On the afternoon of Monday, April 7, 2003, in Tempe, AZ, the Benton
Foundation hosted the Arizona Forum on Media Ownership at the KAET public
broadcasting television studio. The forum addressed the current federal review
of the nation's media ownership rules under consideration by the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC). The event provided 150 citizens of Arizona --
as well as several hundred citizens from across the US tuning in via the
Internet -- with an opportunity to learn about and provide input on the issue.
The Arizona Forum on Media Ownership was made possible by the financial
assistance and organizational support of: Arizona State University's Walter
Cronkite School for Journalism and Mass Communication, the Arizona Community
Foundation, the Benton Foundation, KAET, and the Maricopa Community Colleges'
Center for Civic Participation. Streaming audio of the event made possible
through the Linux Public Broadcasting Network and the assistance of the Center
for Information, Technology & Society. Below you will find a summary of the event, as well as the official agenda
and panel biographies follow. An audio archive of the forum will be online soon.
SUMMARY To start the program, Dean Anne Schneider of Arizona State University
welcomed the audience and thanked them for attending. A statement was also read
on behalf of Congressman J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) with the following message: My background in broadcasting has helped me recognize the importance of
both broadcast and print media. The FCC has opened a public debate on possible
changes to the existing media ownership rules which this forum will address.
Vigorous discussion and debate on these potential changes is part of what
makes our democratic system in America so special. Following the welcoming statements, Benton Foundation Board Chairman Charles
Benton addressed the crowd and quoted at length from a
statement by Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) in support of the Midwest Public
Forum on Media Ownership, which was held the previous week at Northwestern
University in Chicago. He then introduced Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard
and FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps, who each delivered opening remarks. He
then introduced Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard and FCC Commissioner
Michael J. Copps, who each delivered opening remarks. Goddard noted that the Phoenix area had long featured a market of
concentrated media voices and it had only become more concentrated during his
political life. He discussed the need for a robust, competitive media market of
diverse voices and hungry journalists. Goddard drew laughter with an account
from a late-night staff meeting at his home when he was mayor of Phoenix. A
staff member opened his front door and a journalist fell into his foyer. Goddard
lamented the current lack of journalists "listening at the keyhole." FCC Commissioner Copps noted that the media ownership review is about
"everything we see, hear and read." The FCC is about to alter the media
landscape without ample public dialogue or input, he said, and will be filled
with even fewer competing voices. Copps argued that many questions still need to
be addressed, such as how small businesses will be affected and how children's
programming is negatively impacted by consolidation, noting that there might be
a correlation between the increase in media consolidation and indecent content.
"Why not ask these questions before we vote, instead of coming back after all
kinds of damage has been done?" Copps suggested. "How do you put that genie back
into the bottle? You can't. Once it's done, it's done." In providing an overview of the issues and agenda to be addressed that
afternoon, Norris Dickard, Director of Public Policy at the Benton Foundation,
explained how the agenda was structured to maximize community and citizen input,
with a focus on "people, not pundits." Joe Foote, Director of ASU's Cronkite
School, provided by way of introduction an analysis of how most of the major
Phoenix-area print, broadcast, and radio media outlets were owned by companies
based outside of Arizona. See Benton's Media Ownership Rules: A Community and
Media Market Profile of Phoenix, Arizona for more detailed information on
the media ownership review and a local media market profile, available online
at: http://www.benton.org/ownership/phoenixmedia.html.
A community panel followed with comments reflecting diverse perspectives on
the issue, including the special concerns of the Native American, Hispanic, and
immigrant communities. Kimber Lanning discussed her challenges as a small
business owner in the face of a rapidly changing radio market and told how many
musicians skip the Phoenix area because of a lack of radio promotion and
airplay. Phyllis Rowe of the Arizona Consumers Council said her organization is
concerned about further consolidation because it will reduce the number of
choices for information access. The program concluded with a citizen open mike and an expert panel response.
