Local media reports more local news than big corporate broadcast media. Sounds like a no brainer right? Well a report done by the FCC in in January – June 2004 called, Do Local Owners Deliver More Localism? – Some Evidence From Local Broadcast News provides the evidence. [PDF]
It shows locally owned stations produced five-and-a-half minutes more local news in a half-hour newscast than their consolidated competitors — 25% more local news. It also found that Network owned and operated stations (belonging to ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) aired significantly less local news.
Problem is this report was suppressed by former FCC Chairman Michael Powell. Turns out he ordered the study to show that “consolidated ownership didn’t negatively impact local communities.†When the opposite results were shown in the report he ordered “every last piece†destroyed.
Just recently the above study was leaked to congress and shared with the world. I learned about it from Freepress.net. You can read all about it at the StopBigMedia.com blog. Before you decide not to trust this source think about the quality of your local news recently. Its lack of local relevance sometimes is not entirely local TV stations fault. They work very hard at it. Giant corporate media owners have gone too far!
