Copps on net neutrality and media consolidation
David Johnson August 29th, 2007
So I was hooting about PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler posting that they need to get Bill Moyers an ombudsman of his own after his latest editorial flap, and I surfed over to Moyer’s Journal site. I got totally sidetracked by Moyers’ interview with FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps about the state of media consolidation and net neutrality. Copps has no shortage of opinion about how broadcasters are using their shingles. In all, it is fascinating stuff we should all take a few minutes out to watch, especially if you are entrepreneurial and trying to make a go of it with a blog or site. There’s also a piece there about low power FM, which hyperlocal onliners might get something out of.
2 Comments Add your own
1. Nabisco | August 29th, 2007 at 2:39 pm
I do some work with the NAB and Copps is mistaken in his assertion that media consolidation is the enemy of diversity. When one market contains several owners, each owner will air the programming that is most profitable in that market. Often, this practice results in a market that might contain, for example, five rock stations but zero classical or jazz stations. However, when fewer owners operate in a market, the owners have greater reason to diversify their programming, as there is no financial incentive for one owner to broadcast more than one station of any genre.
2. Steve Boriss | August 29th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Just watched the entire video. The enemy is Mr. Copps and all those who want to take the Internet away from the people and give it to the government, under the false pretense that they are the ones giving it to the people and not simply placing it in their own power-grubbing hands. We have not had diversity of opinion on broadcast for decades because programmers have been afraid that controversial programming might cost them their licenses. Note how much more diversity we have on the unregulated media of the Internet, cable TV, and radio (since the ‘87 lapse of the fairness doctrine). Hands-off the Internet! (Steve Boriss, TheFutureOfNews.com)
Leave a Comment
(Please keep URLs out of the comment body or the spam filter will block you.)Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed