| Fighting media monopolies To keep up with the news in your community, you may read a daily newspaper, watch the news on a local TV station, or visit a Web site owned by one of them. Local media outlets help people stay informed about what’s happening in their towns and beyond. They help citizens understand issues, form opinions, and make choices. And they serve as watchdogs, uncovering corruption and other scandals that the public needs to know about to make democracy flourish. In today’s technological world, we seem to have a wealth of choices for news and information. Yet only a handful of large companies own the media on which most consumers depend for news: • Five conglomerates dominate television news: AOL Time Warner, Disney (ABC), GE (NBC), News Corp. (Fox), and Viacom (CBS and UPN). They own TV, radio, and cable stations; networks; program production companies; and affiliated Web sites. Together, the conglomerates control an estimated two-thirds or more of the programming that appears on prime-time television, including most major news channels and programs. • Most metropolitan areas have one major newspaper, often owned by a chain. • Two cable systems, Comcast and Time Warner, serve nearly half of all cable subscribers. Some 95 percent of households have access to only one cable company. Consumers are best served when media companies are independently owned. Diversity among media owners not only promotes competition but also helps ensure that people can find a variety of information and viewpoints. The Federal Communications Commission designed rules to limit the number of media outlets that a company could own in a single community and nationwide. The nation’s largest media companies are now lobbying the FCC to relax or eliminate several rules that restrict them from buying more media outlets. The companies have strong support among Washington policymakers who favor deregulation. Weakening the rules could have a dramatic and dangerous effect. Consider an independently owned newspaper such as The Washington Post. Last year, the Post reported questionable accounting practices by America Online, which is based in the Washington area. The story prompted the federal government to launch criminal and civil investigations, leading America Online to restate its earnings. That is not an isolated incident. For the last two years, public confidence has been shaken by corporate accounting scandals. Sometimes it takes an independent journalist to reveal the problems, giving citizens the tools to hold businesses and the government accountable. Would the Post have investigated the story about America Online’s questionable accounting if AOL Time Warner owned the newspaper? Media-ownership rules exist to keep companies from controlling a community’s most critical news sources. The FCC’s decision on whether to relax the rules is expected this summer, but the decision will not end the debate. Legal appeals are likely, and Congress might enter the fray with legislation. A healthy democracy depends on a diverse marketplace of ideas. It’s time for Congress to hold the FCC accountable for promoting competition and diversity in the media
Then & now: The bigger chill
We sized up refrigerator shelves in 1951 using the milkman’s quart bottles; today we use gallon jugs and portly three-liter soda bottles. We still load freezers with frozen food and wire them--and the refrigerator--with special temperature-measuring instruments. In 1951, maintaining 10º F was a tall order for freezers. Now we expect 0º F, which holds the quality of frozen foods longer; all freezers pass handily. Today’s freezers also hold five times as much as their forebears. Oh, yes. Back then you had to defrost. Now you can count on frost-free models, many with built-in ice and water dispensers, and some with ingenious nooks and crannies for more efficient storage. |
