FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, the staunchest opponent against loosening media ownership rules on the Commission, released his own statement in answer to Chairman Powell’s announcment of a new “task force” to study the effect of media consolidation on localism.
The man says it best himself:
“This proposal is a day late and a dollar short. It highlights the failures of
the recent decision to dismantle ownership protections. To say that protecting localism was not germane to that decision boggles the mind. The ownership protections, as well as the other public interest protections that the Commission has dismantled over the past years, are all designed to promote localism, diversity and competition. We should have heeded the calls from
over 2 million Americans and so many Members of Congress expressing concern about the impact of media concentration on localism and diversity before we rushed to a vote. We should have vetted these issues before we voted. Instead, we voted; now we are going to vet. This is a
policy of ‘ready, fire, aim!’“We now hear that there may be localism issues after all. But what’s going to happen while we study localism over the next year? The answer is: deals, deals and more deals. The answer is more standardized and homogenized programming. The answer is more indecency on the people’s airwaves. The answer is less diversity of viewpoint and less coverage of local
issues. …”
Read the full press release yourself in a .pdf document.
You can also read Powell’s announcement of the media ownership task force in a .pdf doc.
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