{"id":13595,"date":"2014-07-25T18:36:00","date_gmt":"2014-07-25T18:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/articles\/a-hopeful-sign-from-fcc-on-media-consolidation\/"},"modified":"2014-07-25T18:36:00","modified_gmt":"2014-07-25T18:36:00","slug":"a-hopeful-sign-from-fcc-on-media-consolidation","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/tl\/articles\/a-hopeful-sign-from-fcc-on-media-consolidation\/","title":{"rendered":"A Hopeful Sign From FCC On Media Consolidation"},"template":"","class_list":["post-13595","article","type-article","status-publish","hentry","article_type-blog-post"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"The FCC closed a legal loophole on Thursday as it approved a mega transaction between Sinclair Broadcasting and Allbritton Communications","featured_image":null,"article_type":1103,"authors":["{\"site_id\":\"1\",\"post_type\":\"person\",\"post_id\":9027}"],"related_issues":[134,136,2065],"related_work":false,"location":null},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":null,"name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; color: black;\">The state of broadcasting can be pretty dire. Corporate monopolization has given us homogenized content that poorly serves local communities.&nbsp;There are still far too few women and minority owners. <span>&nbsp;<\/span>Layoffs have decimated newsrooms, resulting in less investigative journalism and a less informed local electorate. &nbsp; <br \/><\/span><\/p><p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; color: black;\">And the FCC blessed much of this. Sometimes the commission explicitly gave media moguls a green light to snatch up competitors. At other times it permitted broadcasters to buy each other up or exploit loopholes in the ownership rules. These \"shared services\" or \"sidecar\"&nbsp;arrangements&nbsp;allow one station to assert de-facto control over another, violating the spirit of localism and&nbsp;diversity. <br \/><\/span><\/p><p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; color: black;\">Karaniwang Dahilan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/tl\/democracy-wire\/a-dollop-of-good-news-from-the-fcc.html\/\">cheered the agency in March<\/a> when it put an end to these industry tricks of the trade. And we were pleased that they followed through yesterday <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2014\/07\/24\/us-usa-sinclair-bcst-gp-fcc-idUSKBN0FT2TA20140724\">as they approved<\/a> a transaction between mega broadcaster Sinclair and Allbritton Communications.&nbsp; <br \/><\/span><\/p><p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; color: black;\">While we'd rather see this sort of deal rejected out of hand as a matter of course (we challenged a&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tvnewscheck.com\/article\/69214\/coalition-seeks-to-deny-gannettbelo\">similar consolidation<\/a>&nbsp;between Gannett and Belo Corp. last year), we were glad to see the FCC get serious about closing loopholes.&nbsp; <br \/><\/span><\/p><p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; color: black;\">The deal is going forward without problematic sharing deals in three markets, creating new opportunities for local or diverse ownership.&nbsp;Viewers in Birmingham, Harrisburg and Charleston, S.C. all stand to benefit.&nbsp; <br \/><\/span><\/p><p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; color: black;\">We aren't back to the world of diverse media, and we should put the brakes on other mega mergers -- like Comcast's attempt to buy up Time Warner Cable -- but this is a welcome development.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>"}}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - 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