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May 13, 2005
Session: Media Consolidation - Gene Kimmelman, Consumers Union; Frank Blethen, The Seattle Times
Gene Kimmelman:
Get almost all new reporting and news from newspapers, not corporate radio or television. That's important. We are on the brink of disaster if there is any further relaxation of those rules.
Heard of the DTV transition? Broadcasters are supposed to give back their old analog spectrum and use digital spectrum? And one thing that's not talked about is with this new spectrum, each station, 6 Mhz, can broadcast the equivalent of 6 stations. If we were worried about an ABC affiliate owning 2 or 3 stations, every broadcaster in this transition could have the equivlanent of six, or twelve with 2 licenses. If they own the newspaper in your town, then that's more.
If there's only a small news staff for one station, how much news is going to be on the other 5 channels. this is one of the biggest media ownership issues and it hasn't been discussed at all.
Turn it over Frank Blethen, fourth generation of a family owned newspaper, 109 years old. Dedicated to journalism, inclusion, diversity, public service, and not maximizing profits. I am probably the only newspaper owner working against newspapers being able to own more. Why am I the only one? Because most publishers are just bank managers whose only job is to soak the community for as much money as possible and not make any waves.
Luckily I have an enlightened family that believes this is important.
I believe American democracy is at risk. I believe there is hope, but only if the public continues to assert itself and motivates Congress to action.
As this media field evolves, the really critically question is: where will journalism come from? Quality independent journalism?
When he started his career 30 years ago, there were 700 daily newspapers in the US, almost all tightly connected to the communities and regions they served. The publishers were public, known and accountable. It wasn't all the best, but you could hold them accountable.
Today fewer than 20% of the daily newspapers are locally owned -- not chains or corporate-owned. The big chains don't care about local communities, don't care about democracy. this 30 year trend you can directly trace to bad public policy.
The big battle is with the FCC -- it's not typically connected, but it is. What the big owners want to wipe out is the cross-ownership band. Their strategy now that they've been beaten at taking it all at once is to go to the telecomm act rewrite and get rid of the cross-ownership ban. that would be a disaster for democracy.
One of the things that is important to remember: there is not an enemy out there in terms of the American public. Republicans aren't our enemy here, they are citizens like we are. The work he does in DC is primarily targeted at Republicans in Congress, because this is often thought of as a Democratic issue. I can't tell you enough that this has to be inclusive, and a nonpartisan issue. the biggest outreach we need is to Republicans.
The people we've worked with are very responsive once their educated on the issue. I think everyone is this room should be in constant communication with your own congressional delegation, especially Republicans who need more education on this issue.
If your representatives are on commerce commitees, they need to hear from you.
Don't overlook the state house, and don't over look your local mayors. These local folks understand that if they loose local media outlets, everyone suffers, they may loose their voice.
I am the voice of localism here. We get in a lot of these discussions when we talk about the networks, but it starts with the local. When you look at the loss of local newspaper and disappearance of local TV and radio news, we see people less connected with their community, civic engagement. People under 35 say "why should I get active, I don't see myself in this community?" Localism is where democracy starts.
Gene asks: what would happen if a TV owner bought the Seattle Times?
The staff would be cut maybe 45%, the circulation would be cut back. We have a strong committment to education and inclusion, and make sure there's lots of content dedicated to it. It's expensive to do, and it would be gone, looking like any Gannett paper, with canned content. There would be one monolithic voice in the community. No longer any diversity.
The argument these guys make in Congress is that if they could own a TV and newspaper they could save money, with just one crew covering city hall. They view having multiple takes as redundant and wasteful. then they stop covering it altogether.
Posted by paul at May 13, 2005 02:18 PM