Overview
Without diverse and independent ownership of television and radio stations, newspapers, and other media outlets, citizens lack access to news, analysis, and entertainment from a variety of sources and viewpoints. Such diversity is central to democratic self-governance. As Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “our liberty cannot be guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor that be limited without danger of losing it.”
In 1945, the Supreme Court declared that “the widest possible dissemination of information from diverse and antagonistic sources is essential to the welfare of the public, that a free press is a condition of a free society.“ That decision confirmed that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the federal agency charged with regulating communications and media, has the authority to ensure diversity in U.S. media ownership.
Yet in the last few decades, many of the regulations designed to foster production of independent news and entertainment have been weakened. Today, a small number of companies own most broadcast, cable, and print media outlets throughout the country.
As a result of weaker regulations, big media companies have succeeded in buying up or merging with their smaller, small, community-based competitors, causing unprecedented media concentration. Beyond short-selling diversity, these media mergers also threaten an outlet’s accountability to local communities, since big companies are often unfamiliar with a community’s specific needs.
In its capacity as a public interest law firm intimately familiar with communications law and the politics of the FCC, Media Access Project
• Fights for better media ownership rules to increase diversity of viewpoints, public accountability, and democratic participation
• Opposes specific media mergers at the FCC
• Actively litigates on behalf of citizens or groups to expose violations of the FCC’s rules on local accountability or control
• Helps to facilitate an impressive coalition of citizens groups, consumer groups, labor unions, and independent content producers to fight to broaden and diversity media ownership once again
Under a new FCC, MAP is working hard to ensure that media ownership regulation remains a front-and-center issue for policymakers in Washington.