Cross-ownership Battle Continues

By: Todd Shields Those who support the federal ban on a newspaper owning a nearby broadcast station believe top telecommunications regulator Michael K. Powell has set them this task: Show the prohibition is justified -- or kiss it goodbye.

Consumer groups and labor unions think they can meet that challenge. In recent filings with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), they say the rule is needed more than ever, because each year fewer owners pump news via a diminishing number of outlets.

Their portrayal of media -- big players dominating the news and sapping the contest of ideas that animates democracy -- is hardly recognizable from the other side of the argument. In their own comments to the FCC, Gannett Co. Inc., Cox Enterprises Inc., Belo, Tribune Co., and others called the 1975 rule an outdated relic from a pre-Internet world of information scarcity, where TV pictures arrived mainly through antennae rather than cables and satellite dishes. (E&P previewed Tribune's argument Dec 3.)

The argument is joined in earnest because the FCC, under Chairman Powell, is deciding whether to retain the cross-ownership rule. Parties have until Jan. 7 to file replies to comments filed by Dec. 3. An FCC decision is not expected before the middle of next year.

In a joint filing, the Consumer Federation of America and other public-interest groups advocated continued regulation. Yes, they said, there are more TV outlets today, but the number of local TV news operations has dropped about 10%. Yes, the Internet exists, but it mainly channels established media's news products. Yes, there are new TV networks, but there are one-third fewer broadcast owners today than 25 years ago. As for newspapers, they said, the number of daily newspapers is down nearly 20%, while the number of owners is down almost two-thirds, to 290 from 860.

"Multiple outlets with single owners are only one voice," the nonprofits said. Newspapers know how to return that pitch. In one filing, they said there is "no factual basis for assuming that common ownership necessarily reduces ... media to a single, monolithic viewpoint."