Tribune Company (TRB) is on the verge of an $8.2 billion deal to go private -- pending a decision by the FCC. Tribune needs the FCC to grant it a permanent waiver from rules that prevent a single company from operating both a major newspaper and a television station in a single city. Tribune currently has cross-ownerships in five media markets.
The Chicago-based company, which owns 11 daily newspapers and 23 TV stations, has temporary waivers to operate broadcast and newspaper outlets in the same cities despite the ban. With a sale, it would no longer have a grandfathered exemption from cross-ownership rules in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Hartford CT, and Fort Lauderdale-Miami.
Although the official FCC deadline for public input expired, the Teamsters Union, Media Access Project and Georgetown Law Center's Institute for Public Representation each filed comments demonstrating a mutual concern that this transaction would result in further suppression of local and diverse views.
The underlying concern that drives this is that media concentration is bad for the public and diversification of media promotes democracy," comments Andy Schwartzman, President of MAP. "Tribune seems to think that one set of rules should apply to it and another set of rules should apply to everyone else. The FCC's rules clearly contemplate divestiture of this cross-ownership whenever a sale takes place."
The most recent events took place on the Hill, where Democratic leaders, including Sen. Dick Durbin (IL) met with real estate mogul Sam Zell, a Chicago billionaire eager to take Tribune Co. private, along with Dennis FitzSimons, Tribune Chairman and CEO. Lawmakers are pushing for the FCC to issue a decision but are not making recommendations either way.
Senator Durbin said in more than 20 years in Illinois politics, he has seen no problems arising from cross-ownership in Chicago, where the Tribune owns the Chicago Tribune, WGN radio and TV stations.
"I don't find any monopoly power being pushed into the market, and I think most people in the market feel...that they're really good sources of news," he said. "The world of media is changing with the internet, the diminished role of newspapers, with the proliferation of television stations, cable and network," he added. "We have to take care that we don't judge today's market with yesterday's standards."
Unable to predict the future of this enormous transaction, a few things are certain: 1. This media conglomeration will bend the rules that for over thirty years have acted to limit this exact form of cross-ownership; 2. The employee owners will have no voice in the governance of this mammoth operation; 3. Recent studies address the reality of media consolidation and its adverse effect on diverse ownership and local views.
The proposed Tribune ownership structure may well impede the FCC's mission to protect diverse viewpoints and promote localism," said James P. Hoffa, General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. "Including a voice for employee owners is necessary to tie the interests of the company to the local communities it serves."
Common Cause has already
staged a popular protest against Tribune Co.'s attempt to bend the rules in Los Angeles. Now, with an FCC decision pending, it is time once gain to raise public outcry and take action.
