The FCC field hearing went off quite well today. The auditorium was full, which I didn’t expect, and the crowd was engaged and vocal in its opinions. Your humble scribe was quoted in the UW student paper, as well.
I was amazed at the quality of the panelists the FCC assembled and the wide range of points of view they brought to the debate. If I had been undecided when I arrived, I wouldn’t have been when I left.
It would have been better (or I would feel better about it) had we videotaped it: the production crew I booked never showed up but there were other crews there. I have asked for a tape for the FCC’s records and our own use from one of the videographers.
Observations: one station manager from Belo, the media conglomerate, who was on the news panel said that as a news director, he had never had his editorial policy challenged by his corporate bosses. While the audience hissed (this is polite Seattle, after all: we don’t boo anyone), it struck me that I would be happier if he had been challenged. Otherwise, how can we be sure he’s not self-censoring his own efforts?
And I found my eyes drawn to an immaculately groomed, patrician-looking fellow standing in the back near me: dark blue suit, handkerchief points in his breast pocket, tassel loafers. I assumed he was some player or other. Later I saw him leave with the Belo station manager from the news panel, the subordinate walking like a kid on his way to the principal’s office.
Frank Blethen of the Seattle Times gave a variation on the speech he gave at the Richmond hearing and the crowd roared its approval of his “public watchdogs turned to corporate lapdogs” line.
Everyone seemed to understand that news organizations with a media outlet cost money and are therefore the first thing to cut when a new owner without a stake in local news takes over. It was good to see that: we’ve seen that at the network level for years:”Friends” sells more ads that “Nightline” and can be syndicated for years to come, so which one will make the shareholders more money?
But a more pernicious aspect I hadn’t given much thought to was the siphoning off off of local dollars to out of town pockets. When some national company sells ads on its farflung affiliates, those dollars don’t stay in the community where they originated: they fly home to corporate and stay there. There are similar threads in the articles linked from Rebecca Blood.
A great experience, well worth taking part in. I’m glad so many “average citizens” (their words, not mine) felt it was worth their time.