Sept. 14, 2006
PRESS RELEASE
Contact:
Craig Aaron, 202-265-1490, x25
Jen Howard, 202-265-1490, x22
FCC Buries Report Showing Local Owners Deliver More Local News
Ex-Chairman Powell tried to destroy report suggesting further media consolidation would hurt local TV news coverage
Groups call for independent investigation into FCC cover-up
WASHINGTON -- Former FCC Chairman Michael Powell buried a federal study that showed media consolidation is harmful to local news reporting. The 2004 report found that locally owned stations produced five minutes more local news coverage in a half-hour newscast than their consolidated competitors.
Powell commissioned the study hoping it would show that media consolidation didn’t negatively impact local communities. Upon seeing the results, Powell ordered that “every last piece” of the study be destroyed, according to a Wednesday report by the Associated Press.
“Throughout his tenure at the FCC, Michael Powell aided efforts by large media companies to buy up local news outlets,” said Josh Silver, executive director of Free Press, the national, nonpartisan media reform and policy group. “Had it seen the light of day, the FCC and its Big Media allies could no longer deny that locally owned media do a better job of covering local news. So he tried to hide it.”
The study - titled “Do Local Owners Deliver More Localism? Some Evidence from Local Broadcast News” - undercuts industry claims, as the FCC considers changing the number of television stations, radio stations and newspapers one company can own in a single market. Among the study’s findings:
· Locally owned stations also aired 3.5 more minutes’ worth of on-location local news reports than non-locally owned stations.
· Network owned and operated stations (those owned by ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) aired significantly less local news.
· Owners who controlled stations in multiple markets aired less local news content.
· Station owners who also control newspapers did not air more local news content.
· Owners who also controlled radio stations aired significantly less local TV news content.
The secret study was leaked to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D.Calif.) in advance of the Senate confirmation hearing for Powell's successor, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who voted to weaken longstanding media ownership rules in 2003.
A copy of the study is available at <http://www.freepress.net/docs/fcclocalnews.pdf>
Free Press, Consumers Union, Consumer Federation of America and Media Access Project have called on Martin to “immediately seek an independent investigation, through the Office of the Inspector General, to determine the circumstances under which the public was denied access to this important, taxpayer-funded research, the parties involved and the processes that may have allowed any record of its existence to be destroyed.”
The letter is available at <http://www.freepress.net/docs/fcclocalnewsletter.pdf>
News of the cover-up comes at a time when Chairman Martin seeks to hand over control of more local news outlets to massive media conglomerates by eliminating local ownership caps and the longstanding prohibition on newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership. The FCC has scheduled a public hearing on the possible changes in Los Angeles on Oct. 3.
"The FCC can no longer pretend Big Media does a better job of serving local communities," Silver said. "As millions of have told the FCC time and again, they want more local news and a diversity of voices on the public airwaves. Maybe now they'll finally start listening."
For more information, visit www.freepress.net and www.stopbigmedia.com
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Free Press (www.freepress.net) is a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media and involve the public in media policymaking. Through education, organizing and advocacy, we promote diverse and independent media ownership, strong public media and universal, affordable access to communications.