If AJ Liebling Is Correct That

COMMENTS OF THE WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA REGARDING HARMFUL VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION IN THE TELEVISION INDUSTRY Relating To: CS Docket 98-82: Implementation of Section 11 of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992; and CS Docket 96-85: Implementation of the Cable Act Reform Provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996; and MM Docket 92-264: The Commission’s Cable Horizontal and Vertical Ownership Limits and Attribution Rules; and MM Docket 94-150: Review of the Commission’s Regulations Governing Attribution of Broadcast and Cable/MDS Interests; and MM Docket 92-51: Review of the Commission’s Regulations and Policies Affecting Investment In the Broadcast Industry; and MM Docket 87-154: Reexamination of the Commission’s Cross-Interest Policy Filed By Charles B. Slocum, January 4, 2002 on behalf of Writers Guild of America, west, Inc. 7000 West Third Street Los Angeles, CA 90048 and Writers Guild of America, East, Inc. 555 West 57th Street New York, NY 10019 If A.J. Liebling is correct that “freedom of the press belongs to the man who owns one” then we have big problems in television… WGA COMMENTS REGARDING HARMFUL VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION IN TELEVISION PAGE 1 Vertical and Horizontal Concentration in Television Have Limited Diversity and Creativity The Commission Must Act to Understand the Lack of Competition in the Video Program Market and to Ensure Diversity is Established in the Future Since its creation in 1934, the Federal Communications Commission has been charged with protecting the public interest by regulating the technologies which make mass communications possible. The Telecommunications Act of 1996, while attempting to update the specific provisions of the original Act, upheld the public policy goal of insuring an open, competitive marketplace that serves the consumer by encouraging diversity, unfettered access, and fair pricing. *** The fundamental question before the FCC today is simply this: Have the two recent great revolutions in the television industry – first, the technological revolution which has dramatically increased the number of channels many Americans have access to, and second, the equally-dramatic consolidation and control of program production, distribution and exhibition in an ever-shrinking handful of giant corporations – have these two dramatic developments of the last decade increased or decreased the diversity and variety and quality of programs American viewers see at home? The Writers Guild of America (west and East, together the “WGA”), which represents the 11,500 men and women who write virtually all the national entertainment programming and much of the national news Americans see, believes that these developments have contributed to an already steep decline in diversity, variety and quality, and that absent immediate remedial action by the Commission, the current serious adverse situation will further deteriorate to the detriment of all Americans. WGA COMMENTS REGARDING HARMFUL VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION IN TELEVISION PAGE 2 It may seem paradoxical and improbable that the burgeoning number of delivery channels has not increased the quality of programming or expanded the number and diversity of voices writing and producing entertainment and news and information in America, that it has indeed had the opposite effect. To understand this riddle, it is necessary to understand what makes a truly creative environment and the impact that the consolidation of ownership in the communications business has had on that environment. Diversity and Creativity Challenged True creativity, the kind that summons up the best of our imagination and understanding, that challenges us to aspire to be as good as we can possibly be, is not imitative or derivative. It is born in the distinct and diverse visions of men and women with unique experiences, feelings and sensibilities. True creativity flourishes best in an environment that encourages the unexpected, the novel, and the unplanned, that allows the individual to express himself or herself and to deal with subjects of importance to them and others. That has, in the past, been true of American television, when creativity has been allowed to flourish. What is the state of American television today? Most observers of American television today feel several things are true: First, the level of some weekly series is as high as it has ever been. Programs like West Wing, The Practice, Frasier, ER, Law and Order, NYPD Blue, among others, are as ambitious and creative as any of their predecessors, ever. It is widely understood that the quality of these series is attributable at least in very large measure to the leadership of extremely strong and creative individuals, writers and producers who have the track records and ‘clout’ to function largely as they wish in an environment where true independence is increasingly rare. The record is far less clear with series