Professors at Penn State (my alma mater) have just released a new study showing that the FCC's public hearings on media ownership over the last two years were pretty much just a dog and pony show to make it look like they were listening to the public.

Jonathan Obar and Amit Schejter at Penn State's Institute for Information Policy published this report and point out that "the FCC's actions suggest that they had little interest in what the public had to say. This indifference towards the public's input was made evident not only in the way the events were run, but also by the fact that references to public opinion were almost non-existent in the documentation of the final decision."

Common Cause published a white paper in December co-authored by Gregory Rose and Harold Feld that made recommendations about how to improve processes at the FCC so that the public would actually be heard. This new report by Obar and Schejter is complimentary to our report.

You can read more about the Penn State Report at Free Press's blog.

December 18th, 2007.
Eerily similar to June 2nd, 2003.

Even up against overwhelming opposition from the public. Even with Congress coming together in a bipartisan fashion to oppose it. Even with no good reason to do it.

The FCC votes 3-2 on party lines to allow further consolidation of the media.

"The FCC still doesn't seem to get it: Media consolidation is bad for America," said Bob Edgar, president of Common Cause. "Today's vote to allow greater media consolidation is merely a handout to big business at the expense of the public. For Americans to get the information they need to participate in our democracy, we need more diverse sources of information - not fewer."

Today, Common Cause released a white paper in collaboration with Harold Feld of the Media Access Project and Gregory Rose of Econometrics Research and Analysis.

The report is titled "Putting the Public Back in Public Interest:
Painless Reforms to Improve the FCC" and outlines numerous problems with processes that the Federal Communications Commission uses to make decisions that impact the country's media.

You can read the entire report by following the link above, or read the press release here.

The report lays out some very simple changes the FCC can undertake that will make it function more in the public interest. Even implementing just a few of the recommendations would go a long way to restoring faith in the FCC.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin was pulled in front of the Senate Commerce Committee yesterday for an oversight hearing. He was lectured by the Senators about his rush to judgment to consolidate the media even though neither Congress nor the American public support the move. Even GOP Senator Ted Stevens (famous for his "series of tubes" comments about the internet) thinks this decision should be delayed.

Martin's response? "So?"

He's still planning on holding a vote on Tuesday the 18th that would allow for newspapers and TV stations all across America to merge.

If you think the media is bad now, just wait until after these mergers happen. We'll have fewer viewpoints, less diversity and lower quality of news. And we rely on the local media for the information we need to make informed decisions in our democracy.

Perhaps it will all work out well if Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole's baby decide to run for office...

Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) announced today that they  will investigate the Federal Communications Commission, accusing its chairman of "possible abuse of power" and a failure to operate fairly and openly in handling proposed cable TV and media ownership regulations.

Let's see, FCC Chairman Martin announces public hearings only a few days before they are to happen, he withholds information from his colleagues until the last minute, he gives very little time for public comment on proposals, and systematically gives information to industry lobbyists before the public has access to it.

Thank you Dingell and Stupak for stepping in on this. The FCC could function in the public interest. In fact, it's supposed to. But it appears there needs to be oversight from Congress to make that happen.

The Firestorm is raging on, but we don't mean the ones in California. We mean the one that Senator Dorgan (D-SD) said would happen as soon as the public heard that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was trying to loosen media ownership rules without public input.

We asked you to contact your members of Congress to have them hold the FCC accountable.

Yesterday, more than 40 members of Congress signed onto a letter circulated by Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) demanding that the FCC take more time with this issue and seriously listen to the concerns of the American public and not just media industry lobbyists.

This comes on the heels of a press conference by Senator Dorgan and Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) where they stood together in a bi-partisan show of resolve that they would work to prevent further media consolidation. Similar letters have also been sent to the FCC from several of the candidates for President. Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) have also sent a letter along the same lines.

Our efforts are working extremely well! Let's keep the pressure on. The last thing we need for our democracy is increased media consolidation!

You've got to be kidding me. Talk about a process that is an insult to the idea of public input in important decisions!

Chairman Kevin Martin of the Federal Communications Commission announced last night that there will be a public hearing on media localism in DC next Wednesday.

They gave less than a week's notice! For that matter, it is going to be during the day. Who in the public is supposed to be able to give their input? You would have to take off a day from work, and you would have to schedule it on short notice.

Basically this is a hearing for show. It's so that Martin can say "we held hearings for public input" even though he knows full well the people who can attend it are mostly lobbyists.

This just goes to show that the FCC chair is really not interested in public input.

It's sad.

Back in 2003, the FCC voted in secret to allow one company to control up to eight radio stations, three television stations, the local newspaper and the cable system in a single city.

Could this happen again? It's completely possible.

While the FCC has received hundreds of thousands of comments on media consolidation and even held several hearings, it sounds like the chairman of the FCC, Kevin Martin plans to draft new rules and schedule a vote on them as early as mid-December.

There would be NO public input period on the details of these rules!

Why is this so important to our democracy? Because we get the information we use to make our decisions in our democracy through the media. If the media is controlled by a small number of businesses, especially in a particular market area, differing viewpoints can be stifled. Full information might not be available. Media functions best when there is competition for the best coverage of stories. And democracy functions best when we get as full information as possible.

A healthy democracy requires a diverse and robust media.