FREEDOM, THE FOUNDERS & THE FCC

John Resnick sent us this exquisite bit of incoherence, Remarks of Jonathan Taplin, CEO of Intertainer, to the FCC Media Consolidation Hearing (PRNewswire, 4/28/03)

The following remarks are from Jonathan Taplin, CEO of Intertainer, to the FCC Media Consolidation Hearing, sponsored by the USC Center for Communication Law and Policy: [...]

[T]wo actions, killing the fairness doctrine and deregulating ownership rules have led us to a situation that even Barry Diller describes as a Media Oligopoly.

I believe that if the FCC and Congress continue to rollover for the Media Cartel, our Democracy is in peril. Two companies will own 80% of the nations radio stations. Five companies will own 80% of the nations television Broadcasting. Four companies will own 70% of the nations Cable systems. And they will fill these channels with content they own and exclude content they don't own and as Bruce Springsteen says; it will be "57 channels and nothing on".

Two vastly different ideas of what our future might look like stretch out before us. Down one road lies the Founders original conception of an independent media as a steward to our democracy. Down the other lies a world that can only be described by the word "Plutocracy". I believe the FCC has to postpone its June Deadline to decide on the ownership caps issue. It should then begin a comprehensive review of four issues:

1. Would maintaining and even strengthening existing ownership limits lead to a more democratic and pluralistic media system that would restore the community trusteeship nature of broadcasting licenses?

2. Should the Commission mandate that cable and satellite networks should also have a public service component in return for the anti-trust exemption given to their owners, the major MSO's and Media Conglomerates?

3. Is there any reason not to restore the Fairness Doctrine in order to ensure that issues of vital public importance be covered in a balanced and fair manner?

4. That the commission ensure that Broadband Internet providers be bound by the same "Common Carrier" statutes that have ensured that the narrowband Internet is an open system and not a "Walled Garden" owned by the 7 companies that control 80% of the broadband pipe to the home.

Obviously none of us can know the minds of the Founders with certainty, but can we agree that when they envisioned an independent media they did not think in terms of:

(1) Government Limits

(2) Government Mandates

(3) Government Doctrines

(4) That media being "bound" by Government. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 1, 2003 9:00 PM