Media News: Seattle FCC Hearing, ClearChannel Licenses Renewed

Seattle in a Hurry: Final FCC Media Ownership Rules Public Hearing on November 9th

The long series of mandated FCC public hearings on localism and ownership restrictions are drawing to a close: with the last localism hearing completed in Washington DC (on Halloween!) and the final ownership hearing scheduled for this Friday, November 9th in Seattle. This will bring to an end a period of enormous pressure on media advocacy organizations nationwide to mount an energetic response all over the country with virtually no advance notice. (FCC regulations state that notice of the time, date and exact location of "public" hearings must be released at least 5 working days in advance. They are consistently announced exactly 5 working days in advance, under the leadership of Kevin Martin). Please send the outreach announcement (http://www.media-alliance.org/article.php?story=20071022190709875) from our good Seattle friends Reclaim the Media (http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/) to any friends, family, or allies in the Pacific Northwest as they work feverishly to fill the Seattle Town Hall with people saying no to more media consolidation.

New Poll (duh) Confirms the Public is Opposed to Further Media Consolidation

The Media and Democracy Coalition is a nationwide partnership of media advocacy and reform groups throughout the country. (Media Alliance is a steering committee member). In preparation for the October 31st hearing in Washington DC, MDC commissioned a survey to explore how Americans view the news and media ownership. Unsurprisingly (in our opinion), the poll found that Americans broadly support limits on cross-ownership of media outlets and view the trend toward ownership consolidation with alarm. Given the broad rumors of FCC Chairman Martin's intentions to try (again) to ram through a relaxation in the ownership rules (which are pretty darned relaxed already), we have yet another example of government indifference to the will of the people. A similar attempt to reduce the regulations led to an outpouring of over 2 million postcards to Washington which prompted a congressional delay followed by the court case Prometheus vs. FCC. Download the survey on the home page of our website at http://www.media-alliance.org

We Didn't Un-Plug ClearChannel

The FCC released today their findings on the protest filed by Media Alliance and the Youth Media Council to deny the license renewal for local Clear Channel radio stations: KMEL, KYLD, KSJO and KNEW. While - believe us - you don't want to read the whole 34 page decision, (we will post it at some point), the gist of our complaint was that the stations provide insufficient public affairs programming, fail to provide reasonable public access to their files, lack mandated emergency preparedness capacity in the Bay Area, and broadcast offensive programming. Basically the FCC's response was that a three week study was insufficient to determine if the station broadcasted needed public affairs over the entire 8 year license term and that a "shock jock's" prank that resulted in a misdemeanor conviction (dressing as an escaped prisoner and knocking on the door of low-income residents asking for help removing his handcuffs) would be of more concern if it were a felony or at least multiple misdemeanors. The FCC did ding Clear Channel for $20,000 in penalties for misrepresentations on their renewal application. Read more here: (http://www.media-alliance.org/article.php?story=20051102143955647)