FCC: We Don’t Care What The Public Thinks

The FCC’s Michael Powell seems determined to deregulate media company owenership. This despite overwhelming public opposition. “Powell’s contempt for public opinion, evidenced by his scheduling of only one official hearing on the proposed rule changes, is so great that he refused invitations to nine semiofficial hearings at which other commissioners were present. The hearings drew thousands of citizens and close to universal condemnation of the rule changes. Likewise, an examination of roughly half the 18,000 public statements filed electronically with the FCC show that 97 percent of them oppose permitting more media concentration. Even media moguls Barry Diller and Ted Turner have raised objections, with Turner complaining, ‘There’s really five companies that control 90 percent of what we read, see and hear. It’s not healthy’.”