Enough is Enough

By TAD BARTIMUS

Sometimes elected officials do the right thing for the right reasons. For Ted Stevens, this is one of those times.

The Alaska Republican, president pro tem and longest-serving member of the Senate, is less known for altruism than horse-trading and arm-twisting. As chairman of the Appropriations Committee, he can flex his congressional muscle by withholding money for dams, highways and bridges that keep voters happy and his colleagues in office. When Stevens says, "Jump!" nearly every senator asks, "How high?" Like the good lawyer who never asks a question unless he knows the answer, Stevens almost never introduces a bill unless he knows he's got the votes to pass it.

Last month, Stevens introduced a bill in the Commerce Committee to block media conglomerates from gobbling up even more news outlets in the same market, from controlling even more of what we see and hear, and therefore think. Responding to an FCC vote on June 2 to further deregulate media conglomerates, Stevens' proposition is a slap in the face to FCC chairman Michael Powell.

On June 19, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee adopted the bill, which now awaits its fate in the Senate.

Industry giants lobbied for deregulation on grounds that loosening the rules lets them share newsgathering expenses among their same-market outlets while reducing overhead costs -- doing more with less. They also claim increasing single ownership of different mediums in the same market will give advertisers a price break in radio, television and newspaper exposure.

Nearly 1 million consumers wrote letters, telephoned and e-mailed their opposition to the FCC's deregulation on grounds that increased media consolidation threatens the public interest and undermines democracy. The FCC ignored their complaints.

Stevens did not.

When Stevens legislatively announced "enough is enough," the Federal Communications Commission was stunned. Instead of supporting media Goliaths that annually pour millions of dollars into politicians' campaign war chests, Stevens is championing the little guys and gals who form most of their opinions from what they read in the local newspaper, hear on local radio stations and watch on local television stations.

Why is a senator once branded the "King of Pork" standing up for John and Jane Doe instead of Rupert Murdoch and Mickey Mouse? Ted Stevens was once a small-town lawyer mentored by the late Bill Snedden, an independent publisher who owned the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Now the paper is owned by newspaper magnate Dean Singleton's Media General chain.

Also, Stevens was supported early in his career by a handful of Alaska radio and television pioneers who competed fiercely against one another and helped build into the 49th state. Those stations are now owned by huge chains based in the lower 48, including Clear Channel Communications, which has grown from 36 to almost 1,200 stations in little more than a decade.

As a de facto Alaskan who lived and worked there during the early 1970's and mid-1990's, I can attest that locally-owned media outlets are far livelier, if more technologically challenged, than those controlled by chains. Chain ownership discourages creativity, stifles diversity of thought and opinion, emphasizes profit over civic responsibility and too often abuses the public trust because no one locally can be held accountable for corporate policy.

It isn't a coincidence that the declining confidence in America's media has paralleled its rise in corporate ownership. The old saying that "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely," applies just as accurately to unchecked business empires as it does to wicked monarchs and corrupt public officials.

Any issue that unites such disparate supporters as PBS's liberal commentator Bill Moyers and the conservative National Rifle Association deserves our attention. Thanks to Ted Stevens, this democracy-threatening power grab has finally got it.

© 2003 The Women Syndicate

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