Broadcast Policy Doesn’t Force Broadcasters to Serve Public Interest, Say Panelists

"We the people own the airwaves,” said filmmaker and media activist Sue Wilson at the event. Though her film is several years old, panelist Free Press Associate Policy Director Chance Williams said broadcasting has gotten worse since the film was made, because of increased money flowing to political ads post-Citizen United and greatly increased media consolidation. “We are living through an era of massive consolidation of local broadcasting,” said Williams, saying there have been 200 license transfers in the past year.

Less local broadcasting leads to less journalism, and broadcasting that is less responsive to local needs, said Williams and panelist Common Cause Program Director-Media and Policy Todd O'Boyle. “Too often, it seems the FCC doesn’t meet a merger it doesn’t love,” said O'Boyle. Wilson’s film points to a 2002 toxic spill in Minot, N.D., where a failure of the emergency alert system was blamed on the consolidation of local radio stations, as an example of the importance of local broadcasting. “Broadcasters are killing people,” she said. Wilson’s film said broadcast indecency is another downside of a lack of locally owned broadcasters -- since the content for most stations is decided by corporations far from their customers, local standards of what’s appropriate for television aren’t considered. An NAB spokesman said the Minot incident was caused by police calling a wrong number rather than broadcast consolidation, and said broadcast TV is a much less consolidated business than cable or satellite. He said Wilson and other activists are ignoring the fact that broadcasting is provided to customers for free and is a primary source of local content. “When was the last time you got a bill from your TV station?” he said.

Wilson said broadcasting’s problems are exacerbated by a lack of FCC enforcement. Though she has filed petitions to deny renewals of several TV station licenses, she said the FCC has always either denied the petitions or failed to respond, and she criticized the commission for not making it clear to ordinary citizens what their options are for addressing broadcaster misconduct. Wilson said she’s waiting for a response on a Nov. 1 license challenge against a Sacramento, Calif., radio station that held a water-drinking contest that led to a woman’s death in 2007. “If they won’t take licenses for killing somebody, it’s doubtful they'll take licenses at all,” she said.

Although the Internet has supplanted broadcasting as an information source for some, Williams said broadcasting is still important because for some it’s more easily accessed than the Internet. “Not everyone has regular and ready access to the Internet,” said Williams. “Local news overwhelmingly comes from local broadcasters and their websites, that’s where info is sourced and reblogged from.” The Internet is a problematic alternative to broadcasting because the issue of net neutrality isn’t settled, said Boyle. “We may very well end up in a world where the best the Internet has to offer is behind a certain tier ... where information is something only the well-heeled can afford.”

Educating the public is the best way to bring about policy reform in broadcasting, said Wilson. She often takes groups of interested people to inspect the political files at local broadcast stations, said Wilson. “There’s nothing more empowering.” O'Boyle said the commission should take a look at increasing disclosure rules for advertising, both political and commercial. “Voters have a right to know by whom they're being persuaded,” he said.