The Federal Communications Commission usually seems to pop up in conversations about exposed breasts, curse words and unnecessary censorship. Oftentimes, we forget how integral the FCC is in regulating not just what does or does not get aired, but who airs it.
With merely six mega corporations owning the majority of what we read, hear and watch, it's about time we remind ourselves.
In December, the FCC voted 3-2 along party lines to lift the long withstanding "newspaper-broadcast cross ownership rule." The rule prevented one company from owning a newspaper and a radio or TV station in the same market, opening the floodgates for consolidation and allowing mega media companies to swallow up independent outlets - meaning less diversity, competition, localism in the media and fewer voices heard.
According to nonprofit group Free Press, minorities own less than 8 percent of radio stations and 3 percent of TV stations but account for 33 percent of the U.S. population. Their already limited ownership will be further disproportionate when large media chains are able to buy out these smaller markets. As for localism, skimping on local coverage, laying off experienced reporters and chucking international bureaus are a priority for bottom-line big media companies.
The media landscape is astoundingly bleak. Since 1975, two-thirds of independent newspaper owners and one-third of independent TV owners have disappeared, according to the Writers Guild of America. Talking head personalities dominate broadcasts, spewing spin and feigned wisdom at a viewership amid breaking news bulletins that amount to second-rate tabloid fodder. Coverage of international events receives meager airtime and analysis while infotainment reigns supreme. As readership in newspapers decline, so do the numbers of papers around. Smaller outlets are being swallowed up by big chains and regurgitated as sexy, stylized smut rags. The text gets shorter, the ads gets bigger and citizens become less informed.
Proponents of media deregulation chalk the scarce number of media companies to the natural "will of the free market" and veil it under the guise of capitalism, contending that this is what audiences want. Simple supply and demand. I wonder how many of these people understand that media consolidation is a product of policy. Policy, as we saw in December, that is malleable to the will of the partisan majority.
Outraged by the rule change and the lack of public input in the proceedings, Congress has proposed the "Resolution of Disapproval," which would effectively nullify the agency's ban lift. Passed in the Senate with near unanimous bipartisan support, the bill will make its way to the House this month. In 2003, the FCC proposed a similar ownership relaxation rule change; it was met with public outrage and eventually overturned.
While the term "truthiness" has been assimilated into our vernacular; while trusted "war analysts"are being fed lines from the White House; while Fox News can claim to be "fair and balanced" with an unflinchingly straight face as their premiere "reporter" systemically distorts facts, it is time we remind ourselves that the airwaves belong to the public and the FCC works for us.
Living in a democracy, we rarely question our media system, taking for granted the implication of a free press as one that is not subservient to government. But, perhaps, it is in a democracy that we should question most. Control of information is more subtle and thus, requires a much more careful watch. For it is under the guise of this form of government and the ideal of capitalism that a few wealthy and powerful owners can push their agendas - sans criticism.
When a service or product becomes consolidated, it's usually a harbinger of bad news, but there are a few exceptions. The danger with media consolidation lies in the nature of the "product" - one of the most precious and integral facets of our understanding of society, our government and our world - information. When a handful of companies (and one whose mega-mogul owner is overtly partisan) get to decide which information gets aired (and how), it's time to remind ourselves of the facts and ask, what the FCC is going on?
Tuma is a journalism senior.
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