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The genesis of the media democracy movement.
In May 2002, activist and filmmaker Deedee Halleck shared a vision with a
roomful of media and technology activists in Seattle’s Independent Media
Center. “What we really need is a national campaign around the media,” she
said. “We fought around sweatshops, we fought around the WTO, we fought
around war and militarism. It’s time to take seriously media itself as an
issue, because it affects all the other issues.”
That spring, the Bush administration’s Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) had begun making media policy decisions designed to transfer even more
broadcasting power into the clutches of a handful of huge conglomerates. New
FCC Chairman Michael Powell – the son of Colin Powell – was quickly making a
name for himself through his incredibly disdainful comments about his
agency’s public interest responsibilities in the face of private industry.
The FCC’s media ownership regulations were designed to protect the diversity
of voices, competition and local accountability in the media. They proceed
from a basic understanding: that the ownership of a media outlet often
determines the range of viewpoints that can be expressed. The FCC’s
definition of how much market control is too much, however, has been sliding
upwards since the presidency of Ronald Reagan. Several troubling trends have
emerged, including the concentration of individual media outlets under the
control of a cartel of firms, and increasing “convergence” as corporate
owners cut costs by, for example, using a single news department to feed
multiple broadcast stations and newspapers.
The FCC’s new wave of media policy threatened to build on the 1996
Telecommunications Act, which had erased ownership limits in the radio
industry and allowed companies like Clear Channel and Infinity to expand
beyond anyone’s expectations. Fears of what Clear Channel-style deregulation
could mean for television, newspapers and other media prompted the first
public demonstrations. In March 2002, the “Angels of the Public Interest”
donned papier-mâché wings to protest outside the FCC’s suburban headquarters
in Washington, DC; the action caught the imagination of many across the
country. Inspired, a small group of Seattle activists organized an autumn
conference timed to shadow the annual convention of a powerful industry
lobby, the National Association of Broadcasters.
Reclaim the Media’s workshops and talks were attended by close to a thousand
people doing work on media literacy, grassroots media production and policy
reform. By coincidence, the conference was in full swing when Powell
announced the FCC’s “omnibus review” of all media ownership rules. Activists
from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, Media Alliance, Media Tank, the
Prometheus Radio Project and other groups were able to meet on the spot to
begin sketching a strategy to stop Powell’s deregulatory scheme.
As the FCC review began, DC-based advocacy groups like the Consumers Union
and the Center for Digital Democracy filed detailed reports to counter the
industry-friendly research being released by the commission. With grassroots
activists working hard to get public comments rolling in, the DC groups
successfully petitioned the FCC to extend its comment period through the end
of 2003.
Within the FCC itself, Democratic commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan
Adelstein sensed the rising public tide and called for public hearings on
media ownership. Chairman Powell agreed to hold just one – in Richmond,
Virginia, close enough to the national capital to guarantee the predominance
of media industry lobbies. In response, Copps and Adelstein organized their
own hearings around the country, a move that Powell derided as an
unnecessary “whistlestop tour.”
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Again, the activist groups
sprang into action. Copps and Adelstein’s meetings generated plenty of heat,
keeping the commissioners on stage for hours listening to impassioned
testimonials about the value of diverse and local media. Emboldened by the
public support for their dissident stance, both Copps and Adelstein became
more outspoken critics of Powell’s dogmatic rush toward deregulation. After
the hearing in Seattle, Adelstein delivered a speech at a crowded rock
venue, on a bill that also included a set from Chuck D’s Fine Arts Militia.
As he spoke, fired-up audience members emailed the FCC from computer
terminals activists had set up in the lobby.
Neither Powell nor the big media were prepared for the overwhelming public
opposition. On June 2, when the FCC finally moved to weaken or eliminate
crucial media ownership rules, their decision instantly became the most
unpopular one in the agency’s history.
Up to that point, the corporate media had been remarkably quiet about the
ownership issue – even as their parent corporations had lobbied fiercely in
favor of deregulation. With the cat out of the bag, the networks and
newspapers dutifully reported the relaxed ownership rules. But the
tremendous public outcry had become part of the story. Copps told reporters
that the FCC had heard from over a quarter of a million citizens opposed to
deregulation. That was enough to grab the attention of Congress, and a
number of overlapping attempts to repeal or repair parts of Powell’s
deregulatory blitz are now winding their way through the Senate and House.
The extent to which Congress will roll back the corporate-friendly policy
changes remains undecided. The most pernicious amendments – such as lifting
the ban on newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership – will likely remain intact.
But the emergence of “media democracy” as a rallying point for widespread
grassroots activism gives reason to hope that Powell’s victory may be
temporary.
Many want to go further. Academic Robert McChesney, a pioneering media
critic, has proposed that long-term goals include the repeal of the 1996
Telecom Act. Meanwhile, media activism is taking forms ranging from
independent media production to public education to race, class and
gender-based critique. As McChesney points out, media democracy can only
unfold within a larger social movement – the movement to rehabilitate
democracy itself.
Jonathan Lawson is a co-founder and director of Reclaim the Media; his
column Media Politics appears regularly in Tablet. He can be reached at
jonathan@reclaimthemedia.org
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