[opendtv] Re: Commissioner Copps on Internet openness
- From: Craig Birkmaier <craig@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2010 08:07:22 -0500
At 6:42 PM -0600 11/17/10, Manfredi, Albert E wrote:
"What happened was that in less than a generation, a media landscape
that should have been moving toward more diversity, more localism
and more competition was transformed into a market controlled by a
handful of players, too often providing little more than
infotainment, canned music and program homogenization. Newsrooms
were shuttered, reporters were fired, and investigative journalism
consigned to the endangered species list. The apologists told us
this was the natural result of changes in technology and markets,
and things would all work out fine in the world of new media if we
just looked the other way a while longer. The facts told another
story. The huge debts these mega-companies took on to curry favor
with investors and hedge-fund operators overwhelmed broadcaster
obligations to be good stewards of the people's airwaves. The
public's right to know got lost in the frenzy of financial
hyper-speculation."
An interesting analysis Bert.
I would point out that the landscape from which you were hoping to
see a move toward more diversity was tightly controlled by three
companies - an information oligopoly propped up by the U.S.
government since the inception of radio broadcasting.
You seem to enjoy the parts of Tim Wu's book that warn us about
potential new information monopolies like Google, Apple and Facebook,
but ignore the fact that he builds his analysis on REAL information
monopolies that have existed for nearly 100 years.
In fact there was a move toward diversity as the cable industry began
to develop content outside the walls of the broadcast networks. Yes
these companies used mega debt to get around the broadcast oligopoly,
but we did see diversity for a short period.
Then what happened?
The broadcast oligopoly went running to their buddies in Washington
saying that something needed to be done to protect the public from
these new Robber Barrons. So Congress re-regulated the cable industry
and handed the broadcasters the keys to the kingdom in the form of
retransmission consent. With this powerful new tool the broadcast
oligopoly claimed prime real estate in the basic cable tier,
developed new non-broadcast networks, then went on a buying spree and
gobbled up 90% of the content that is delivered via the MVPD walled
garden today.
And now the politicians are quietly sitting on the sidelines as the
broadcast oligopoly uses anti-competitive tactics to move their
control over content to the Internet.
For some strange reason Bert still defends the broadcast oligopoly,
but warns us to fear the new information monopolies like Google and
Apple, that are trying to tear down the walls around the empire that
the politicians have helped the media oligopoly to build.
Then, starngely enough, he makes a pitch for heavier regulation of
the Internet, to avoid these problems encountered with TV and other
media. But wait a minute, Commissioner. Hasn't FOTA TV always been
regulated by the FCC? And since the answer is yes, have you not just
told us that your regulation doesn't work to produce the results you
seem to champion?
Nothing strange here Bert. The FCC has always been a pawn of the
entrenched information monopolies. If they tried to stray from the
party line the NAB and other lobbies would simply get Congress to
pass new laws to bring them back in line.
It should come as no surprise that the FCC is backing the empire and
encouraging people to subscribe to the MVPDs. This enriches the
corporations they are supposed to be regulating, and helps accelerate
the demise of broadcasting so that they can recover spectrum to sell
to the other oligopolies that they regulate...
Perfecty predictable!
But I would not give much credit to any FCC commissioner. They just
do what they are told.
Regards
Craig
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