Op-ed piece by FCC Chmn. Powell in USA Today Wed. on media owners...

Op-ed piece by FCC Chmn. Powell in USA Today Wed. on media ownership rules riled consumer groups and others. Consumer Federation of America Research Dir. Mark Cooper said Powell’s comments “reflect the biases that he has built into the notices” of proposed rulemaking on ownership. Center for the Creative Community (CCM) said it was concerned that Powell “already appears to have made up his mind that the FCC’s rules must change.” In article, Powell said that like Dragnet character Joe Friday, he wanted “just the facts, ma'am.” Cooper said only facts Powell wanted would require broadcast ownership rules to be changed and he questioned whether chairman should be editorializing in middle of continuing proceeding. CCM said FCC is accepting written replies until Feb. 3 and would hold public hearing Feb. 27. “The American people must have confidence that the FCC will fairly and impartially act on the basis of ALL the evidence,” said CCM Executive Dir. Jonathan Rintels: “Congress must insist that Chairman Powell maintain an open mind and wait to judge these issues.” Otherwise, people may feel “the fix is in,” he said. Powell wrote that most of country’s TV and radio ownership restrictions were older than Dragnet and, unlike back then, today there was plethora of choices for public to get news and information. “Even in small towns, the number of media outlets -- including cable, satellite, radio, TV stations and newspapers -- has increased more than 250% during the past 40 years. Independent ownership of those outlets is far more diverse, with approximately 139% more independent owners than there were 40 years ago,” Powell wrote. But he said most striking difference from 40 years ago was that public today had access to “a bottomless well of information called the Internet.” On personal note, he said he couldn’t get by without interactive TV guide, remote control and personal video recorder. “There is simply too much programming competing for my attention,” he wrote. However, CCM said Powell ignored many facts, for example, that while there was much on TV, just 5 conglomerates (AOL Time Warner, Viacom, NBC, Disney, and News Corp./Fox) produced and distributed programming seen by majority of viewers on broadcast and cable. CCM said independent production of new TV programming had “practically ceased.” New rules, Powell wrote, must reflect digital world, and courts repeatedly have struck down FCC’s rules because, until now, Commission had failed to acknowledge reality of today’s marketplace. At issue is freedom of speech and press and freedom to acquire and hold property within law, Powell wrote. “Our Founding Fathers understood that government should not have the power to restrict speech without deeply compelling justifications,” he wrote. Philip Meyer, journalism prof. at U. of N.C., Chapel Hill, provided counterpoint to Powell in newspaper. Meyer wrote that during crisis when electric power was shut down in Chapel Hill, residents turned to local radio station for news, but all they got was music because FCC had relaxed ownership rules, leaving most radio stations in hands of few corporate behemoths with no interest in local communities. “We should remember that threats to freedom come not only from government; they can come from big business, too,” Meyer wrote.