A coalition of groups protesting the commercialization of radio and
television airwaves has called for action to break the "anti-democratic
force" driving the purchase of more and more stations by a shrinking
number of media corporations.
Under the lead of
Media Democracy Now, the groups have specifically criticized the
National Association of Broadcasters for what it calls the NAB's concerted effort to expand the influence of corporate broadcasters over the public's airwaves. In fact, several of the groups demonstrated at the NAB Radio Show -- the organization's annual convention -- in San Francisco last week.
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After demonstrating peacefully Wednesday and Thursday, about 100 protesters stormed into the convention hall before opening time on Friday, chained themselves to each other and to the doors, and had to be hauled out by police. Some were arrested.
"We give corporate broadcasters almost unlimited control over a precious public resource -- our airwaves," complained Janine Jackson, program director for
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. In return, she said, corporate media companies "give us ... infomercials, narrow political debate and commercials on kids' TV."
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Jackson said a pair of recent studies "found that local public affairs made up less than 0.5 percent of the fare offered by commercial broadcasters," and that "35 percent of the stations surveyed had no local news" while "25 percent had no local public affairs." And, she added, "minority [station] ownership has declined 9 percent" since 1996.
That year, Media Democracy Now said, Congress and the Clinton administration passed the Telecommunications Act, which allowed media corporations to own an unlimited number of radio and television stations nationally, as well as in individual markets.
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Previously, telecommunications rules prohibited media corporations from owning more than 28 stations nationally and limited the number they could own in a single market, in order to reduce the amount of influence one media group could have in a single market.
With the NAB's help, however, the law was changed, and now, "over half the U.S. radio stations have been sold, and the field is now dominated by a few giants in non-competitive markets," said Robert McChesney, a professor at the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois.
"The NAB is arguably the single most anti-democratic force in the U.S. today," McChesney -- author of the book "Rich Media, Poor Democracy" -- said. "It opposes campaign finance reform [and] broadcasters have little incentive to cover candidates because it is in their [the corporations'] best interest to force them to buy TV [and radio] time."
McChesney said the undue influence held by the conglomerates "is sustained by massive corporate welfare, such as the giveaway of the digital TV spectrum."
"[Corporations] carpet-bomb us with advertising and provide us with broadcast journalism obsessed with celebrity, trivia and the bottom line," he said.
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Andrea Buffa, executive director of
Media Alliance, agreed.
"The NAB swindled the U.S. taxpayers out of the digital TV spectrum, which was estimated at $70 billion," she said. "We want 50 percent of the digital radio [market] for non-commercial, local programming.
"The airwaves should be used for the public interest," Buffa added, saying "working journalists should be allowed to flourish." In San Francisco alone, she said, "four corporations control 80 percent of the radio market ... and none of them are based here."
The NAB said the number of television stations broadcasting digital signals increased to 151 by mid-August.
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"The addition of KPTV/Portland, Ore., and WSNS/Chicago, Ill., brings the number of digital stations nationwide to 151, putting a digital signal in reach of nearly 64 percent of all TV households nationwide," said an NAB statement Aug. 24.
One of the goals of Media Democracy Now is to see Federal Communications Commission changes that would allow microbroadcasters -- owners of small, low-power radio stations -- to operate, thereby providing independents the ability to reach minority communities, church groups and other civic organizations.
However, the "NAB is using its lobbying might ... to squash low-power radio," said Louis Hiken, an attorney for Free Radio Berkeley and a member of the National Lawyer's Guild Committee for Democratic Communications.
"Since 1996, the 50 largest media companies and four of their trade associations have spent $111.3 million to lobby Congress and the executive branch of the government" against such FCC changes, said Charles Lewis, founder and executive director of
The Center for
Public Integrity.
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"From 1996 to 1998, the NAB and five media outlets ... cumulatively spent nearly $11 million to defeat a dozen campaign finance bills mandating free airtime for political candidates," Lewis said.
In July, shortly after the introduction of the Low-Power Radio Act of 2000, introduced by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., NAB president and CEO Edward Fritts said the bill should be "renamed the 'Interference Assurance Act.'"
"If these senators listened to their constituents, they would know that the FCC can't handle the interference already out there, let alone the new interference that hundreds or thousands of new low-power FM stations will cause," Fritts said.
"Even though the FCC acknowledges there will be interference on the FM band, both lawmakers prefer that the FCC deal with it after the fact, rather than trying to solve the problem before FM listeners are affected," he said. "We continue to believe that further testing should be conducted before any changes are made to existing interference standards."
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Fritts added that the NAB was "not opposed" to low-power FM radio, but rather "the FCC changing the current interference standards to implement it."
According to a summary of the McCain/Kerry bill, "any low-power FM radio licensee determined by the Federal Communications Commission to be transmitting a signal causing harmful interference to one or more licensed radio services shall, if so ordered by the Commission, cease the transmission of the interfering signal. ..."
The bill also directs the FCC to complete all rulemakings necessary to implement the transition to digital radio no later than June 1, 2001.