Pending FCC Vote

The Christian Science Monitor has an editorial on the pending FCC rules change that is on target:

Opponents of the changes - on the left and right - say they will lead to further concentration of media control by a few powerful companies - companies they view as more interested in profits than in serving the community with good programming.

But there's little evidence to suggest that ownership concentration by itself hurts programming quality or local news, which is generally mediocre regardless of who owns the station. The idea that locally owned stations provide better local programming and news coverage doesn't play out in real life. And the suggestion in the lead Opinion piece in today's Monitor that the FCC should study local news content raises the disturbing possibility of government interference in news coverage.

By and large, corporations that own media keep their political positions separate from their media content - sometimes more so than local owners. They want to appeal to the widest possible audience, programming different stations for different interests, political and artistic. Such a business strategy attracts more viewers to the range of a company's stations, generating more ad revenue.

That market imperative can ensure diversity of views. An example is Infinity Broadcasting, which owned two radio stations in New York City in 1998. Each endorsed a different candidate for mayor that year.

Really, I have a hard time taking all the critics of the proposed changes all that seriously.