The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is once again reviewing its media ownership rules. These are the rules that dictate the extent to which various types of media outlets may be commonly owned. So, for example, one rule prohibits common ownership of a daily newspaper and a radio or television broadcast station in the same community, and another limits the number of commonly owned radio and TV stations in a local market. There are others as well.
The stated purpose of the ownership rules is to promote competition, diversity of viewpoint and the availability of local news and information. These may be worthy public policy objectives. The problem is that the restrictions were adopted between the 1940s and the 1970s, when most people got their news and information from the local newspaper or a few over-the-air broadcast stations-in other words, before cable television, before satellite TV, before wireless networks and, most significantly, before the Internet. Nevertheless, most of the analog-era ownership rules remain in place. They should be substantially relaxed or eliminated to reflect the realities of the diversity of information sources available in today’s media marketplace.
