Former FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps issued an apology for his role in approving big mergers between media companies that he says contributed to ruining journalism. In class we talk a lot about ownership and the business side of the news media. We’ve discussed the transition from private ownership to public ownership through mergers and acquisitons of large companies, small family business owners versus chains with stockholders and many owners. Even when the news outlets were run by blatantly liberal or conservative owners, they already had money and simply wanted to spread their views, which was done by good reporting. Now most owners get the final say over editors and reporters and money is the main goal, which drives stories based on information consumers want instead of what they need. Also, companies don’t want to fund the hard-hitting investigative stories because they are costly and time-consuming. In class a quote by William Ziff was mentioned – “The media world was invaded by money.” One example of a notoriously bad merger we talked about was between AOL & Time Warner, which was made because companies became very eager to expand and make more money, but it failed when the combined staff couldn’t cooperate together.
In his letter, former commissioner Copps says that these news conglomerates are failing us. He put it best when he said they have become “nationwide, homogenized, and de-journalized empires that respond more to quarterly reports than to the information needs of citizens.” Not only did Copps apologize, but he said people need to make changes for a better future of our news. I found this all extremely interesting, to see someone who had worked in government regulations be so transparent, lay out the problems with the system, and call for action was refreshing.
To read some more about this topic, check out these links:
http://www.cjr.org/essay/from_the_desk_of_a_former_fcc.php?page=3
