"Over the past
decade, all of us here on this panel
have witnessed – first-hand – the
harmful effects of media
consolidation on programming. My
perspective is as a parent and as an
advocate for more and better family
programming. And from where I sit,
media consolidation has dealt a
devastating blow.
"Congress gave the
FCC the authority to enforce
broadcast decency on the public
airwaves before 10 pm, and the
Supreme Court has affirmed the
constitutionality of that law. And
since the Commission last dealt with
the issue of media ownership three
years ago, millions of Americans
have filed formal complaints about
broadcast indecency violations. All
but a handful of those complaints
reflect national network television
broadcasts.
With very few
exceptions, network-owned television
stations do not consider community
decency standards.
"In May of 2003, the
PTC conducted a survey of
approximately a hundred TV stations
around the United States which were
owned and operated by one of the
four major television networks. We
found only one station – in one
instance – had ever preempted a
network program based on community
standards of decency. And one
station general manager admitted
that the network, not the station,
made her programming decisions.
When local programming decisions are
prohibited by a remote corporate
parent, the public interest is not
served.
"Broadcasters now say
that the indecency law is no longer
valid due to technology solutions
like the v-chip. But the v-chip
relies on a ratings system in order
to function properly. But we found
that television program ratings are
inaccurate up to 60%-80% of the
time. One reason why the rating
system is unreliable is that the
networks, themselves, rate their
programs. Advertisers often choose
not to sponsor maturely-rated
programs, so the networks face a
financial conflict-of-interest to
rate programs accurately. The result
is that the networks rate a program
inaccurately and they keep the
advertisers' money. Families and
advertisers lose.
"Sadly, the effects
of media consolidation on program
content do not end here. Some
broadcast networks use the
‘retransmission consent' rules to
force their cable network properties
onto cable and satellite programming
bundles. Cable and satellite
executives have testified before
Congress to this effect.
"If the American
public wants to pay a monthly fee to
NBC to watch reruns of
Dateline on MSNBC; or a
fee to Viacom for graphic,
teen-themed sex and profanity on
MTV; or, as we saw just last week, a
fee to News Corp. for a program on
Fox's cable network where a woman
satisfied her sexual desires with
her pet dog while her husband was
fighting in Iraq, then by-gosh the
industry can offer networks to fill
those needs. But they should not
and must not be able to force this
programming into 80-plus million
homes without consumers deciding to
select and pay for those networks."
To schedule an
interview with a PTC representative,
please contact Kelly Oliver at (703)
683-5004, ext. 140.
