Friday, September 15, 2006
Media ownership
Radio has been just about completely destroyed by the concentration of ownership allowed by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. (Well, I THINK it was '96, but you get the picture.) Cities no longer receive adequate public service programming, weather updates of local news coverage, since these are viewed as nothing more than red strikes against the bottom line.
And what do you think the regulators have done? Well, there was a rare bit of insight today from a number of national publications. Herre is a portion from the Chicago Tribune and the Associated Press.
This explains a lot of other problems the administration has been having, such as in Iraq. When we don't like the facts, cover up the facts and everything will be OK.
And what do you think the regulators have done? Well, there was a rare bit of insight today from a number of national publications. Herre is a portion from the Chicago Tribune and the Associated Press.
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," said Boxer spokeswoman Natalie Ravitz.
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.
This explains a lot of other problems the administration has been having, such as in Iraq. When we don't like the facts, cover up the facts and everything will be OK.
