The Federal Communications Commission has voted to allow ownership of both a TV channel and a newspaper. The rule that prevented this dual ownership has been in effect since 1975.
The chairman of the FCC, Kevin Martin, cast the deciding vote which broke the tie stating it "may help to forestall the erosion in local news coverage".
I have lived in several news markets around the U.S. and in each of those markets there has never been less than three local TV news stations and never less than two major newspapers as well as a handful of community and regional newspapers.
Does this indicate an ‘erosion in local news coverage’? I don’t think so. I am surprised that the FCC believes this.
Where I live, along the Rocky Mountains, there are four local news stations that currently broadcast so often in their morning (5 AM – 7 AM), afternoon (11 AM – 12 PM), evening (4 PM – 7 PM) and late night (10 PM – 11 PM) time slots that one would have to be actively trying to not learn what happens in this town.
This town has two major newspapers that do an outstanding job of presenting even more in depth coverage than the TV stations here.
Between TV and news print, so much of the local news is repeated that you must be blind to think there is an erosion of local news coverage taking place here.
It is shocking that the FCC would set the stage for any media empire to be in control of two of the largest purveyors of news, TV and newspaper. This does not support the diversity of opinion that the 1975 rule sought to enforce.
Allowing a handful of people to decide what news stories are presented and how those news stories are presented creates an atmosphere of mistrust and the potential for abuse. Opinions are going to either be stifled or slanted to match the owners political beliefs.
It is true that with the proliferation of cable TV and the internet we now have an even greater idea-base from which to color our world view, leaving these two media sources as the only real choice does not serve diversity.
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