Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Mergering on the right  Apparently last Monday Studio 60, a tv show I don't watch but had assumed for some reason was a comedy or lite drama, had the FCC as a bad guy. This is why I am altering my view of the show as a comedy because comedies generally don't have bad guys. Maybe a straight man like Captain Binghamton, but not a real bad guy. Never-the-less the show had a joke. The single source I'm relying on here relates: "In one scene the network's attorney is listing the parade of horribles that will ensue if the network doesn't kowtow to the Commission, and among them is the threat that the Commission won't approve any of their mergers." That's the joke, not approving a merger is the one thing the real FCC would never do.  While I have the letters FCC on ctrl-c I may as well dust off a few other related links There have been some articles Big broadcasters want to control more media outlets , Free Press : Media Ownership Issues Return to Spotlight and some studies Media Ownership Report - Social Science Research Council showing that big media really does want ownership limits knocked down, and that the FCC supports this and is stonwalling on information to the contrary. The studies here were down in response to the call for public comment the FCC claims to want. I had whipped up a short reading list on Media Consolidation in a previous post and subsequently identified another book which should've been on that list. Einstein, Mara.   Media diversity :   economics, ownership, and the FCC /   Mara Einstein.     Mahwah, N.J. : L. Erlbaum Associates, 2004. (Television -- Mergers -- United States. Television and politics -- United States. Monopolies -- United States.)  John Nichols writing for the Nations website FCC Chair Schemes to Undermine Net Neutrality outlines another pot of unwelcome attention for the FCC This involves Kevin Martin chairman of the FCC trying to pressure another of the commisioners into unrecuseing himself on a vote of the ATT - Bell South merger. Nichols take on this is that Net Neutrality is what's at stake here - that Copps and Adelstein's vote is conditional on a nod in the direction of net neutrality by American Bell & Telegraph. And Martin is trying an end-run around them.  As well mergers  are best done quickly, the longer they drag out the more likely someone will ask questions or ask a judge to ask questions. Is it time for my annual attempt to sort through and understand all the differing opinions on what net neutrality is and whether it's a good or bad thing?. Wait, no I usually do that in the spring. 11:44:14 PM    comment [];trackback [];

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. 2006 P Bushmiller. Last update: 12/8/06; 7:33:06 PM.