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Slackness of Spine
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Business New Haven
8/20/2001
By: BNH
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U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman speaks from a pretty high horse when you get him going about the declining standards of the entertainment industry. Most recently he has worked himself into quite a lather on the subject of the television networks' offerings during the so-called family hour of prime time, from 8 to 9 p.m. weekday evenings.
We don't necessarily disagree with the junior senator about that. But we believe his Connecticut constituents would be better served if he would pay more careful attention to a more urgent television issue much closer to home.
Current Federal Communications Commission regulations prohibit a single company from owning a daily newspaper and TV station in the same market. This "cross-ownership" proscription is intended to preserve diversity of media voices and prevent a single entity from controlling most or all sources of information in a given marketplace.
That's the theory. In practice, the gargantuan Tribune Co., which owns properties as diverse as the Chicago Cubs and the New Haven Advocate, last year gobbled up the Times-Mirror Corp., meaning it now owns both the Hartford Courant, and Channel 61. This itself was a viloation of historic cross ownership rules.
A big-media controlled FCC weakened with the acqueiscene of Senator Lieberman and his media sensitive colleagues rules however and is allowing Tribune to wait until their broadcast licenses come up for renewal. In the case of WTIC, that's seven years and ample time to overturn the current 25 year old regulations. To make matters worse the FCC is now letting the Tribune buy WTXX-TV Channel 20, a ruling that astounded even one of its own members.
Media magnates at Tribune want to change the FCC's cross-ownership restriction in the worst way, and for the worst reasons and have heavily lobbied Congress to achieve their aim.
Haven't heard much from Lieberman about this threat to democracy - or, for that matter, from state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. But it's a critical issue, and one that bears on Lieberman's pet issue.
Why are politicians like Lieberman and Blumenthal so strangely silent on the cross-ownership issue in Connecticut. We suspect it is fear of incurring the wrath of the Tribune's Connecticut
“ properties”. Why is the Courant so soft on them, maybe it's because management is looking for a change in cross-ownership rules.
For now, at least, Lieberman and Blumenthal appear cowed by the Tribune company. We wish they and others like them could muster the backbone to do the right thing, and make sure the Courant and Channel 20 don't remain in the hands of the same media Goliath for long. It would do us all a world of good.
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