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Current Rules Or Courant Rules?
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Business New Haven
6/12/2000
By: Joseph I. Lieberman
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I was preparing to respond to the editorial on media cross-ownership restrictions (“Say It Ain't So, Joe,” March 20), when I received a letter on the same subject from [BNH Editor Michael C. Bingham and Publisher Mitchell Young]. Please consider this letter a response to both, which you should feel free to publish as a letter to the editor.
You will be pleased to know that I share the concern you express in both missives - that the growing trend of media consolidation under common ownership poses a possible threat to the variety of ideas and opinions presented to the public by a media industry under more diverse ownership. Furthermore, when industries undergo consolidation, the number of competitors, and therefore to some extent competition itself, is decreased. For all the reasons that a varied marketplace is good for consumers in other industries, including competition based on price, quality and innovation, consumers also benefit when media resources are under diverse ownership.
Both the editorial and your letter raise concerns about the cross-ownership of broadcast television stations and newspapers in the same area. Specifically, you cite the cross-ownership of the Hartford Courant and a number of Hartford-area TV stations by the Tribune Co. as a violation of current Federal Communications Commission (FCC) cross-ownership regulations. It is true that FCC rules prohibit the award of an operating license to a broadcast TV station if it shares ownership with a newspaper that serves primarily an area within the station's immediate broadcast area. However, the FCC is currently considering whether this rule prevents such cross-ownership after the license has already been awarded.
Pursuant to congressional directive, the FCC is also currently reviewing its cross-ownership restrictions to determine whether they are still appropriate in light of the increasing availability of other media sources, including satellite television and the Internet. The FCC expects to issue a report on this question, and if the report finds that the cross-ownership restrictions should be weakened or eliminated, then the agency would undertake a rulemaking to effectuate the change in its regulations. Needless to say, companies that run afoul of the current rules strongly support eliminating them.
During my Senate career, I have supported ownership restrictions which encourage media diversity and competition. When the 1996 Telecommunications Act was before the Senate, I voted four different times to create such restrictions, or to protect them from attack. I will continue to monitor developments in this area.
Joseph I. Lieberman
United States Senate
Washington, D.C.
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