Pelosi Asks Justice To Take Broader View Of Competitive Landscape
John Eggerton -- Multichannel News, 3/17/2009 5:00:00 PM
Former FCC chairman Kevin Martin's argument that electronic news sources, including TV and the Internet, should figure into the government's assessment of media market competition has an unusual friend in a high place: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Pelosi met with representatives of the newspaper last week after hearing that it might have to close down or sell it. She followed that up with a letter to the Justice Department asking it to consider allowing Bay Area news papers more freedom to merge to remain in business.
In the letter, Pelosi tells Attorney General Eric Holder she is sure that in addressing concerns that any proposed mergers or "other arrangements" in San Francisco, that it will "take into appropriate count, as relevant, not only the number of daily and weekly newspapers in the Bay Area, but also the other sources of news and advertising outlets available in the electronic and digital age," saying that would reflect "market realities."
Historically, Justice has considered newspapers as the relevant market for judging mergers.
News of the letter comes as Hearst announced it was pulling the plug Tuesday on the print edition of the Seattle POst-Intelligencer after almost 150 years to move to a Web-only model.
Pelosi said there would be a hearing on the issue of the survival of newspapers in the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts and Competition Policy.
Martin had suggested that one way to help struggling newspapers was to allow them to merge with TV stations in their markets, a proposal that was met with strong and heated opposition from many top Democrats, who even tried to legislate his loosening of the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban out of existence.
Pelosi said that the result of taking the broader view of competition would be "to allow free market forces to preserve as many news sources, as many viewpoints, and as many jobs as possible."
Wouldn't Pelosi's stand square with Martin's position on loosening newspaper-broadcast ownership rules, which would also allow more media companies the freedom to merge to help save the struggling newspaper industry. John Sturm, who heads the Newspaper Association of America, says that the conclusion logically follows, though he says he believes Pelosi is concentrated on newspaper mergers rather than cross-media combos. "This is really not an FCC play," he said. "I think what she is saying is that antitrust laws should not be a barrier to certain mergers."
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Pelosi is right -- and about five years late. Where was she when the FCC was proposing modest steps to let old media reorganize and conserve resources while they retooled to battle emerging Internet-based media? Democrats like Pelosi bear the burden of explaining why their beloved news sources are now going out of business. Will the Democratic FCC and the Democratic Congress -- in the face of disappearing newspapers -- allow some additional local TV station and local radio station consolidation so those companies can buy some time to stay in business and avoid going dark? Don't hold your breath. Congress is usually about 10 years behind reality on this media stuff. They still think AOL dominates the Internet. In five more years, once some TV stations start going dark, we'll have Harry Reid belatedly saying "You know, DOJ should be a little more lenient when considering local TV station mergers." Maybe well-meaning folks like Mr. Reid and Ms. Pelosi should show some backbone: stand up to those in your party and the alleged "consumer advocates" (btw, how are those consumers in Seattle doing today?) and admit the media business has changed. Yes, old media used to dominate, but they don't anymore. Keep regulating them like dominant gatekeepers and you'll get what you deserve -- no gatekeepers at all.
Alec Berg - 3/17/2009 10:16:16 PM EDT -
Who reads the Liberal or corporate lies anymore...
Senator Harry Reid, Lady Nancy Pelosi are like snakes in the grass, when it comes to the Stimulus/Omnibus spending bill. When he is screeching about banks, AIG, Maldoff esq, insurance all the time eliminating the E-Verify tool, that would start to send the illegal alien invaders home. ITS CALLED----ATTRITION! The political drama queens worry about the Stimulus/Omnibus spending spree, when they are forcibly appropriating hundreds of billions of dollars to support illegal foreign nationals and their large families?
40 million illegal aliens are squatting in our nation, taking free education, health care and crammed prisons, as assayed by Robert Rector, president of the non-profit Heritage Foundation and a organization (CAPSWEB) Californians for Population Stabilization. Rather than the twelve million reported by pro-illegal alien zealots in the Liberal national press, Bush/ Obama administration and Congress. Clearly, the governing of America has fallen into the hands of corporate elitists who do not give a fig about our sovereignty, the rule of law, our Constitution, or the preservation of American language and culture. Those are the same politicians who cry out about conservation, green power grids, hybrid autos, poverty and the fact that giant agricultural corporations are swallowing small farmers. Taxpayers are the beneficiaries of business welfare.
Yet these lobotomized personages are eager to pass an amnesty plan that would reward 40 million lawbreakers with the most prized possession on this planet: U.S--- CITIZENSHIP. At the helm is Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV, Speaker Nancy Pelos (D-NV) who have become subservient to the US. Chamber of Commerce, ACLU and and a bunch of open border radicals, who would destroy our---NATIONAL IDENTITY. These political leaders along with 48 Democrats have polluted the Senate with a paramount corruption, when our country is suffering mass unemployment . They have eradicated E-Verify from the Stimulus/Omnibus bill, a very efficient, very successful application to remove illegal aliens from the workplace. It must be revised and made a----PROTRACTED----law, and not subject to political consideration every few years.
Join millions of THE PEOPLE now and start pounding on Washington door at 202-224-3121. To find your Senator: www.senate.gov/ To find your Representative: www.house.gov/ Leave a comment for the President: 202) 456-1414, To comment: (202) 456-111
Brittanicus - 3/17/2009 5:55:20 PM EDT
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