Panelist Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project responded to a
statement issued by Virginia-based Gannett Co., Inc., which owns the #1
newspaper in Arizona and the top broadcast station in the Phoenix market
(Gannett reps declined to participate in person). An excerpt from the statement
read: "KPNX and the Arizona Republic have filed extensive comments throughout
the Commission's ongoing review of its ownership rules. Our consistent position
is that given the tremendous increase over the past 28 years in the number of
information/entertainment sources available to consumers, the newspaper --
broadcast cross ownership rule is outmoded and should be repealed." Schwartzman
argued that KPNX and the Arizona Republic were co-owned by the same company in
an exception to the cross-ownership rule granted through existing FCC waiver
authority. He stated that the FCC "never met a waiver they did not like" and the
rule should not be overturned as such mergers could then happen without an
impact review. Broadcast economist and ASU professor Marianne Barrett explained the
financial pressures under which companies operate. She explained how
deregulation and concentration benefit them through the realization of economies
of scale and vertical/horizontal integration. An audience member from the
Arizona Association of Broadcasters made a similar point. The editor of the East
Valley Tribune, Jim Ripley, spoke of his parent company, Freedom Communications
of California, and its deregulatory stance on the media ownership issue. Ripley
also shared his personal perspective on working for a paper that had gone
through several ownership changes, but sought to uniquely serve the more
conservative East Valley customers who make up its subscriber base. Noted journalist Hugh Downs participated as panelist. Downs served as
co-anchor of ABCNEWS's 20/20 program and received the 1990 Broadcaster of the
Year Award from the International Radio and Television Society. He recounted his
long career in the industry starting out at a small radio station and ending his
career in Disney-owned ABC. Echoing the sentiments of many audience members who
expressed concerns in the open mike segment about radio deregulation, Downs won
applause when he criticized recent actions by radio giant Clear Channel
Communications, which owns eight area stations. "It's bad that it's gravitated
into so few hands," he asserted. "It disturbs me that the Dixie Chicks are
blocked on Clear Channel stations [because of anti-war sentiments expressed by
band members]. That is not the democratic way." Similarly, Carl Matthusen, who has worked in the local radio market for over
25 years and is the former Chairman of the Board of National Public Radio,
stressed how deregulation of the radio industry has increased the importance of
public stations in the provision of local news and special programming. Benton President Andrea Taylor ended the program with summary observations
and by answering audience and emailed questions about what ordinary citizens can
do to make their voices heard. "Stay informed and express your views to your
elected officials," she urged. On April 8, 2003 the forum was covered in the East Valley Tribune newspaper,
KJZZ's Arizona News segment of NPR's Morning Edition and on KAET's
awarding-winning public affairs program, Horizon. The video footage from the
program has been edited by MCTV to air on their cable public access television
channel. On April 10, 2003 U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the U.S.
Senate Commerce Committee that provides FCC oversight, wrote a letter to FCC
Chairman Powell on his goal of finishing the media ownership proceeding by June
2003: FCC Chairman Powell's response to Senator McCain, and the text of other
Congressional letters to him on the matter, are available online at: AGENDA 1:15pm Welcome <>
1:20pm Opening Remarks 1:55pm Overview of Issues and Agenda 2:00pm Community Voices 2:40pm Citizen Open Mike: Questions and Comments Expert Panel Response 4:15pm The Future: Observations and Closing Conversation SPEAKER BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION Marianne Barrett is an ASU associate professor of broadcasting,
joining the faculty in 1994. Barrett has more than 10 years of professional
media experience. She served as director of program scheduling for ESPN, Inc.,
in New York, and before that, in a variety of capacities for WVIA-TV in
Scranton, Pa. The author or co-author of several articles and academic papers,
Barrett teaches broadcast station management, programming, and cable and
emerging technologies. Her research interests focus on broadcast media
economics. Barrett holds a Ph.D. from Michigan State University. In 1996,
Barrett received a Research Grant from the National Association of Broadcasters
to study the effects of the network affiliation changes on television ratings.
Charles Benton is Chairman of the Board of the Benton Foundation and
Public Media Incorporated, a film and video publisher and distributor. He has
led the Foundation through its evolution from a grantmaking to an operating
foundation devoted generally to the field of communications. In 1978, President
Carter appointed Charles as chairman of the National Commission on Libraries and
Information Science and as chairman of the first White House Conference on
Library and Information Services, held in November 1979. In 1980, he was
re-appointed for an additional 5-year-term, during which time he was elected
chairman emeritus by unanimous vote of NCLIS commissioners. From the fall of
1997 to December of 1998, Charles was a member of the Presidential Advisory
Committee on Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters.
