MEDIA OWNERSHIP CONSOLIDATION
Senator Edwards has decided that it is important to come out against raising the cap on broadcast media ownership and media cross-ownership. He fires off a letter to FCC Chairman Michael Powell telling him to hold it.

Diversity in the media is enormously important to our democracy. As consumers, Americans should have choices in the music they can hear and the television programs they can watch. As citizens, Americans should have access to different ideas and points of view. The government has a responsibility to foster this diversity of expression. Unfortunately, the FCC’s new rules are likely to undermine it.

The effects on rural America could be particularly harmful. People in rural communities and small-town America have distinctive interests, and local stations offer programming that responds to these interests. In recent years, local stations in rural North Carolina have offered prime-time broadcasts of Atlantic Coast Conference basketball games, Billy Graham crusades, and muscular dystrophy telethons. All Americans can appreciate the importance of offering local programming tailored to local concerns. By undercutting this diversity, the FCC’s new rules will do a disservice to all Americans.

But the Senator doesn't support his point that further media consolidation would hurt this diversity of programming. Currently, the stations in rural eastern North Carolina are owned by Disney, GE, Raycom and other large media groups that favor raising the cap on ownership. Does Edwards really think for a minute that ACC basketball games won't be carried in prime-time if CBS buys a station in eastern North Carolina? Does Edwards realize that, in his own home town, Disney owns the ABC affiliate, GE owns the NBC affiliate and the CBS and Fox affiliates are run by the same folks (even though technically licensed to different entities to get around FCC rules)? I doubt he would characterize the Raleigh-Durham TV market as un-diverse and I doubt that anyone in the market will ask him about it.

I have heard you suggest that with the growth of cable and satellite television, broadcast diversity is no longer important. That may be true in some affluent communities, but many Americans do not have cable and satellite television, especially in rural areas. These Americans depend on broadcast news and programming, and their programming should offer real choices that are responsive to their interests.

There he goes standing up for the "regular people" again. Chairman Powell has never suggested that "diversity is no longer important," but for trial lawyer Edwards to lie in argument is not a big stretch for him. Powell has said that a diversity of media voices will still exist because of new information technologies, from cable and satellite to the internet. In fact, in Edwards' home TV market, where I grew up, the number of television stations alone has doubled in the past 25 years. More diversity despite the fact that WRAL (CBS) and WRAZ (Fox) are operated together, as are WLFL (WB) and WRDC (UPN).

I am especially troubled that your agency is implementing these proposals without permitting further public discussion. The FCC does not have a mandate to make controversial decisions without giving the public a full opportunity to comment. The fact that two Commissioners have requested a delay should signal to you that the prudent course, at the least, is to postpone the vote and permit open public discussion.

Anybody with any clue about this issue knows that it has been debated and postponed for years. Oh wait, Senator Edwards didn't even vote until he ran for office in 1998, so I doubt he was paying attention then. It probably is a new issue to him.

See Lawrence Lessig's Cyberlaw blog for the full text of Edward's letter.