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As the Federal Communications Commission considers changing rules, journalists need to pay better attention.
The American press has a tendency to underreport its own story. Right now this means that as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposes to change the rules governing ownership of local television stations, the public is being left largely in the dark. Normally, the press would love to report this story about powerful conglomerates and a concentration of markets and questions about how well the public will be served. But many of the players in this story are big media companies, whose newspapers and broadcast outlets seem to be shying away from their obligation to help readers and viewers anticipate what the changes might mean for them.
A decision by the FCC is expected this year. If the proposed changes are approved, a single corporation could own newspapers, radio and TV stations in one community. It is possible, too, that a single company could control access to more than 35 percent of all TV households in the nation.
The current rules were established in an era when local citizens had fewer choices: typically, three TV stations and a couple of newspapers. There were many independent owners and few giant media corporations....