Five Things You Should Know About the FCC’s Media Consolidation Plan

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Tuesday November 27, 2012 · 6:41 AM PST

2012/11/27 · 06:41

The Federal Communications Commission is charging ahead with plans to allow more media consolidation with a vote expected by the middle of December. This rule change seems custom made for Rupert Murdoch who has set his sights set on buying the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune — the major papers in the nation's second- and third-largest cities.

Right now that is illegal because News Corp already owns TV stations in those cities, but the FCC's proposed rule change would clear the way for Murdoch to expand his media empire. Worse, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is hoping the agency can pass these changes with little public input and no transparency.

Here are five things you need to know about the FCC's giveaway to big media.

Josh Stearns

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Thursday October 04, 2012 · 1:56 PM PDT

2012/10/04 · 13:56

Thanks to last night’s presidential debate, public media funding is back in the spotlight again.

Let’s be clear: Cutting federal funding for NPR and PBS will hardly make a dent in the budget but will have a huge impact on jobs and journalism in local communities.

Josh Stearns

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Saturday June 09, 2012 · 10:04 AM PDT

2012/06/09 · 10:04

After becoming the epicenter for press suppression and journalist arrests over the last nine months, the NYPD is trying to rewrite history and pretend like nothing ever happened.

On Friday, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and NYPD spokesman Paul Browne discussed the now-infamous raid on Zuccotti Park last November. In an exclusive interview with the Queens Chronicle, Browne is reported to have said that only one journalist was arrested during the operation. He called stories to the contrary a “total myth.” He continued, arguing that “Occupy Wall Street protesters were forging press credentials in an effort to get through the police lines ... but that doesn’t mean actual reporters were arrested.”

Josh Stearns

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Friday May 11, 2012 · 6:05 PM PDT

2012/05/11 · 18:05

According to press reports, Sen. Jim DeMint and Rep. Doug Lamborn are circulating letters in the Senate and House to rally support for cutting all federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and its nearly 1,300 local stations. The letters argue that the $445 million CPB budget is an “enormous” cost to taxpayers.

Josh Stearns

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Wednesday November 16, 2011 · 5:41 AM PST

2011/11/16 · 05:41

For the past two months I have been tracking journalist arrests at Occupy protests around the country. Today, Nov. 15, was the worst day yet in terms of police suppression of the press.

It all began in the middle of the night, when police moved in at 1 a.m. to forcibly evacuate Zuccotti Park, the original Occupy Wall Street encampment. Not long after the park raid began, journalists on Twitter began to report that they were being blocked from covering the police actions.

Josh Stearns

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Tuesday August 23, 2011 · 6:18 AM PDT

2011/08/23 · 06:18

Two recent reports paint a rosy picture of local TV news. Stations are launching new programs, jobs are coming back and revenues are up. Bolstering these reports are stats from the Radio Television Digital News Association, which called 2010 a record year for local news.

I just wish that were the whole picture. However, neither of these reports fully grapples with the impact covert consolidation — in which a station signs away control of its newsroom to a competitor — is having on the media ecosystem.

Josh Stearns

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Thursday July 14, 2011 · 9:31 AM PDT

2011/07/14 · 09:31

A national TV chain uses bogus copyright claims and legal threats in an attempt to silence a non-profit that exposed the backroom deals that the company was using to consolidate local media around the county. Instead they proved just how bad too much media power in the hands of one company can be.

Josh Stearns

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Thursday July 07, 2011 · 12:12 PM PDT

2011/07/07 · 12:12

Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit overturned the Federal Communications Commission’s attempt to weaken its ownership rules and allow big media companies to buy up even more local outlets.

Josh Stearns

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Wednesday May 25, 2011 · 6:22 AM PDT

2011/05/25 · 06:22

Nonprofit news outlets across the country can now apply to become a local news partner of Comcast/NBC. These new partnerships could mean a new funding stream for nonprofit local journalism, but they come with some serious caveats. After all, this is the same company that pulled funding from a small non-profit youth media group last week for tweeting a message that the company didn’t like. Just imagine what could happen if a Comcast-funded news outlet runs a story counter to the company’s bottom line.

Josh Stearns

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Friday May 20, 2011 · 8:04 AM PDT

2011/05/20 · 08:04

Last week, Comcast highlighted how broken our policymaking is when it hired a sitting FCC Commissioner to become one of its chief lobbyists, just months after she rubber-stamped their merger with NBC-Universal. This week, Comcast threatened to cut funding to a Seattle-based youth media nonprofit after the organization tweeted about Comcast’s new hire:

“OMG! @FCC Commissioner Baker voted 2 approve Comcast/NBC merger & is now lving FCC for A JOB AT COMCAST?!?http://su.pr/... #mediajustice”

You've got to see the organization's fantastic video response to Comcast below, and find out how this action shines a spotlight on Comcast's long history impinging on free speech.

Josh Stearns

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Friday May 13, 2011 · 12:17 PM PDT

2011/05/13 · 12:17

Late Wednesday night, it was revealed that Federal Communications Commissioner Meredith Atwell Baker was leaving her post to become one of Comcast’s head lobbyists. This comes just four months after she voted to approve that company’s massive takeover of NBC-Universal. And now it seems that Congress is paying attention.

Josh Stearns

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday March 15, 2011 · 10:45 AM PDT

2011/03/15 · 10:45

Some members of Congress have been spending so much time fretting about what’s going on in the executive offices at NPR that they have lost sight of the local people, local jobs, and local organizations in their districts that depend on public broadcasting. Today we are sending a wake-up call to Capitol Hill.

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