Hollywood bashes media consolidation

Story last modified Wed Oct 04 03:57:18 PDT 2006


Even with new distribution channels such as the Internet, too much media consolidation is hurting the diversity of news and entertainment, many representatives of those industries told the Federal Communications Commission in a public hearing Tuesday.

Television producers, musicians, actors and writers made that pronouncement during testimony in Los Angeles in the first of six public hearings being held across the country. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and all five commissioners traveled to California for two hearings in which they asked for comment from independent media producers, creative artists and the media conglomerates themselves.

The first hearing, held at University of Southern California's Davidson Conference Center in Los Angeles, focused exclusively on whether consolidation in the media has hurting the diversity of programming that Americans see and hear on the open airwaves. The commission heard from notable people in the industry such as Mike Mills, bassist for the rock band R.E.M., Stephen Cannell, producer of the 1970s detective show "Rockford Files," and actress Anne-Marie Johnson, who has appeared in shows such as "The X-Files," "JAG" and "Dharma & Greg."

Of the producers and artists who testified in this first panel, the resounding answer to that question was a big "yes."

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http://news.com.com/2102-1026_3-6122447.html?tag=st.util.print

of ownership rules...and to the Times' credit, they reported it:

"Major corporations are looking for loosened rules that allow them to buy more media outlets and to own different kinds of media. Tribune Co., for instance, owns the Los Angeles Times and KTLA-TV Channel 5 in the same market, something that the rules prohibit but the FCC has allowed for now."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-fcc4oct04,1,2839787.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

If radio was free... they would play their own song list and you would hear songs like you did in the 60's coming out. There are young, talanted musicians who have a small outlet only because radio chooses who to promote... You know brainless, blonde twits...