- WASHINGTON (Hollywood Reporter)
- Democratic FCC commissioner Michael Copps on Monday blasted his agency
for its role in the "Clear Channelization" of American radio,
charging that the Republican-controlled panel has shortchanged the public
by giving the go-ahead to further media consolidation.
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- "We are skirting dangerously close to taking the
public interest out of the public airwaves," Copps said at the Future
of Music Coalition's policy summit, a conference of musicians, record industry
executives, lawmakers and civil liberties activists.
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- Copps was one of two dissenters in the five-member commission's
vote last June to ease regulations on media ownership. That ruling was
motivated by the notion that the strict regulations in place -- intended
to protect against monopoly of the airwaves -- became obsolete with the
proliferation of such information and entertainment sources as the Internet
and cable.
- Copps said the Federal Communications Commission is moving
in the wrong direction by allowing diverse perspectives and local interests
and talent to be trumped by the homogenizing forces of media giants that
dominate many of the nation's media markets.
- "Step by step, rule by rule, bit by bit, (this commission)
has allowed the dismantling of a whole variety of public interest protections
and flashed the green light for more consolidation," Copps said.
-
- He singled out the "postcard renewal" process
for licensing of radio stations as one of the main failings of the FCC
in protecting the public interest from corporate homogenization, stressing
that stations should have to provide sufficient evidence that they serve
local interests and urging people in the audience to file complaints with
the FCC if their local stations fail to do so.
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- The FCC has created a localism task force that holds
hearings nationwide to better assess broadcasters' service to their communities.
It is an initiative Copps had been pushing for since before the media ownership
ruling and regrets that it only started recently.
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- Now that the program is in action, he wants to ensure
that the results are taken seriously. "If I find out that we are pell-mell
renewing licenses without having reference to the record that we amassed
or we're not really being any more rigorous than we have been about it,
then I'm going to make considerable noise about it as much as I can,"
he said in an interview after his speech.
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- Copps also wants to see more independent programming
on TV, suggesting that the indie share of primetime hours should be 25%-35%.
He said a proposed rule-making on independent programming could be put
out for public comment in fairly short order, something Center for Creative
Voices in Media, the WGA and the Coalition for Program Diversity have been
championing.
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- "Anything with the name 'independent' on it seems
to be on the endangered species list," Copps said. "But there
is so much more creativity across America than the lowest common denominator
entertainment from Madison Avenue."
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- Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
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