News » October 9, 2007

FCC Rocks Chicago, Chicago Rocks Back

At the recent FCC hearing in the Windy City, citizens came out in droves to voice their displeasure over the media landscape

By Jessica Pupovac

KRS-ONE shakes hands with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, as Jonathan Adelstein (r) looks on.

When Federal Communications Commissioners (FCC) Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps arrived in Chicago the night before the September 20 FCC public hearing, the two headed straight for Delilah’s, a hipster bar on the city’s north side, where Adelstein joined local punk legend John Langford on the harmonica.

That’s not the only thing that distinguishes Copps and Adelstein from their fellow commissioners.

Every U.S. president appoints three of the five FCC commissioners from his (or her) party, with the other two seats reserved for the minority party. Adelstein and Copps, the token Democrats on the board, have consistently championed Net neutrality, community access to low-power radio signals and caps for how many media outlets one company can own in a given market. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has done anything but.

After the Telecommunications Act of 1996 deregulated radio ownership, media giants gobbled up their smaller counterparts, which, according to the FCC’s own data, has transferred control of the airwaves into the hands of a powerful few.

Martin has lobbied hard in recent years to extend the joys of deregulation to the television industry and lift restrictions on “cross-ownership” that prevent any one company from owning too many newspapers, radio stations and television stations in a single market.

Congress created the FCC in 1934 to ensure that media companies act as “public trustees,” serving the needs and interests of the local community as a form of payment for their free access to public airwaves. But, as Copps said during his opening statements at the Chicago hearing, “for the past 25 years, the FCC has been asleep at the switch.”

Chicago is a microcosm of the state of the media across the country. People of color make up 63 percent of Chicago’s population but own only 5 percent of the city’s radio and TV stations. Nationally, according to a recent study by media watchdog group Free Press, people of color make up 35 percent of the overall population, but own only 3 percent of TV stations and 8 percent of radio stations.

“Is it any wonder why the depictions of minorities in our media are so often distorted?” Copps asked the crowd of 800-plus at the hearing. “Why their issues get scant coverage? Why their contributions to the good things happening in America are so seldom even mentioned on the air? Let’s be frank, ownership matters. Truth be told, ownership rules.”

This isn’t news to the FCC, which reported in 1995 that steps needed to be taken to correct the race and gender imbalance in media ownership. In 2002, the commission reported that the 1996 law led to a 35-percent decrease in the number of radio station owners. Yet, in 2003, they passed a law to extend deregulation of the radio industry and loosen “cross-ownership” caps regulating the television and newspaper industries.

However, that same year, a federal appellate court stopped the FCC dead in its tracks, declaring the loosening of caps as “inconsistent with the commission’s obligation to make broadcast spectrum available to all people ‘without discrimination on the basis of race.’” It ordered the agency to try again.

In response, the FCC decided to hold a series of six public hearings to solicit community feedback on “localism” and “diversity” in the media before it moved to deregulate any further. Chicago was the fifth in the series, and citizens came out in droves to participate.

In a phone interview after the event, Adelstein said, “In Chicago, the real seething concern in the minority community came through loud and clear, particularly by some of the artists who spoke.”

One of the most provocative was hip-hop legend KRS-One, who charged that the criminalization of black culture on radio stations is a matter of “public safety.”

“We’re not gangstas, we’re not pimps, hos, thugs,” he said. “This is not who we are, but this is what we’re getting advertised as. Police officers listen to the radio … and when I walk down the street, they’re going to think that’s me.”

Other musicians complained of the difficulty of getting exposure on local radio stations, especially when consolidation has led to executives in far-away corporate offices—and often in cahoots with major labels—deciding local play lists.

Big Rap, owner of CWAL Records, said, “The 1996 act has nearly destroyed small record labels.” He mentioned a local R&B DJ who “wants $5,000 to play your song in the mix show. No independent record labels have that kind of money.”

More than 200 people spoke at the hearing, voicing their grievances about, and proposing changes to, the FCC policy.

Sylvia Rivera, general manager of Radio Arte, blasted the rampant stereotyping of the Latino population in the mainstream media. “Turn on the Spanish-language TV and you get telenovelas,” she said. “You get sexualized images of our women.” Meanwhile, the Spanish-language radio, she said, is laden with “sexual innuendos” and “homophobic rhetoric.”

“If you came here to find out if community issues are treated with sensitivity and intelligence,” she told the commissioners, “the answer is no.”

The latest FCC proposal, crafted by Chairman Martin, would make a bad situation worse. The provision aims to allow one company to run the major daily newspaper, eight radio stations and up to 18 television stations in the same market by the time the “digital transition” is completed in 2009.

Adelstein, however, has proposed the creation of a bipartisan, independent panel to investigate minority media ownership before the chairman’s measure is called to a vote. The idea, announced in Chicago, has already garnered support from some members of Congress, including Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Rep. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.).

“People need to organize and give us the benefit of knowing what the public’s view of the public interest should be,” Adelstein says, “rather than letting it be determined by self-interested companies that seek to profit by using the public airwaves.”

Chairman Martin, who met with executives from the Chicago Tribune on his way to the hearing, doesn’t seem eager to put any obstacles in the way of big media.

