15 Steps Toward Media Reform
Since media self-reform has proven unsuccessful, the following
are essential measures that must be taken by Congress, the President,
the FCC, the FTC, the Justice Department anti-trust division,
state licensing boards and state and local authorities if the
public is to regain access to the full range of real news, reduce
media conglomeration and commercial influence on news content,
and make available better quality news media for the benefit of
citizens' information in a free democracy:
1) Convene a nonpartisan, non-governmental, non-corporate
commission of citizens to study the present and desired future
status of the country's news media. Its final report must be frank,
specific and unsparing of any special corporate interests or the
status quo. How this commission will be chosen and administered
is a major riddle, since it cannot involve government.
2) The National News Council, which existed from 1973 to 1984,
should be revived. Supported by foundations, the Council heard
serious complaints about specific cases of national news media
performance. While its public recommendations were not mandatory,
the Council provided the public with a voice and the news media
with an alert to weaknesses and abuses. The Council must also
design a means to address abuses in local news media. We suggest
for the public's information that the Council's recommendations
be announced on the subject broadcast news media or printed in
the newspapers and magazines in question. A major PR campaign
will be necessary to give the Council enough public respect and
influence that the news media will feel voluntarily obliged to
comply.
3) The Telecommunications Act of 1996 should be rolled back
and replaced with new law that can begin to break up the most
egregious conglomerates, reinstate mandatory local community access,
and put teeth into the requirement that stations demonstrate their
record of public interest programming when they apply for renewal
of licenses. License challenge procedures must be made more accessible
to civic groups dissatisfied with their local radio and TV broadcast
stations. (Networks are not regulated but their local affiliates
are.) The AOL & Time Warner merger and others like it should
be examined carefully for its effects on quality of news information.
4) Public broadcasting must be financed through a new, nonpolitical
system, as is done for the best systems of other democracies.
Today, non-commercial broadcasting depends on appropriations by
federal and state legislatures that themselves are heavily beholden
to corporate interests. A small surtax on all consumer electronic
equipment--computers, VCR's, TV sets, radios and the like--would
be miniscule at the individual retail level but could provide
funding for a full-fledged multi-channel radio and TV non-commercial
system, and for a substantial national broadcast news and documentary
operation.
5) The Federal Communications Commission has shifted from
its original purpose of protecting consumers against unfair industry
behavior to an opposite role of protecting media industries from
their consumers and promoting their conglomeration. The championing
of the 1996 Telecom Act by the FCC was a perfect example of this
role reversal. The FCC must be reconstituted to include specified
representatives from nonpartisan groups like the Parent Teachers
Association and others, as well as Presidential appointees.
6) The Fairness Doctrine and equal time provisions must be
restored. The answer to G. Gordon Liddy, Rush Limbaugh and Oliver
North is not censorship but restoration of the public's right
of timely reply on the stations and at the times those and other
shows are broadcast. From the beginning of commercially licensed
broadcasting in 1927, the Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters
to devote a reasonable amount of time to discussion of controversial
issues of public importance, and to permit reasonable opportunities
for opposing views to be heard. The Fairness Doctrine obliged
stations to provide reasonable time for response by those attacked
in discussions. These provisions were stripped away during the
Reagan administration. The equal time provision in essence said
that in the 45 days before an election, stations must make time
available to opposing candidates on roughly the same time basis,
whether for paid time or for public service campaign discussions.
7) Restrictions on time for commercials shown during newscasts
were in effect until the Reagan administration dropped them in
the mid 1980's. The restrictions on commercials should be restored
to reduce some of the news media's incentive to narrow the truth
in the news and to cater to corporate interests. However, stockholders
will resist, because news shows and news channels such as MSNBC
or CNN are highly profitable.
7a) To address the problem in #7, we need a parallel non-commercial
public information system, or several of them, financed by consumer
subscription sign ups, to compete with commercial news media channels
and outlets for consumer attention. This is essentially the same
idea as item #4. Other means of financing might include a small
surtax on all consumer electronic equipment, as noted in #4.
8) The auctioning of broadcast frequencies to stations implies
transfer of the airwaves to private ownership--but the public
owns the airwaves. Frequencies should be granted, as in the past,
on credible promises made and kept of public service. Let the
FCC do what basic public ownership of the airwaves implies--grant
stations licenses for a limited time, conditional upon their general
performance as good citizens in their communities.
9) Make it routine to notify citizens of local market broadcast
license renewals. All stations in a state have their renewal come
up in the same year. As the date approaches, existing holders
of licenses asking for renewal should be required to show public
evidence of what they have done in the past to serve the interests
of the public.
10) This country needs inexpensive licensing of low-power,
city- and neighborhood-range radio and TV stations. Japan has
them and so can the U.S. As it is, local communities have been
excluded from the air by national broadcasters. The FCC has recently
enacted new regs to allow low-power neighborhood broadcasting
up the seven miles. Keep an eye on these developments, however,
for the potential of a negative backfire in socially intolerant
communities wherein local broadcasting capacity could be used
to spread ideas of hate.
11) A majority of local townships are served by only one cable
company which obviously means there is no competitive pressure
to increase quality of programming and community service or to
maintain reasonable cable rates. Community-wide voter approval
of monopoly franchise renewal is suggested by Mr. Bagdikian, but
voters, especially in rural areas, are not likely to nix their
only cable source. Several cities in the midwest have wired their
own cable and Internet systems in direct competition with private
companies like TCI and Cox, forcing those companies to improve
community service and reduce rates. These cities are taking a
risk by entering this technical world and could be bypassed by
satellite or other developments. As noted in #10, whether municipal
control of media works fairly in the interest of all in some socially
intolerant communities is a serious question, as well.
12) Paid political advertising should be banned from American
broadcasting. In the two months before elections, every station
should be required to provide prime time hours for local and national
candidates, with fifteen-minute minimums to avoid slick sound
bites without content.
13) Teach serious media literacy in public schools, using
independently created curricula. Some are already available and
others are being developed. The average American child will spend
more time in front of a TV set than in front of a teacher. The
young are targets for commercial materialism. They need to know
how important an influence the media are in their lives and how
to analyze the media and its news presentations.
14) Political candidates should take up the cause of media
reform and run on it. Write to any running candidates to encourage
them to speak up for media reform.
15) More citizens should join and contribute to various media
reform groups like the Center for Media Education, Fairness and
Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), and the Institute for Alternative
Journalism. There are other group but these can lead interested
citizens to specific action and other action groups.
Media Reform