The Broadcasting Industry's Weak Arguments on Ownership

From Jonathan Lawson, Reclaim the Media:

Public opinion on media ownership is clear -- we prefer local voices to consolidated national voices; we want local music and culture; we want a wide range of voices and viewpoints; we want quality journalism and media that is accountable to our community values. Opposing greater media consolidation is one of the few issues on which Congressional Democrats and Republicans mostly see eye to eye.

But there is a powerful elite who are pushing hard to change the rules of the media game -- and to make it a game of Monopoly. For example, the National Association of Broadcasters represent the big media corporations who stand to gain financially from making our media system even less accountable to local communities. Mark Allen, president and CEO of the of the Washington Association of Broadcasters, has an op-ed in this morning's Seattle Times; it's an interesting read because it lays bare the weak arguments the other side is making in favor of loosening (erasing) media ownership rules.

"It is simply hilarious to suggest that media deregulation is in any way supportive of either local or eclectic music. As Seattle music industry leaders have pointed out in the past, the national explosion of a regional music scene such as Northwest 'grunge' in the early 90's, would be absolutely unimaginable in the post-1996 consolidated radio industry, with its centralized gatekeepers, "voicetracking" fake-local DJs and payola."

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