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American Morning
Media Dilemma
Aired May 27, 2003 - 09:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Some members of the Federal Communications Commission are going to be hearing some arguments today about deregulation of the telecommunications industry. Now this is a much bigger decision than maybe you may even be aware of, because it really hasn't been talked about much publicly.
The way it stands now, a single company is not allowed to own both a newspaper and TV station in the same area. The argument now is that a single owner could limit different points view in a community if that were to happen. But without changing the ownership rules, many papers or TV stations might not be able to continue to stay in business, because the landscape has changed so much, what with the new generations of telecommunications technology.
Well, Chellie Pingree of Common Cause and Richard Wiley, who is a former FCC commissioner, are in our Washington bureau this morning to sort of hash this all out for us and maybe explain what is going to happen today.
Now, thanks for coming in this morning, folks.
Now this an issue that I know I've been following here, because it's so germane to what we do here every single day, but the general public really doesn't know much about this.
Chellie, explain to anyone watching today right now why it is that you actually have a position right now against them changing the rules as they stand right now.
CHELLIE PINGREE, PRESIDENT/CEO, COMMON CAUSE: Well, thank you, and thanks for having us on to talk the about the issue.
One of the reasons the public is not very aware of this is because media outlets aren't reporting on what could be an enormous largess for them from the public airwaves after this June 2 decision.
We've had already a tremendous amount of media consolidation. It's giving us less localism, less fairness, less diversity, and we some have some of the poster child examples, such as Clear Channel, which owns 1,200 radio stations around the country, banned The Dixie Chicks in Minot (ph) when they had an anhyrate ammonia (ph) spill. They couldn't even find a local person at any of their local stations to get the news out there.
Clearly, the public is aware there is less diversity, less programming. I think Thomas Jefferson would be rolling over in his grave, if he saw what was going on in our Democracy today, and how much we're losing of one of fundamental principles, and that's making sure we have good coverage and good diversity in the media.
HARRIS: Richard, I'm sure you don't agree with that. As I understand it, your position is because there are so many more channels available to people now, there is more diversity.
RICHARD WILEY, FMR. FCC COMMISSIONER: Absolutely. We've got more diversity today than we've ever had in the past. The number of choices to the American public are simply staggering. The one rule that you mentioned, the newspaper broadcast rule is adopted in 1975 before we had cable television, before we had satellite and the Internet. And if we really are interested in having local news and more news on broadcast stations, we ought to let the newspapers get in. The FCC's own rules and studies show that newspaper-owned stations actually provide more news and more information to the public. So, it would be a good thing.
HARRIS: But how do you address the issue that Chellie brought up. And I know what your talking about Chellie, that -- it was an ammonia spill, as I recall. I believe it was somewhere in the midsection of the nation, and there were no reports about it on local radio, because the radio stations in the entire radio were all owned by one company, and they were basically piping in their programming from a distant location, not there locally. So, Richard, how does that sort of -- that's what is happening now with this diversity, isn't that a problem?
WILEY: First of all, there is no market in the country where one owner owns all of the radio stations. Congress has definitely left in place rules that limit how many stations a particular owner can have, and I don't think there is a single issue in which the American public don't get new and information by the. So I just think that's a canard.
HARRIS: Chellie?
PINGREE: Well, the myth is that increased competition would give us more diversity, and what's it's really brought us is consolidation in the media. The telecommunications act of '96 promised us more diversity, and now we have the cable market, it's about three different companies controlling all the cable, and your rates have increased about 40 percent since then. So people have less diversity in your programming, and it's costing us more.
I don't think if you talk to the American public, they feel as though it's right to give up all of these opportunities that belong to them, and do so without something in return. Many of the things that we used to count on, the fairness doctrine, a two-year review, all these things are basically gone today, and people don't know much about it.
We're actually doing an ad campaign at Common Cause with some of our at Moved On (ph) and Fair Media to put some ads on the TV to get some full-page ads in the newspaper, just so there is coverage today. There has been very little process here with the FCC. Commissioner Powell only held one hearing. Most of the comments have come in in opposition, but most people think he's going vote in opposition to it. WILEY: The truth is, three's been thousands of comments submitted to the FCC. This the most comprehensive review of the commission's ownership rules in its history, and I think chairman Powell and his colleagues deserve credit for having a very open proceeding, and what's going to come out of this, I think, is the elimination, or the changing of rules, that are tremendously outmoded in today's diverse marketplace.
