"What is America to Me?"

The howdy and the handshake The air a feeling free And the right to speak your mind out That's America to me - The House I Live In

It was about sixty years ago when the composer and lyricist (Earl Robinson and Lewis Allen, respectively) of this song wrote the lines, "And the right to speak your mind out. That's America to me".

While it is impossible to know, it's difficult to conceive that Lewis Allen meant that "the right to speak your mind out" would ultimately belong to the General Electric Company, Viacom, Newscorp, AOL/TimeWarner, and the Walt Disney Company. Similarly, it's difficult to have conceived over sixty years ago that the media in our country would be regulated by a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman who "never saw a media conglomerate he didn't like". This FCC Chairman is dedicated to the notion that media should not be regulated, and that further expansion of major media companies is somehow "good for America".

"And the right to speak your mind out" should be afforded to as many "minds" as possible. If the airwaves do indeed belong to the public, isn't it a good idea to have as much of the public as possible have the right to have their opinions heard by the rest of the people. Isn't it inherently unreasonable to have these few media companies, with their unlimited power and not necessarily the finest of motives, speaking to virtually all of the people, virtually all of the time.

In 1975 it seemed reasonable and simple when the FCC promulgated its cross-ownership rule, which prevented a newspaper from owning a broadcast station or a broadcast station from owning a newspaper in the same market. In 2001, the FCC decided to review this cross-ownership prohibition. They apparently decided that the "new media" and the Internet provided a broad range of news and information and that the cross-ownership elimination would undoubtedly provide "efficiencies" which would serve the public interest.

While many support this position, since 1975 the "big media companies" have become "gigantic media companies". Most of the major motion picture companies, with the exception of Sony/Columbia, own and operate a television network. The only network not "merged" with a studio is NBC, which is owned and operated by the General Electric Company.

In 2002 Douglas Gomery, a professor of Media Economics and History in the College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, wrote:

"Profit maximization has never been the sole point of U.S. communications policy. Under the Communications Act of 1934, the FCC is charged with allocating spectrum space to maximize "the public interest, convenience, or necessity." The Communications Act and its revisions mandate promotion of the public interest, and thus the encouragement of a diversity of voices so as to promote a vibrant democracy. How best can the commission achieve these goals within the confines of the marketplace?

"The newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule helps to keep at bay the failure of the marketplace to ensure a variety of voices in news and entertainment. It is as relevant and important now as ever, perhaps more so, and must be retained."

The major companies, General Electric (NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, and more); Newscorp (FOX Network, FOX News Channel, and more); Walt Disney Co. (ABC, Family Channel, and more); AOL/TimeWarner (the WB, CNN, and more); and Viacom (CBS, UPN, and more), control the vast majority of broadcast and cable news delivery systems in the United States. Doesn't it seem reasonable that these companies speak with a loud enough voice that it would be obscene to consider allowing them to own the Washington Post, the NY Times, the Los Angeles Times, and whatever else they would choose to control? America desperately needs "other views and other voices" and rescinding the cross-ownership rules would deny America these other views and other voices.

There is an old joke where the star of a theatrical presentation collapses on stage in the middle of a show. The stage manager rushes out and calls to the audience, "Is there a doctor in the house?" A doctor from the audience rushes on stage to tend to the actor, when from the deep recesses of the balcony a voice shouts, "Give him chicken soup!" The doctor stands up and replies, "He's dead, chicken soup won't help". The same voice from the balcony yells, "But it wouldn't hurt!"

Leaving these cross-ownership restrictions in place similarly "wouldn't hurt". The government can probably "push around" and influence the giant media companies, but would have far greater difficulty pushing around the nation's print media.

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