IP: Gore: Democracy Under Media Siege

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Gore: Democracy Under Media Siege
Regulation Changes Considered by FCC
By Patrick Chinnery
Sidelines - Middle Tennessee State University Student Newspaper

Thursday, 12 September, 2002

Al Gore warned yesterday that American democracy is facing a dangerous
threat from media conglomerates.

The lecture, delivered to an overflowing room of students and professors in
the John Bragg Mass Communication Building, focused on upcoming Federal
Communications Commission commentary regarding the dismantling of media
ownership regulations.

"The FCC proposal to eliminate all of the restrictions on highly
concentrated ownership of multiple news outlets is a dire threat to the
survival of democracy in the United States of America," Gore said.

The FCC is investigating the merit of keeping its regulations in place
regarding how many television and radio stations any one individual or
corporation can own in any given media market. The current limit is three.

"They are not asking for comments on why the limits should be removed," Gore
said, "they're asking for comments why they shouldn't be removed."

According to Gore, there is a two-fold danger when one group owns a
substantial portion of a region's media outlets.

First, politicians will naturally cater to that group's interest in order to
gain favorable press coverage for their campaign or cause.

"Look at the ability that television has to grab people's attention and hold
their attention. And you think about a single individual owning all of the
major broadcasting stations in Nashville, Tennessee, and what would the
attitude of the elected official representing Nashville be toward the
individual owning all of the broadcast news and cable news outlets in
Tennessee? Might it be obsequious?" asked Gore.

Profit motive is the force behind the second danger, Gore explained.

"When there is too much concentration of ownership, the potential for
expansion and the opportunity to continue earning profits tends to depend
more and more on government policy. What's that person's policy concerning
the governmental body that has to make those decisions? Might it be
fawning?" Gore asked.

This relationship of obsequiousness and fawning will be responsible for an
eventual blandness that threatens the democratic process. "It has already
created a timid media that refuses to question governmental decisions," Gore
challenged. 

To illustrate his point, Gore described a provision of the Bush
administration's Homeland Security bill. It states that all local and state
officials will be given the legal right to withhold from the news media even
unclassified information.

"Could there possibly be some abusing there?" Gore asked.

Another trend Gore explained that was affecting broadcast and cable news is
the emergence of news as a commodity. He defined commodity as a cheap and
readily available good.

Because news can now be had on demand, Gore said, high-cost producers were
left scrambling to package a low-price product. News "helpers" soon entered
the scene. 

"The arrival of commodity news pushed both newspapers and broadcast news
outlets out of their niche so that they had to start selling something else
- a hybrid product of news plus," Gore said.

This rush to create a more-than-news product has led to networks pursuing
more opinion-based programming as well as promoting celebrity. This trend
calls reporters' objectivity into question because they must balance
accurate reporting with their personal opinions when answers are solicited.

"If a reporter went on television as a personality, expressing his or her
personal views, that reporter's objectivity was subject to being questioned
the next time the reporter wrote about the subject of the talk," Gore said.

The Seigenthaler Lecture Series on Media and Democracy sponsored yesterday's
talk. Gore will return for five more discussions this academic year. The
next lecture will be given Oct. 3 during the day. The third lecture, on Oct.
22, will be held in the evening to make the series more accessible to the
Murfreesboro community.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.) 

For archives see:
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/