Michael J. Copps is a Commissioner at the Federal Communications
Commission starting his tenure in May 2001. He served until January 2001 as
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Trade Development at the U.S. Department of
Commerce, where he was previously Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for
Basic Industries. Copps came to Washington in 1970, joining the staff of Senator
Ernest Hollings (D-SC) and serving for over a dozen years as Chief of Staff. He
has also held positions at Collins and Aikman Corporation and the American Meat
Institute. Before coming to Washington, Copps was a professor of U.S. History at
Loyola University of the South. Norris Dickard, Director of Public Policy at the Benton Foundation,
joined the organization in January 2001 after working for seven years as a
senior policy advisor at U.S. Department of Education during the Clinton
Administration. He served on numerous White House, National Economic Council
Taskforces and on the Department's Educational Technology Working Group. From
1998-2000, he developed and directed the Community Technology Centers Program,
the cornerstone of President Clinton's Digital Opportunity Initiative. Norris
has also worked at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and
as a teacher at St. Mark's Day School in Shreveport, Louisiana. Norris currently
serves on the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Board and CTCNet Advisory
Board. Hugh Downs, one of the most familiar American television figures in
the history of the medium, was for many years the co-anchor of ABCNEWS' 20/20,
the primetime newsmagazine program. Downs has enjoyed a distinguished career in
radio and television as a reporter, newscaster, interviewer, narrator and host.
In 1985 he was certified by the Guinness Book of World Records as holding the
record for the greatest number of hours on network commercial television. And in
May 1989, Downs celebrated his 50th anniversary in broadcasting (both radio and
television). In May 1990, Downs was given the Broadcaster of the Year Award by
the International Radio and Television Society for his many achievements during
his 50 years in radio and television. Jessica Florez represents District 4 on the Phoenix City Council.
Among her goals are transit and light rail, crime prevention and neighborhood
preservation. Florez has been active in Phoenix for many years through her
involvement with various city initiatives and volunteerism with community
service organizations. She currently is volunteering with the Mountain Park
Health Center, the Coalition for Latino Political Action and the Phoenix
Community Alliance, among others. Florez is currently employed as a small
business owner in Phoenix as a managing partner of an advertising and public
relations firm specializing in Hispanic issues. She has a master's of public
administration from Arizona State University and a bachelor's degree in Spanish
from Westminster College. Joe Foote became the director of the Walter Cronkite School of
Journalism and Telecommunication in August 2000. Dr. Foote is the current
president of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
and a member of the Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass
Communication. He is a past president of the Broadcast Education Association and
the 1999 recipient of its Distinguished Education Service Award. He has also
received the Frank Stanton Award from the International Radio and Television
Society. He is author of "Television Access and Political Power: The Networks,
the President and the 'Loyal Opposition'" and "Live from the Trenches: The
Changing Role of the Network Television Correspondent". Terry Goddard, currently Arizona Attorney General, was previously
coordinator and senior community builder for the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development. In 1983 he was elected mayor of Phoenix and served four
terms. Under his leadership, Phoenix won All-America City honors and he speared
passage of two significant bond issues totaling nearly $2 billion, including
funding for major public cultural buildings in the city. In 1989, Terry was
elected president of the National League of Cities. He currently serves on the
boards of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Benton Foundation,
the Arizona Theater Company, the Cosanti Foundation, the Arizona Bank Advisory
Board and recently completed a four-year term on the board of the Federal Home
Loan Bank of San Francisco. Kimber Lanning is a resident of Tempe. She is the owner of Stinkweeds
and Modified Arts. Stinkweeds is an independently owned and operated music store
with a focus on independent labels and bands. Kimber opened Stinkweeds in May of
1987 when she was 19 years old. Since then, she's moved the store twice and
doubled its size. In the newest location, in Tempe, Arizona, a stage was added
in order to host in-store performances by bands like Blonde Redhead, Helium, Red
House Painters, Ida, Rex and June of '44. Carl Matthusen has served as general manager of KJZZ since 1978. He
was a Member, Board of Directors, National Public Radio, 1990-1996, and