According to Rudy Brioche, legislative adviser to Adelstein, “the word on the street” is that Martin will call the matter to a vote “before the end of the first quarter 2008—due to the presidential primary season and the effective motivation efforts of the media democracy movement.”

Media reform activists hope that the Chicago hearing left a lasting impression on the two new commissioners, Deborah Tate and Robert McDowell, who are still “on the fence,” according to Yolanda Hippensteele, outreach director for Free Press. “There’s no mistaking what the public thinks about media consolidation,” she says. “They think it has gone too far at the expense of too many. The question is whether the FCC is listening.”

• Help In These Times publish more articles like this. Donate today!
• Subscribe today and save 46% off the newsstand price!

• subscribe to print magazine

• stay in touch with our email newsletter

  Subscribe to our regular weekly e-mail newsletter. It's packed with updates on recent and upcoming stories, events, campaigns and things every progressive should be informed about.

   

• email this article to a friend

  Your Name Your Email Recipient Email

  Personal message Thought you might be interested in this article from In These Times.

   

  Please help us prevent spam by verifying the word you see in the image above

  Send to multiple recipients. Just separate each email address with a comma.

• Reader Comments

  “After the Telecommunications Act of 1996 deregulated radio ownership, media giants gobbled up their smaller counterparts, which, according to the FCC’s own data, has transferred control of the airwaves into the hands of a powerful few.”

  The exact point of the law. Damn Bill Clinton for signing it.

  “Congress created the FCC in 1934 to ensure that media companies act as “public trustees,” serving the needs and interests of the local community as a form of payment for their free access to public airwaves. But, as Copps said during his opening statements at the Chicago hearing, “for the past 25 years, the FCC has been asleep at the switch.” “

  No, “asleep at the switch” is too soft, as though they were merely incompetent instead of complicitous in the gathering of more and more media control into fewer and fewer hands.

  “This isn’t news to the FCC, which reported in 1995 that steps needed to be taken to correct the race and gender imbalance in media ownership.”

  Smokescreen. By hauling out everybody’s favorite issues to clamor about, the Big Media “trust” could still develop with little public awareness or interest, as long as their most powerful elements threw us bones by appearing more “sensitive” to gender and race issues. A tactic of distraction that unfortunately worked too well.

  “The latest FCC proposal, crafted by Chairman Martin, would make a bad situation worse. The provision aims to allow one company to run the major daily newspaper, eight radio stations and up to 18 television stations in the same market by the time the “digital transition” is completed in 2009.”

  This is more the meat of the matter. This sort of trend is most especially distressing in the area of journalism and news reporting. When just a few organizations control what is investigated, what is reported, and who gets to deliver their message to the public, journalistic integrity is bound to go right out the door.

  “Chairman Martin, who met with executives from the Chicago Tribune on his way to the hearing, doesn’t seem eager to put any obstacles in the way of big media.”

  That’s Big Media. And why would he? The faction that includes them, employs him.

  Some sort of anti-trust law has got to be brought to bear. The sad thing is, too many people will not give a damn, as long as they are entertained and people of the demographic they personally identify with are portrayed in a semi-complimentary, “sensitive” fashion. Lulled into complacency, while the information, commentary, and news reporting that would enable them to make the kind of informed decisions that a citizen in a democratic republic ought to be able to make is filtered through a small clutch of corporate Boards’ perceptions of the best way to increase market-share.

  Diabolical in its subtlety, I must admit. They’re masters of mass psychology. Very formidable foes.

  Posted by Kuya on Oct 10, 2007 at 8:36 AM

  Jessica,  I do some work with NAB and I followed the Chicago hearing pretty closely.  I agree with you that minority ownership needs to be address. 

  But I think free competition is equally important because it keeps the debate current and vibrant.  I think we can keep both of these ideals strong.

  There was a good column in the Tribune from the Illinois Broadcaster Assoc. pres laying out some ideas.  He noted that broadcasters have asked Congress to revive a dormant program giving tax credits and benefits to stations that sell properties to women and minorities.  The program has worked in the past and can work in the future.

  Here’s the column if you’re interested: http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/tuesday/chi-oped09 918broadcasterssep18,0,6268536.story

  Posted by Chinook on Oct 10, 2007 at 10:47 PM

• register a new account »Posting Security

  To participate in our forums, please register for a free account.

  Username Password

    Remember me
  

  Retreive lost password »

Also featured Harry Potter and the Muggle Activists
Prison Breakdown
The Left’s Identity Crisis

Full contents
Previous issues
Subscribe and save!

Also by Jessica Pupovac

• Same-Sex Marriage in the Heartland
  Iowa becomes the first state in the Midwest to extend the right to marry to gays and lesbians.Posted on April 3, 2009
• The Right’s New Attack on Voters
  Last April, as a national debate raged over whether Indiana's voter ID law… morePosted on June 9, 2008
• The Push to Privatize PEMEX
  Halliburton is licking its chops at the prospect of Mexico's state-owned Petróleos Mexicanos… morePosted on May 12, 2008
• Big Oil Imperils Polar Bears
  Just when it seemed like things couldn't get any worse for the polar… morePosted on March 13, 2008
• Silenced in the Barracks
  The Pentagon fails to protect U.S. troops from sexual abuse Posted on March 3, 2008