By Jake Johnson/Common Dreams

With just over two weeks left until the FCC is set to vote on chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to decimate net neutrality, a new study published on Tuesday by Media Matters for America found that corporate cable and broadcast news coverage of Pai’s proposed net neutrality repeal has been sorely lacking – and, in some cases, nonexistent.
Based on an examination of television segments aired on major news networks since November 20 – the day Politico reported that Pai was planning a “total repeal of net neutrality rules” – the study found that NBC, ABC, and CBS have devoted just over two minutes combined to net neutrality.

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Posted on November 29, 2017

City’s Best Public Television Station Goes Down

“In a matter of weeks, WYCC Ch. 20 will be no more,” Reel Chicago reported earlier this month.
The day has come.

So sad. pic.twitter.com/vpNxpOVCjd

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) November 26, 2017

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Posted on November 27, 2017

By Tim Karr/Free Press

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai circulated a proposal Tuesday to review and revise the agency’s national television-ownership cap. Pai’s actions begin a rulemaking process that will likely result in the removal of even more safeguards designed to protect localism, diversity and competition over the public airwaves.
The move could lift the existing cap set by Congress, which says no single company can own TV stations reaching more than 39 percent of the national audience. The FCC does not have the power to lift, change or waive this limit set by statute, but it plans to move ahead anyway.

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Posted on November 22, 2017

By Jessica Corbett/Common Dreams

In “an awful new low” that elicited warnings about “a new wave of media consolidation,” the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday rolled back media ownership regulations under the guise of trying “to modernize its broadcast ownership rules & to help promote ownership diversity.”
“Any pretense that this vote will help journalism or increase ownership diversity is cynical and offensive,” said Free Press president and CEO Craig Aaron, warning that the move will “lead to more mergers, more layoffs, and more communities that have no news outlets in place to cover important stories and hold officials accountable.”
In response to Thursday’s move by the FCC, Aaron’s group vowed to fight the decision and initiated a campaign to file suit.

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Posted on November 18, 2017

By Tim Karr/Free Press

The Federal Communications Commission voted along party lines Thursday to erase several longstanding media ownership limits that prevented one broadcast company from controlling too much media in a single market.
The agency rolled back a local television ownership rule that barred a broadcaster from owning multiple stations in smaller local markets and weakened the standards against owning more than one top-rated station in the same market.

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Posted on November 17, 2017

By Tim Karr/BillMoyers.com

Journalists in Manila had very little time to cover Monday’s meeting between President Donald Trump and his Philippine counterpart Rodrigo Duterte. But it was enough to witness one aspect of the budding bromance between these two world leaders.
As soon as journalists began asking questions about Duterte’s deplorable human-rights record, security shooed them from the room.
Duterte pointed at the departing reporters and said, “Guys, you are the spies.”
This elicited a laugh from President Trump, who feels a kinship with anyone who opposes a truth-seeking press.
According to Human Rights Watch, at least 177 journalists have been killed in the Philippines since 1986, making it one of the deadliest countries to be a reporter. Of these, nearly half were targeted for their coverage of politics, corruption, crime and human rights, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

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Posted on November 16, 2017

By Margot Susca/The Conversation

Considering the history of television news a few years ago, iconic anchor Ted Koppel declared that CBS’ 1968 debut of 60 Minutes forever altered the landscape of broadcast journalism: A news program drew enough advertising to turn a profit. As Koppel told it, 60 Minutes showed broadcasters that news divisions could make money – which was a huge shift in how management executives thought of news, affecting both the quality and type of coverage broadcast over the publicly owned airwaves.
Until then, broadcast news in the U.S. had been a costly requirement media companies had to bear as part of getting permission to use the airwaves. “All of a sudden, making money became part of what we did,” Koppel told the audience of a Frontline series called “News War.”
In the decades since, news divisions have been held to the same profit-making standards as corporate media’s entertainment divisions. Corporate owners slashed foreign bureaus as coverage remained focused on emotion and celebrity rather than public affairs.
In late October, the Federal Communications Commission made it even easier for media conglomerates to focus on money-making. That was when the FCC abolished a World War II-era policy that was intended to force news broadcasters to be connected to – and accountable to – the communities their programming reached.
My work as a political economist suggests that local broadcast media content is about to get worse, focusing even more on stories that can turn a profit for corporate headquarters rather than serving local communities. And the big companies that operate these stations are going to withdraw even farther from the communities they cover, threatening a key foundation of American democracy.

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Posted on November 13, 2017

By The Museum of Classic Chicago Television

1974 edition.

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Posted on November 7, 2017

Cite Consumer Protection Duties

Filed with the FCC.
The Attorneys General of the states of Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island submit the following Comments in opposition to the Tribune Media Company (Transferor) (“Tribune”) and Sinclair Broadcast Group. Inc. (Transferee) (“Sinclair”) Consolidated Applications for Consent to Transfer Control, which seek the Federal Communications Commission’s (“FCC” or “Commission”) consent to transfer control of Tribune’s full-power broadcast televisions stations, low-power television stations, and television translator stations to Sinclair.
As the chief consumer protection and law enforcement officers in our respective states, we are responsible for promoting and defending the public interest. The proposed consolidation fails to further the public interest by allowing for increased consolidation that will decrease consumer choices and voices in the marketplace.

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Posted on November 3, 2017