain the investment in news-gathering that’s occurred.”

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The rule change would allow media giants such as the Tribune Company, to own the main daily newspaper, eight radio stations, three television stations and the major local cable provider in the same town. There are five radio stations targeting African-American consumers in Chicago and four are owned by Clear Channel, the other is Black-owned WVON, which last year entered into a four-year local marketing agreement with Clear Channel.

Since the 1996 Telecommunications Act and the controversial moves by former FCC Commissioner Michael Powell, minority broadcast ownership in this country has plummeted to just 7.7 percent of all full-power commercial broadcast radio stations and just 3.26 percent of all TV stations. According to the Benton Foundation, among the nation’s 22 largest radio markets, Chicago has the lowest level of minority ownership. Among the 10 largest radio markets, Chicago is the only market with single digit levels of minority ownership. Women own just 6 percent of Chicago’s full-power commercial radio and television stations, despite comprising over half the population. Outside of New York, Chicago has the second largest African American population in the country.

“I believe the FCC media-ownership rules remain necessary and are critical to the public interest,” said Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. “We should be doing more to encourage diversity in ownership in broadcast media, promote the development of new media outlets and the expression of diverse viewpoints,” as well as provide “greater clarity” of broadcasters’ public-interest obligations.

Chairman Martin’s earlier remarks drew the ire of local activists who called the Chicago hearing nothing but a “dog and pony show designed to appease the courts. “The FCC has already made up its mind and once again Black folk and the public will find themselves on the losing end,” said Nairobi Henson. “We don’t own these stations, we don’t control these stations, yet everyday our community is hustled for dollars while at the same time being depicted as ignorant, violent and oversexed.”

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1. K & R'ing. what can one say, but --

just when you thought things couldn't get much worse . . .

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2. Slipping And Sliding Toward Fascism nt