(Or, why would a Republican FCC leadership want a "liberal" media stranglehold to grow even tighter?)
.
In a move that roundly falsifies any claim that the mainstream media are "liberal," a lawyer for the Federal Communications Commission was recently discovered to have ordered the destruction of a finding that locally-run media did a better job of covering local issues than did media run by distant corporate giants.
.
Why is this important?
.
The finding was important to the argument against FCC rule changes that would allow corporate media giants to own and dominate even larger chunks of a community's broadcast and print media.
.
Fairness And Accuracy In Reporting, a liberal group that nevertheless documents its arguments firmly in facts, sums it up, to wit:
.
http://www.fair.org/index.p...
"Three years ago, then-FCC chair Michael Powell launched a proceeding on the effects of local ownership on television news as part of his drive to further deregulate media and allow for even greater consolidation. But the report commissioned under Powell turned out to undermine his argument that consolidation has no ill effects on local news, and, according to former FCC lawyer Adam Candeub, senior managers ordered "every last piece" of the study destroyed (AP, 9/14/06). On September 12, Senator Boxer, armed with the leaked report, questioned current FCC Chair Kevin Martin about it at his renomination hearing.

"According to the report, locally owned stations in fact deliver nearly six minutes more of total news and almost five-and-a-half more minutes of local news in a 30-minute newscast than stations with non-local owners. This adds up to 33 more hours of local news a year--a remarkable figure, and a damning one for big media's allies in the FCC, who are required to protect the public interest and to promote localism."
.
The interesting fact is that President Bush is hell-bent on seeing media ownership rules loosened up further in this way, allowing corporate media oligopolies to grow even more powerful.  He opposed Congressional efforts to resist these FCC ownership rule changes.
.
This solidly and roundly disproves any anti-Bush bias in the news media.  President Bush would be foolish to insist upon giving major media even more dominance unless the media were already sympathetic to him.  Why would he be so determined to give even more controlling power to media giants, if these media giants are so hostile to him?
.
Regardless of your political views, this continuing concentration of media power in the hands of a few is dangerous to the future of freedom and democracy in the United States.
.
And it must be stopped.