May 30, 2003
As the June 2nd date
approaches for the Federal Communication Committee's decision on
'relaxing' media consolidation rules, the Green Party joins more
than 18,000 individuals and organizations who've submitted public
comments overwhelmingly in opposition to media ownership in fewer
and fewer hands.
The Green Party reiterates
its serious concerns that the FCC drive to eliminate media ownership
rules will undermine the constitutional guarantee of freedom of
press and our commitment to democracy. The new rules will accelerate
an increasing consolidation of media ownership, further reducing
diversity of views and news presented to the American public.
Despite the profound
impact of the proposed rules, the Commission, led by Michael Powell
(son of Secretary of State Colin Powell), has refused to extend
the decision deadline or allow more than one public hearing. While
media lobbyists have sponsored hundreds of all-expense-paid junkets
for FCC Commissioners, holding a series of behind-closed-door meetings
with the FCC on the new rules, Michael Powell has announced in response
to public criticism, "the market is my religion".
"Envision Australian
Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation (Fox TV) controlling over-the-air
access to 90% of the US television audience and owning the largest
US satellite broadcast system," explains attorney and New York Green
Party spokesperson, Mark Dunlea, "and you'll get a picture of a
new media landscape about to be delivered courtesy of three Republican
votes and Powell-controlled FCC."
The respected, retired
newsman/editor, Arthur Rowse of the Washington Post, Boston Globe
and U.S. News and World Report, warns in his book Drive-By Journalism,
"the writers of the First Amendment didn't foresee how a privately
owned press could turn into a mammoth oligopoly more intent on enhancing
its power and profits than protecting freedom and democracy." Frank
Blethen, Publisher of the Seattle Times, with over three decades
newspaper experience, has testified to Congress that the Powell
proposal would "not only be a serious blow to America's independent
free press, it may be a fatal blow to our democracy."
The 'chilling effect'
of the proposed rules on editors and writers goes far beyond the
newsrooms, broadcast suites and publishing houses. If Powell has
his way, the situation will get worse; there will be little public
oversight remaining as megamedia companies rush for profits at the
expense of diverse views and democratic debate.
Robert McChesney, Professor
at the University of Illinois and co-founder of the media reform
group Free Press, www.mediareform.net,
and supporter of the Green Party's reform agenda, says, "This is
the classic case of organized money versus the people. Ninety-eight
percent of Americans oppose letting fewer and fewer companies own
more and more media, yet the Republican majority on the FCC is bound
and determined to ignore the public and deliver this windfall to
a handful of super-powerful corporate behemoths. The stench of corruption
harkens back to the Gilded Age, and the implications for our democracy
could not be more stark."
"Congress has been dozing while Michael Powell
drives the agenda", says Steve Schmidt from the Green Party's Platform
Committee. "If the FCC rules on June 2nd against the public interest
and for media consolidation with resulting loss of diversity, localism
and competition, it will be the responsibility of Congress to step
up and overrule the FCC."
Comments of the Green Party to the FCC http://www.gp.org/press/pr_01_10_03b.html
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