House Lawmakers Debate FCC’s Commitment to Media Ownership Review

The FCC is “very aware of its responsibility” to complete its media ownership quadrennial review, Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake told House lawmakers Wednesday, pledging to make such recommendations by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s June 2016 deadline. Lake acknowledged the market evolution that the hearing’s panelists and witnesses described, but said the agency’s task is making “rules for the current state of evolution.”

"The media ownership rules persist as if the Internet did not exist,” Communications Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore., said in his opening statement, citing technology changes in how people consume news, now with Internet feeds and aggregators, multiple national news choices and DVRs. The FCC’s not completing its review is a “failure” and current rules “stifle” opportunities for localism, said Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., saying he received breaking news through a Twitter alert the previous night. “It’s not complying with the law,” Shimkus said of the FCC’s inaction.

Walden cited many changes to the radio marketplace and asked Lake whether any radio rules have changed since 1996. Lake said no, though he said the agency did look “very carefully” at the radio ownership rules as part of its 2010 quadrennial review process. “It’s a vibrant marketplace, and I think our rules are outdated,” Walden said.

"Time has seemingly stood still at the FCC,” NAB General Counsel Jane Mago said of the broadcast ownership rules dating back to a different era of 1975 that she said “distort competition.” It’s “increasingly difficult” for broadcasters to compete in a market that’s so notably skewed, Mago said, seeking a “more level playing field."

The goal should not be “to roll back what few protections we have left,” subcommittee ranking member Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said in her opening statement, rattling off “troubling” statistics that are part of an “unhealthy” media landscape. “Despite a national broadcast television ownership cap, 10 station groups [each] now own over 650 stations, or nearly half of all commercial full-power broadcast stations in the United States. Ten companies control 55 percent of all local TV advertising revenues.” She also said a quarter of 952 local stations that carry news don’t produce their own newscasts.

Eshoo said the quadrennial review is “long overdue” but said “while some have criticized the FCC for cracking down on ’sidecar’ deals before concluding its 2010 review, I firmly believe that the agency has an obligation to enforce existing rules on the books, regardless of the outcome of its review.” Wheeler’s setting a review deadline is “appropriate,” but Congress should consider whether that statutory mandate is still “helpful or necessary,” House Commerce Committee ranking member Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said. He emphasized the importance of protecting newsgathering operations and talked about how certain media ownership rules are “relevant, even today” in ensuring values are established in the landscape.

Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., blasted “feigned” good intentions and “platitudes” from the FCC on media diversity along with what he called “the continual excuse-making” over the past 20 years. “This is the worst time for media ownership by a minority.” Rush is “absolutely, totally disappointed in the FCC” and “so upset and so angry about this,” he said.

"We share your dissatisfaction with the results so far, but we are taking concrete action,” Lake assured Rush, citing the civil rights groups that backed the FCC’s actions limiting sharing agreements earlier this year. Agency officials have thought about ways their recent actions might affect access to capital, he said. The agency is “constantly looking for additional things we can do,” Lake said. Rush also asked about the Critical Information Needs study, which Lake said was terminated since it contained questions Wheeler judged inappropriate. “Here we go again,” Rush remarked. “Instead of revising it, you ended it.” Rush said the study, which congressional Republicans had blasted as intruding on newsrooms, should have taken place.

The FCC’s media ownership rulemaking doesn’t reflect the FCC’s commitment to diversity, Rep. G.K. Butterfield, D-N.C., said, saying “meaningful ownership opportunities” must be increased for people of color. Eshoo, in her questions, worried about how consolidation would affect minorities: “Why would I want to consolidate even more? What’s the reason?”

National Hispanic Media Coalition General Counsel Jessica Gonzalez criticized the role of current marketplace rules and the recent joint sales agreement regime on minorities. “In today’s media landscape, most TV news, radio programs and newspaper stories do not represent the concerns, culture and knowledge of people of color and rural people,” she said.

"Many ideas that appeared perfectly reasonable in 1975 now appear behind the times,” Newspaper Association of America Senior Vice President-Public Policy Paul Boyle said, criticizing the cross-ownership ban of the media ownership rules. It couldn’t be “further from the truth” to think repealing the cross-ownership would cause a wave of consolidation, he said.

"If there are no restrictions, I don’t see what keeps one entity from controlling everything,” said Rep. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., citing “concerns” with Boyle’s openness to repealing that ban with no restrictions involved. He questioned the virtues of designated market areas, which Mago defended and argued are evolving consistent with the marketplace. “Clearly, something’s broken,” Luján said.