Senator says media study suppressed

[tuvor]

By JOHN DUNBAR, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin on Monday ordered a formal investigation into why two agency reports on media ownership were never made public.

Martin was responding to a request by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who earlier in the day made public a second FCC study that she says was shelved by agency officials.

Last week, Boxer released a draft of an FCC study that showed locally owned stations air more news than local stations controlled by outside owners. A lawyer with the FCC told The Associated Press last week that FCC managers ordered the destruction of that report; the lawyer is no longer with the agency.

"I want to assure you that I too am concerned about what happened to these two draft reports," Martin stated in a letter sent Monday evening to Boxer. "I have asked the inspector general of the FCC to conduct an investigation into what happened to these draft documents and will cooperate fully with him."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/media_ownership

[Drum]

1. Kick n Rec

Nice catch, tuvor!

:kick:

[AIJ Alom]

2. Who is Mike Powell (son of Colin Powell and former FCC chair) ? n/t

[Nite Owl]

4. Yes n/t

[Judi Lynn]

3. The ending of the article astounds, as well!

~snip~
In June 2003, the commission voted to loosen rules in virtually all areas of media ownership, including cross-ownership limits on radio and television stations. But commissioners at the time were also concerned about the emergence of radio giant Clear Channel Communications Inc., which now owns about 1,200 stations.

It decided to eliminate its existing system of measuring radio markets and use one favored by Arbitron, a private firm best known for measuring ratings. The commission decided not to force broadcasters to divest stations in markets where the new boundaries would push the broadcast companies over the limit.

Most of the rules the commission voted on in 2003 were thrown out by an appeals court in Philadelphia. The agency is reconsidering them. Clear Channel is lobbying the FCC to increase the number of stations that can be owned in the nation's largest markets.

Also on Monday, the FCC extended the period allowed for public comment on the ownership proceeding by a month, from Sept. 22 to Oct. 23. A public hearing is scheduled for Oct. 3 in Los Angeles.
(snip/)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Damned decent of the FCC to allow a bit of time for public comment. I hope they get their ears pinned back!
Thanks for the article.

(My italics)

[nicknameless]

5. Interesting that the attorney quoted by AP about the destruction

of the report is no longer with the FCC, but the managers who ordered it destroyed still are.

[Cocoa]

6. Boxer should let the FCC focus on their core mission

Janet Jackson's breast. :scared:

[ShockediSay]

7. Nothing like diversity of viewpoints

on the airwaves WE are supposed to own

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[slipslidingaway]

9. Somewhat related, additional media reports buried.

CPB’s “Secrets and Lies”: Why the CPB Board Hid its Polls Revealing Broad Public Support for PBS and NPR

http://www.democraticmedia.org/news/washingtonwatch/CPBsurveys.html

Poll Data Show No “Bias” Problem

27 April 2005

snip>>

The far-right-wing majority directors at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting have a secret they don’t want to tell the American public. CPB board Chair Ken Tomlinson and his cronies have kept the results of two “National Public Opinion” surveys under wraps. These documents, buried in an annual report to Congress but neither released to the press nor shared with PBS and NPR, reveal that the overwhelming majority of the U.S. public is happy with PBS and NPR programming. Such conclusions are bad news for the GOP-led CPB board, which is pushing an agenda designed to reshape public broadcasting programming to suit their own ideological biases. Consequently, CPB has refused to make the poll data public.

UPDATE: As a result of pressure from CDD and others, CPB finally posted the two public opinion polls on its website on 18 July 2005.

[rman]

10. Federal Communications Commission ordered report on media ownership destro

same thing?


MSNBC
Media ownership study ordered destroyed
FCC draft suggested fewer owners would hurt local TV coverage
Updated: 3:08 p.m. ET Sept 14, 2006
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14836500/


WASHINGTON - The Federal Communications Commission ordered its staff to destroy all copies of a draft study that suggested greater concentration of media ownership would hurt local TV news coverage, a former lawyer at the agency says.

The report, written in 2004, came to light during the Senate confirmation hearing for FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. received a copy of the report "indirectly from someone within the FCC who believed the information should be made public," according to Boxer spokeswoman Natalie Ravitz.

<<snip>>

'Every last piece' destroyed
Adam Candeub, now a law professor at Michigan State University, said senior managers at the agency ordered that "every last piece" of the report be destroyed. "The whole project was just stopped - end of discussion," he said. Candeub was a lawyer in the FCC's Media Bureau at the time the report was written and communicated frequently with its authors, he said.

In a letter sent to Martin Wednesday, Boxer said she was "dismayed that this report, which was done at taxpayer expense more than two years ago, and which concluded that localism is beneficial to the public, was shoved in a drawer."

[eppur_se_muova]

11. Thank you Sen. Boxer for keeping the heat on Bu**sh** maladministration!nt

[goforit]

12. More cover-ups!! Whooopie!