mediageek

Category: media ownership & consolidation

  • Mark Cooper on the FCC’s Cross-Ownership Decision

    The Consumer Federation of America‘s Mark Cooper is arguably one of the smartest guys looking out for the public interest in media law and regulation. He has a very broad and deep understanding of the law and economics and how it applies to the spheres of policy and regulation. The Columbia Journalism Review interviewed him…

  • The Gospel of Kevin Martin

    Media Access Project’s Harold Feld has written an interesting analysis of FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s history of positions and decisions. Feld claims that Martin’s approach is very consistent, marked by a brand of free-market pragmatism he calls “First Church of the Market — Reformed”: Like most Republicans, Kevin Martin is all about the deregulated free…

  • Congress Says, Let’s Screw Up Broadcast Radio, too

    Never doubt the power of the lobby. Despite all the public uproar over the rising royalties levied on online radio broadcasters, paid to the recording industry, Congress is now considering putting similar royalties onto traditional broadcast radio. The fact that no royalties are paid by radio stations to the owners of the “performance” on a…

  • Newspaper-TV Combos & Lawsuit On the Way

    As expected, the FCC today voted down party lines to all but eliminate the cross-ownership rule [see PDF of the press release]. It was a last-ditch rush job by Chairman Martin since his lame duckness is about to set in with the end of the Bush administration. In his statement [PDF] Martin strenuously tries to…

  • FCC Ready to Rumble on Tuesday

    The FCC’s having a big meeting this Tuesday, Dec. 18. The biggest item on the agenda is Chairman Martin’s attempt to rush through the near-total dissolution of the newspaper-TV cross-ownership ban. It’s a plan he only revealed to the public and his fellow commissioners last month. As a result the public interest community, many Congresscritters…

  • Last FCC Ownership Hearing in Seattle?

    Word on the street is that the FCC will be holding its last public hearing on media ownership in Seattle in November. That would be only about a month before Chairman Martin hopes to ram through a decision on the proceeding, likely in direct contradiction to public sentiment, which otherwise urges keeping ownership limits in…

  • Headlines from the Oct. 19 radioshow: FCC Fines Two Broadcasters for Armstrong Williams’ Fake News; Martin Pushing for Quick Wrap Up to Ownership Rules Review

    These are the news headlines as read on the Oct. 19, 2007 edition of the mediageek radioshow. FCC Fines Two Broadcasters for Armstrong Williams’ Fake News The battle against fake news took a new turn this week when the FCC levied $76,000 in fines against two broadcast companies because they failed to inform viewers that…

  • FCC Sets Sensible Non-Comm FM License Limit Against the Wishes of Godcasters

    The application filing window for new full-power non-commercial FM stations opened yesterday (and somehow I totally spaced on mentioning it on yesterdays radioshow). On Wednesday, just two days in advance, the FCC finally decided to set a limit on the total number of applications that will be accepted, limiting it to 10 from any one…

  • Headlines from the Oct. 12 Radioshow

    These are the media news headlines as read on the Oct. 12 edition of the mediageek radioshow: Fake News Still Alive; FCC Relaxes Broadband Rules for AT&T; AT&T and Verizon Anti-Free-Speech; Wall Street Bullish on XM-Sirius Merger, NAB Asks FCC for More Time Fake News Still Alive Even though the FCC recently fined Comcast cable…

  • FCC Extends Comment Period on Media Ownership Studies

    Matthew Lasar notes that the FCC responded to media reform groups’ petition to extend the deadline for public comment on the ten ownership studies it released as part of the current review of media ownership rules. The Commission will use these studies to justify the changes it makes, so it is very important for members…