The Federal Communication Commission’s decision to relax decades-old rules regarding media ownership was met by predictions from Democrats and Republicans of democracy’s upheaval at the hands of corporate media giants. But the Senate Commerce Committee is saving the day, having approved a repeal of the new rules and taking the media back to the glory days of, well, last year.
Or so the story goes. If this deregulation actually dealt a blow to democracy, it should be vehemently opposed. But that’s the kicker — it doesn’t.
The FCC’s decision won’t contribute to media homogenization or the ignorance of American voters. Right after the 3-2 vote that allows media corporations to have 45 percent penetration — up from 35 percent — in a single market, people all across the political spectrum blew whistles, predicting a flood of media mergers on the AOL-Time Warner scale. In reality, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 paved the way for the current small-screen situation: Six corporations already own nearly all of network television. Big media television networks had a virtual monopoly of the market previously, and don’t stand to gain much from this ruling.
But the penetration issue is on the undercard in this fight. The biggest gripes come from those arguing against the other part of the FCC’s decision: cross-ownership, which is the ability of one company to own both a newspaper and broadcast channel in the same market. The ruling reverses laws banning such affiliations.
Much like the penetration decision, this clause won’t undermine democracy, either. If a company owned more than one media outlet in a small market, then perhaps the FCC might have to flex its regulatory muscles, and the commissioners included guidelines on small-market cross ownership. Thirty-one small-market cities across the nation will keep the old regulations, and the limits only increase if the market grows in size. With provisions such as this, the FCC safeguards consumers against potential anti-trust issues. Besides, in today’s media market, Internet and satellite media represent an ever-growing percentage of alternative sources, adding even more diversity to a growing sector.
The days of single-market media monopolies are over. The laws governing their existence were created in 1978 — before wide use of cable television, the Internet and satellite receivers. The FCC was correct in its effort to bring the laws up to speed with the current realities, and Congress has no business repealing them.
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