Death of the Free Press

[Jeffersons Ghost]

In 1949, the Fairness Doctrine was established. The Fairness Doctrine was a major step forward in limiting the power of media corporations' control over communications systems. It established that the media needed to serve the public interest in certain ways. It also emphasized the importance of allowing all points of view to be heard. In the words of the Media Access Project, an organization dedicated to improving media democracy, "for fifty years, the fairness doctrine advanced the public's First Amendment right to receive information on important issues. The fairness doctrine arises from the principle, reaffirmed by Congress and the United States Supreme Court, that broadcasters have special public trustee obligations, which they voluntarily incur in exchange for the exclusive use of scarce public airwaves." The Doctrine sought to ensure that the media served as a vehicle for the public to access to information and to make certain that controversial issues of public importance would be discussed in fair and balanced ways.

The concern for a diverse media ownership continued into the 1960s and 1970s. In 1964, the Local TV Multiple Ownership Rule was written into law. This law prevented owning multiple television or radio stations in any given market, unless there are more than 8 stations within the market. In 1970, the Radio/TV Cross Ownership Rule was founded, which prevented big media from owning a television and radio station in the same market jurisdiction. Similarly, owning both a broadcast television station and a newspaper was barred in 1975.

Then, in the early 1980s, the wave of media regulation stopped. President Ronald Reagan began reversing regulation laws and systematically demolishing media restraints. First, Reagan cut seven commissioners from the FCC, making it harder for the agency to enforce rules. He then rescinded the rules that ensured non-entertainment programming would be broadcast. Reagan also initiated the major overturn of media regulation policy. In the court case Meredith Corp. v. FCC, the courts ruled that the FCC was no longer responsible for regulating the Fairness Doctrine because Congress did not mandate it.

In 1996, many of the previous actions to protect the consolidation of the media were overturned. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was the first significant change in FCC law in more than 60 years. The new law sought to open competition in the communications market. Not surprisingly, the law was looked favorably upon by media corporations. It led to a wave of mergers, and actually decreased competition in the market. Instead of many groups providing media services, like news, consolidation brought the number of participants down to only a handful of companies. The Act brought on a 1/3 decline in commercial radio stations (a loss of 1,700 stations). Although the Act was supposed to lead to a decrease in consumers' cable cost, cable prices have actually increased dramatically since the law was put into effect. Now 7 companies, including AOL/Time Warner and Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, own 75% of the market . The Telecommunications Act actually contradicted its intention of increasing media choices. Instead, it harmed competition and media democracy. The free market did not promote a diverse group of media companies as promoters of the Act predicted. In fact, the Telecommunications Act encouraged consolidation.

Under the influence of the pro-big business Bush Administration, with his choice Michael Powell (son of U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell) as the FCC Chairman, there was a strong force that gained greater deregulation in the FCC policies. On September 12, 2002, the FCC announced its "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" (NPRM) . The NPRM alerted the public to a change in rules. And the FCC headed towards further media deregulation. Congress has mandated that the FCC review its rules every two years. In addition, a Washington, DC Circuit Court of Appeals demanded the FCC show "empirical evidence" in support of their rules, or the rules must be altered; Congress has mandated such reviews every two years under the Commission's Strategic Goals Program. Several major networks have also pushed for the FCC to review its policy.

Recently, the FCC has become a proponent of net neutrality. The concept of “net neutrality’' holds that companies providing Internet service should treat all sources of data equally. It has been the center of a debate over whether those companies can give preferential treatment to content providers who pay for faster transmission, or to their own content, in effect creating a two-tier Web, and about whether they can block or impede content representing controversial points of view.

A federal appeals court ruled in April of 2010 that the FCC had limited power over Web traffic under current law. The decision allowed Internet service companies to block or slow specific sites and charge some sites premium prices to deliver their content faster to users. The court decision was a setback to efforts by the FCC to require companies to give Web users equal access to all content, even if some of that content is clogging the network. The court ruling, which came after Comcast asserted that it had the right to slow its cable customers’ access to a file-sharing service called BitTorrent, could prompt efforts in Congress to change the law in order to give the F.C.C. explicit authority to regulate Internet service.

The FCC is currently preparing a proposal asking Congress to give it new authority to regulate broadband Internet service. Prior to this week’s election, 95 candidates running for the House and Senate took a pledge to support Net neutrality. On Tuesday, all 95 candidates lost.

[glinda]

1. K & R n/t

[Melissa G]

2. K&R! n/t

[jmowreader]

3. Reagan also legalized infomercials

I don't think anyone here really realizes the power of the infomercial in stifling free speech, specifically non-entertainment programming.

Prior to Reagan, it was illegal to broadcast an advertising message for a single product that was more than 15 minutes long. (I was about to say "produce" an advertising message. It was always legal to make 30-minute commercials; you just couldn't put them on the air. You probably could have put them on a Community Antenna Television system, but prior to Reagan "cable TV" systems were used primarily to allow communities located in valleys to put one huge TV antenna on the highest ground they could find and share it. In general, CATV systems didn't carry anything but broadcast television stations.) Reagan legalized long-form commercials.

Now, here's the dilemma any TV station manager was faced with: produce and air a "community interest" television show the community, in general, didn't watch (and for which he had to sell advertising space REALLY cheap) or sell the time to an infomercial company?

[Jeffersons Ghost]

5. that was one of the many ways he deregulated the industry.

Another aspect of deregulation allows commercials to become louder than entertainment programing.

[Celtic Raven]

4. K&R nt

[Dystopian]

6. KandR

peace~

[steve2470]

7. k and r nt

[Poboy]

8. Media ownership study ordered destroyed

Media ownership study ordered destroyed
FCC draft suggested fewer owners would hurt local TV coverage

updated 9/14/2006 3:08:18 PM ET

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.

---

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.
---
'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.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14836500/