Big Media Meets Its Match

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The 1934 Communications Act created the FCC to regulate the radio broadcasting and telephone industries. As new technologies have developed, its scope has expanded to include broadcast television, cellular telephones, and cable for television and high-speed Internet access. The agency operates in obscurity much of the time yet makes decisions that have a tremendous impact on people's daily lives, from the size of local cable bills to the quality of neighborhood news coverage to the songs that play on popular radio. In the future, the FCC is destined to play a key role in regulating the Internet's infrastructure and content.

'Democracy is premised on giving people sufficient depth and breadth of information that they'll generally make intelligent decisions for the good of the country,' Copps says. 'We are skating perilously close to denying folks that kind of information, in no small degree because of media consolidation.'

Copps, like Adelstein, fervently believes that a strong democracy requires vigorous, vigilant media. The two take seriously their agency's mandate to promote localism, diversity, and competition. Which is why, in the past four years, they've fought so hard against media consolidation.

'We have a lot of important issues in this country right now: issues of peace and war, finding a job and keeping a job, educating your kids--the list goes on,' Copps says. 'Maybe one of those is your number one issue, but media consolidation probably ought to be your number two issue. Because the only way the American people hear about your number one issue is largely how it's funneled through the filter of big media.'

The commissioners refer to this crusade for the public interest as a fight for 'media democracy.' Activists prefer the moniker 'media reform,' a phrase adopted by a growing movement that took shape in 2003, when Michael Powell, then FCC chair, attempted to loosen media ownership rules, opening the door for media conglomerates to snap up more television stations, radio stations, and newspapers.

Rebuffed by the brash, brusque Powell in their demands for more official public hearings, Copps and Adelstein attended unofficial hearings around the country, many sponsored by grassroots, mostly liberal media reform groups such as Free Press and the Media Alliance. The issue also inspired conservative organizations including the National Rifle Association, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the Parents Television Council, who saw a bigger, more monolithic media as a threat to their special interests. In all, some 3 million Americans commented on Powell's proposed changes, mostly in opposition to them. And while the FCC passed the changes on a three-to-two vote, they never went into effect, in large part because of public outcry. The Senate voted to reverse the FCC's decision, and the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals eventually suspended the new rules and sent them back for revision.

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