Chairman, NPR Board of Directors, 1992-1996. Carl is the 1996 recipient of NPR's
Edward E. Elson Award. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the
International Association of Audio Information Services and is a mentor in the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Next Generation Project. Lynn Reed has been with Literacy Volunteers of Maricopa County (LVMC)
since June 1996 as Executive Director. Literacy Volunteers of Maricopa County
teaches individuals age 16 and older to read, speak English or prepare for the
GED. During her years at LVMC, the agency has undergone a successful
reorganization, become financially stable, and won two prestigious national
awards. Lynn has over seventeen years' experience in working with nonprofits and
has served on multiple nonprofit boards. She also has diverse experience in the
public sector working with the Department of Economic Security and as
Development Director for the Greater Phoenix Economic Council. Jim Ripley has been an editor for the East Valley Tribune for 11
years. He came to the Tribune as managing editor in 1992 from the Dayton (Ohio)
Daily News. During his tenure at the Tribune, the newspaper has changed
ownership three times. The Tribune is a regional newspaper that serves the one
million residents who live in the cities east of Phoenix. The Tribune's main
plant is located in Mesa, a city now larger than St. Louis, Pittsburgh or
Minneapolis. The Tribune's circulation is over 90,000. The Tribune has been
owned by Freedom Communications of Irvine California since August 2000. Freedom
owns 28 daily newspapers, 37 weekly publications and eight television stations.
Phyllis Rowe has served, since 1980, as President of the Arizona
Consumers Council, a statewide, volunteer non-profit advocacy group. During the
Carter Administration she was an Investigative Reporter for the U.S. Consumer
Product Safety Commission. She was a candidate for the Arizona Legislature in
1974, 76 and 78, campaigning on consumer issues. She serves on the National
Board of the Consumer Federation of America, the Arizona Funeral Consumer
Alliance and has just retired from the Board of the National Consumers League.
Anne Schneider came to ASU in 1989 as Dean of the College of Public
Programs and Professor in the School of Justice Studies. Her areas of interest
are public policy; democratic theory, processes, and institutions; and juvenile
/ criminal justice. Courses taught include research methods, public policy
analysis, and juvenile justice. She has been involved in several public service
projects including issues in minority overrepresentation in juvenile justice and
administration of the death penalty in Arizona. Andrew Jay Schwartzman, is President and CEO of the Media Access
Project, a twenty-seven year old non-profit public interest telecommunications
law firm which promotes the public's First Amendment right to hear and be heard
on the electronic media of today and tomorrow. He is recognized as one of the
foremost authorities on telecommunications public policy. Mr. Schwartzman
frequently appears on network TV and radio and in other public fora as a public
advocate. The National Law Journal has listed Mr. Schwartzman as a "bell
ringer," one of the nation's thirty leading communications lawyers. Andrea Taylor, president of the Benton Foundation since October 2001,
was the founding partner of Davis Creek Capital, LLC, a private equity fund
created to invest in Internet and new media businesses led by women and people
of color. She established the Media Fund at the Ford Foundation and for nearly a
decade collaborated with colleagues in the United States and worldwide to make
$50 million in program investments in independent broadcast media. A former
journalist with The Boston Globe and The Cleveland Plain Dealer, her previous
board affiliations include the Council on Foundations and the Cleveland
Foundation. A graduate of Boston University, she is currently a trustee of WNYC
AM-FM public radio, the Film Forum and the Ms. Foundation for Women.
Recently you have been barraged with missives from Congress
insisting alternately that you expedite or delay consideration of the various
media ownership proceedings currently pending before the Commission. It seems
there is no shortage of members anxious to tell you how best to perform the
job of setting the procedural agenda of the Federal Communications Commission.
I need not tell you of the importance of this proceeding, given
the tremendous impact the media can have in the everyday lives and thinking of
Americans. I also recognize that Congress created the need for this proceeding
by giving you the responsibility to review these rules every two years.
I do not write to attempt to influence the outcome of either the
procedural or substantive decisions before you. I only urge you to fulfill the
statutory mandate imposed on the Commission in a manner that is thoughtful,
consistent with all applicable laws bearing in mind the exigencies placed upon
you by the courts, and mindful of the best interest of the American public.