without such strong and independent leadership, as may be seen in the example of the The Education of Max Bickford (details below), and we all fear the day when network dominance overwhelms the few independent voices remaining. It is also clear today that in the world of movies-for-television and miniseries, where true independence has by every standard – financial and creative – virtually ceased to exist, the situation has never been worse. Twenty or thirty years ago, when diversity in ownership and creativity was the legally-mandated rule, what work was produced! Look at these, drawn from just the period 1970 to 1980: WGA COMMENTS REGARDING HARMFUL VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION IN TELEVISION PAGE 3 Roots, Friendly Fire, Holocaust, Tell Me Where It Hurts, That Certain Summer, Brian’s Song (the original), Hustling, The Execution of Private Slovik, Pueblo, Gideon’s Trumpet, QB VII, Queen of the Stardust Ballroom, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Winds of War, The Women’s Room, Amber Waves, Off the Minnesota Strip, Fear on Trial, The Amazing Howard Hughes, Blind Ambition, First You Cry, Studs Lonigan, Ike, The Winds Of Kitty Hawk, Guyana Tragedy: The Story Of Jim Jones, FDR: The Last Year, Haywire, The Miracle Worker, The Ordeal Of Dr. Mudd, Playing For Time, The Shadow Box, Raid On Entebbe, 21 Hours At Munich, Tail Gunner Joe, Beauty And The Beast, How Green Was My Valley (TV), Amelia Earhart, The Boy In The Plastic Bubble, A Circle Of Children, A Death In Canaan, Jesus Of Nazareth, Our Town, Young Joe: The Forgotten Kennedy, Kill Me If You Can: The Caryl Chessman Story, The Awakening Land, The Last Hurrah, A Family Upside Down, The Defection Of Simas Kudirka, The Gathering, Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill, Rich Man, Poor Man, The Adams Chronicles, Harry S. Truman: Plain Speaking, Judge Horton And The Scottsboro Boys, Sybil, The Last Tenant, Verna: Uso Girl, The War Between The Tates, Mary White, The Migrants, Steambath, The Missiles Of October, The Law, Love Among The Ruins, Benjamin Franklin, The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case, The Night That Panicked America, Farewell To Manzanar, I Will Fight No More Forever, Eleanor And Franklin: The White House Years, A Love Affair: The Eleanor And Lou Gehrig Story, King (Martin Luther King), Meeting Of Minds, Summer Of My German Soldier, The Jericho Mile, The Paper Chase, Attica, The House Without A Christmas Tree, Tribes, The Andersonville Trial, The Homecoming, The Snow Goose, The Glass House, To All My Friends On Shore, The Trial Of Mary Lincoln, The Red Pony, The Marcus-Nelson Murders, Arthur Miller's 'The Price', The Life Of Leonardo Da Vinci, A War Of Children, Long Day's Journey Into Night, The Migrants, I Will Fight No More Forever, The Blue Knight, The Morning After, The Plot To Murder Hitler, Jane Eyre, The Neon Ceiling, A Clear And Present Danger What is indisputably true is that these great shows of the past have been replaced, superseded by game shows and so-called ‘reality’ shows, by low-quality and frequently sexually-exploitive programming which can be produced at low cost and can fill many hours of a schedule. What happened? While there are, thankfully, pockets of true creativity remaining, mostly in Pay-TV and in hour series forms, sometimes in Basic Cable, the world of free television has witnessed a greatly reduced and constantly eroding freedom of expression and creativity. It is, in our view, no coincidence that this erosion of quality and creativity has closely paralleled the increasing domination of the airwaves by a few behemoths a trend which began when the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules disappeared and exhibitors and distributors of programs were allowed to produce, control and own in large part or in whole the programs they broadcast. WGA COMMENTS REGARDING HARMFUL VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION IN TELEVISION PAGE 4 Look at what has happened in the world of television and the explanation is clear. In the 1970’s and 1980’s, when networks were independent and not owners of (or owned by) studios, when there was a clear prohibition on a network producing and owning and distributing its own programming, independence flourished. If a writer came to a network with an idea for a movie or miniseries, he or she was responsible for seeing it through. The writer and producer owned the material, so if a network said, as sometimes happened, water it down, change it, soften it for our audience -- -- the writer or producer could say, in a word, no. I don’t want to change it that way. Either do it the way I want or I will take it to another network. That happened all the time in the 1970s and 1980’s both in series and long-form television. An artist could fight for that vision and win. For example, Norman Lear made two pilots for ABC on the revolutionary and trailblazing series All in the Family. ABC kept asking him to water it down, soften it, blur the edges.

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