Information cartel

Media mergers need more scrutiny

Edmund Burke called the media the "fourth estate"- equating it to a branch of government, wielding its own political power. Indeed, objective newspaper and television coverage of politics and current events are considered crucial to democracy. Good government requires diversity of opinion and an informed electorate. Since media plays such a critical role in our democratic process, it's in the best interest of government to maintain a diversity of opinion and prevent media corporations from becoming too large. Although the Federal Communications Commission currently enforces rules to prevent media monopolies, recent events have brought to light the possibility of media abuses. Because media companies have shown that their coverage of the news can be clouded by the interests of the corporations that control them, the FCC should carefully review future mergers and prevent an excessive consolidation of media.

Under the current FCC rules, no single company can reach more than 35 percent of the U.S. television audience through television stations it directly owns. After finalizing a deal with CBS, the corporate giant Viacom went over this cap in May 2000. With recent mergers, other companies are approaching the limit as well. As a response, legislation was introduced in last year's Congress to increase this size cap.

A number of examples of corporate influence have appeared in recent years. One example is some newspapers' treatment of the free airtime for political candidates. The Los Angeles Times, which owns no television stations, wrote an editorial in support of the free airtime proposals. The Chicago Tribune, owned by the Tribune Company, which owns 19 television stations, wrote "It might be good if candidates didn't have to raise and spend so much money to finance broadcast ads. In that case, let Congress provide public funds to subsidize campaigns." Unknown to most people, and unmentioned in these editorials is the small fact that six media companies spent a total $11 million to defeat a dozen campaign finance bills mandating free airtime from 1996 to 1998. It is clearly in their interest: A study conducted by Competitive Media Reporting concluded that the media made more than $600 million from political advertising last year.

In a 1996 story about the mega merger between ABC and Disney, CNN quoted media consultant Michael Wolf: "There's enough product out there so that they can watch whatever program they want to watch." While that may be the case now, the FCC must do everything in its power to prevent this critical choice from being stolen.