Friday, September 15, 2006

Bad Media

From the "Go Figure" Department:

The Blog | Jonathan Rintels: FCC Report Says Media Consolidation Harms News Coverage - FCC Then Orders Report Destroyed | The Huffington Post:

"The Federal Communications Commission ordered its staff to destroy all copies of a draft study that suggested greater concentration of media ownership would hurt local TV news coverage, according to a story by the AP's John Dunbar.

Former FCC attorney Adam Candeub, now a law professor at Michigan State University, said senior managers at the agency ordered that 'every last piece' of the report be destroyed.
'The whole project was just stopped -- end of discussion,' he said.

The FCC staff analysis showed local ownership of television stations adds almost five and one-half minutes of total news to broadcasts and more than three minutes of 'on-location' news. The conclusion is at odds with FCC arguments made when it voted in 2003 to increase the number of television stations a company could own in a single market. It was part of a broader decision liberalizing ownership rules. . ."

1 comment:

Bob Harrison said...

Hmmm. You're right, of course(hence, the "Go Figure" Department). Never let it be said that the obvious can elude every member of the bureaucracy.