Background on FCC Rules: FCC Opponents Speak Out

Critics of media consolidation and the FCC rules come from different backgrounds.  Here's what some of them had to say:

• "The overwhelming amount of news and entertainment comes via broadcast and print. Putting those outlets in fewer and bigger hands profits the few at the cost of the many. Does that sound un-conservative? Not to me. The concentration of power — political, corporate, media, cultural — should be anathema to conservatives. The diffusion of power through local control, thereby encouraging individual participation, is the essence of federalism and the greatest expression of democracy."
  - William Safire, New York Times, May 22, 2003

• "Without diversity of ownership, our meaningful alternatives to syndicated shows and infomercials – alternatives like local news and public affairs programs – are in jeopardy."
  - Katherine Grincewich, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, June 13, 2003

• "Most cities have only one major newspaper to begin with. Add ownership of the dominant local TV station, the top AM station and FM bands and the local cable TV provider. Then do the same thing in 20 or 50 cities, and you see how a multibillion-dollar corporation corners the market in the marketplace of ideas. Minority or unpopular causes – think of woman's suffrage in 1914 or civil rights in 1955 – would be downplayed or dismissed. That's no way to run a democracy."
  - Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president, National Rifle Association, July 18, 2003

• "The gathering of more and more outlets under one owner clearly can be an impediment to a free and independent press."
  - Walter Cronkite, Former CBS anchorman, March 24, 2003

• "The consolidation of ownership of local stations into the hands of a few large corporations has served to limit the variety of viewpoints speaking to important issues both at the local and national level. Allowing these networks also to control local news coverage makes for not only less diversity, but heightens the potential for manipulation of public opinion."
  - The National Council of Churches, May 23, 2003

• "Almost 80 percent of families rely on their hometown papers and TV for such local information. People can't turn to a national news network of the Internet – they provide one-size-fits-all programming controlled from an office hundreds or perhaps thousands of miles from your town."
  - Brent Bozell, President, Parents Television Council, Sept. 2003

• "Our opposition to cross-ownership runs against our business interests. It would eliminate a competitor and give us more control over the marketplace. If that's all we cared about, we'd be for it. The Blethen family could benefit financially from repeal of cross-ownership, but I guarantee you that the citizens of  Seattle would not benefit from it."
  - Frank Blethen, Seattle Times Publisher, March 2003    

• "The big, bad truth that I don't think anyone really understands or gives enough importance to is that the big four networks have in fact reconstituted themselves into the oligopoly that the FCC originally set out to curb back in the 1960s. …They may have controlled 90 percent of what people saw, but they operated with a sense of public responsibility that simply doesn't exist for these vertically integrated giant media conglomerates, driven only to fit the next piece in their puzzle for world media dominance."
  - Barry Diller, former head, Universal Studios, April 7, 2003

• "Those of us from communities which have struggled to have our stories told, our opinions heard, our music listened to or our language used in the media know from history that consolidation of ownership in the media is bad for us. But it is also bad for our nation."
  - The United Church of Christ, 2003

• "This ownership review will change what citizens in every community in America receive on their local news, sports, weather and public affairs programs, as well as how they receive it, and it will determine the kind of national network programming that ultimately is available in their homes. This debate should not take place with deal making and concessions between a few major media companies and a government agency with appointed, not elected, officials."
  - James F.Goodmon, President, Capitol Broadcasting, May 2003

• "In the current climate of consolidation, independent broadcasters simply don't survive for long. That's why we haven't seen a new generation of people like me or even Rupert Murdoch--independent television upstarts who challenge the big boys and force the whole industry to compete and change."
  - Ted Turner, founder, CNN, July 2004