HARRIS: This going to be a monumental decision that's going to be made in fair short order here. We'll have to watch and see how it all plays out. Richard Wiley and Chellie Pingree. Thank you very much. Appreciate the time and the insight.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 27, 2003 - 09:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Some members of the Federal Communications Commission are going to be hearing some arguments today about deregulation of the telecommunications industry. Now this is a much bigger decision than maybe you may even be aware of, because it really hasn't been talked about much publicly.
The way it stands now, a single company is not allowed to own both a newspaper and TV station in the same area. The argument now is that a single owner could limit different points view in a community if that were to happen. But without changing the ownership rules, many papers or TV stations might not be able to continue to stay in business, because the landscape has changed so much, what with the new generations of telecommunications technology.
Well, Chellie Pingree of Common Cause and Richard Wiley, who is a former FCC commissioner, are in our Washington bureau this morning to sort of hash this all out for us and maybe explain what is going to happen today.
Now, thanks for coming in this morning, folks.
Now this an issue that I know I've been following here, because it's so germane to what we do here every single day, but the general public really doesn't know much about this.
Chellie, explain to anyone watching today right now why it is that you actually have a position right now against them changing the rules as they stand right now.
CHELLIE PINGREE, PRESIDENT/CEO, COMMON CAUSE: Well, thank you, and thanks for having us on to talk the about the issue.
One of the reasons the public is not very aware of this is because media outlets aren't reporting on what could be an enormous largess for them from the public airwaves after this June 2 decision.
We've had already a tremendous amount of media consolidation. It's giving us less localism, less fairness, less diversity, and we some have some of the poster child examples, such as Clear Channel, which owns 1,200 radio stations around the country, banned The Dixie Chicks in Minot (ph) when they had an anhyrate ammonia (ph) spill. They couldn't even find a local person at any of their local stations to get the news out there.
Clearly, the public is aware there is less diversity, less programming. I think Thomas Jefferson would be rolling over in his grave, if he saw what was going on in our Democracy today, and how much we're losing of one of fundamental principles, and that's making sure we have good coverage and good diversity in the media.
HARRIS: Richard, I'm sure you don't agree with that. As I understand it, your position is because there are so many more channels available to people now, there is more diversity.
RICHARD WILEY, FMR. FCC COMMISSIONER: Absolutely. We've got more diversity today than we've ever had in the past. The number of choices to the American public are simply staggering. The one rule that you mentioned, the newspaper broadcast rule is adopted in 1975 before we had cable television, before we had satellite and the Internet. And if we really are interested in having local news and more news on broadcast stations, we ought to let the newspapers get in. The FCC's own rules and studies show that newspaper-owned stations actually provide more news and more information to the public. So, it would be a good thing.
HARRIS: But how do you address the issue that Chellie brought up. And I know what your talking about Chellie, that -- it was an ammonia spill, as I recall. I believe it was somewhere in the midsection of the nation, and there were no reports about it on local radio, because the radio stations in the entire radio were all owned by one company, and they were basically piping in their programming from a distant location, not there locally. So, Richard, how does that sort of -- that's what is happening now with this diversity, isn't that a problem?
WILEY: First of all, there is no market in the country where one owner owns all of the radio stations. Congress has definitely left in place rules that limit how many stations a particular owner can have, and I don't think there is a single issue in which the American public don't get new and information by the. So I just think that's a canard.
HARRIS: Chellie?
PINGREE: Well, the myth is that increased competition would give us more diversity, and what's it's really brought us is consolidation in the media. The telecommunications act of '96 promised us more diversity, and now we have the cable market, it's about three different companies controlling all the cable, and your rates have increased about 40 percent since then. So people have less diversity in your programming, and it's costing us more.
I don't think if you talk to the American public, they feel as though it's right to give up all of these opportunities that belong to them, and do so without something in return. Many of the things that we used to count on, the fairness doctrine, a two-year review, all these things are basically gone today, and people don't know much about it.
We're actually doing an ad campaign at Common Cause with some of our at Moved On (ph) and Fair Media to put some ads on the TV to get some full-page ads in the newspaper, just so there is coverage today. There has been very little process here with the FCC. Commissioner Powell only held one hearing. Most of the comments have come in in opposition, but most people think he's going vote in opposition to it. WILEY: The truth is, three's been thousands of comments submitted to the FCC. This the most comprehensive review of the commission's ownership rules in its history, and I think chairman Powell and his colleagues deserve credit for having a very open proceeding, and what's going to come out of this, I think, is the elimination, or the changing of rules, that are tremendously outmoded in today's diverse marketplace.
HARRIS: This going to be a monumental decision that's going to be made in fair short order here. We'll have to watch and see how it all plays out. Richard Wiley and Chellie Pingree. Thank you very much. Appreciate the time and the insight.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
