Statement of Adam Clayton Powell, Iii
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Before the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION Washington, D.C. 20554 In the Matter of ) ) 2006 Quadrennial Regulatory Review – Review ) MB Docket No. 06-121 of the Commission’s Broadcast Ownership ) Rules and Other Rules Adopted Pursuant to ) Section 202 of the Telecommunications ) Act of 1996 ) ) 2002 Biennial Regulatory Review – Review ) MB Docket No. 02-277 of the Commission’s Broadcast Ownership ) Rules and Other Rules Adopted Pursuant to ) Section 202 of the Telecommunications ) Act of 1996 ) ) Cross-Ownership of Broadcast Stations ) MM Docket No. 01-235 and Newspapers ) ) Rules and Policies Concerning Multiple ) MM Docket No. 01-317 Ownership of Radio Broadcast Stations ) in Local Markets ) ) Definition of Radio Markets ) MM Docket No. 00-244 COMMENTS OF MEDIA GENERAL, INC. (Volume 2: Statement of Professor Adam Clayton Powell, III, Appendix 4A with Exhibits) . John R. Feore, Jr. Michael D. Hays M. Anne Swanson Daniel A. Kirkpatrick Dow Lohnes PLLC 1200 New Hampshire Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20036-6802 (202) 776-2534 Its Attorneys October 23, 2006 Appendix 4A STATEMENT OF ADAM CLAYTON POWELL, III I am the Director of the Integrated Media Systems Center, the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Research Center for multimedia research, at the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering. I am also a Senior Fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy and served until last year as a Visiting Professor of Journalism at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications. Previously, I served as general manager of WHUT-TV, Washington, D.C., and KMTP-TV, San Francisco, California, the nation’s first and second African American-owned public television stations, respectively. I have also served as Director and Vice President for Technology Programs of the Freedom Forum, Executive Producer at Quincy Jones Entertainment, Vice President for News and Information programming at National Public Radio, Manager of network radio and television news for CBS News, and News Director for all-news radio station WINS, New York. I have authored or contributed to a number of books on broadcasting, journalism, emerging media, and other communications issues. Most recently, I authored a book entitled Reinventing Local News: Connecting Communities through New Technologies. I have written pieces on media and communications issues for a number of publications, including The New York Times, Wired, Online Journalism Review, and Black Issues in Higher Education. A more detailed biography and complete copy of my C.V. follows this introductory statement. The following statement provides an overview of the convergence efforts undertaken by Media General, through its subsidiary companies, in six United States television markets where the company owns both television stations and one or more daily newspapers. To prepare this statement, I conducted extensive telephone interviews with representatives from each Media General outlet in each of these six markets. I have also reviewed the filings previously submitted by some of these television stations as part of the FCC license renewal process. My report on each market follows as Exhibits A through F. Attached to each market report are exhibits providing more detail. As can be seen from the six reports, it is clear that in each of the six converged markets, the communities served benefit by increased news coverage, expanded public affairs service, and greater community service from the six - 2 - licensed television broadcasters than would have been the case absent convergence. The depth of journalism and public service enabled by convergence is without question documented in these markets, and the geographically broader and editorially more intensive and responsive public service is demonstrated in each of the six markets. By any definition of localism or community service, these are all examples of outstanding public service that stand as models which could well be emulated by large- and major-market licensees. It is also interesting to note that these licensees reflect levels of community involvement and (although this is no longer required by the Commission) ascertainment of critical community issues that are superior to those licensees with far greater resources. Despite the significant benefits that convergence has brought to these markets in terms of quantitative and qualitative improvements in news delivery, it has not, contrary to some critics’ fears, resulted in any reduction of news department staffs. Indeed, in implementing its convergence efforts, Media General has increased the news staffs at each of its cross-owned television stations. - 3 - The results achieved by Media General have been possible, in my view, because the different media platforms in each market are commonly owned. It is difficult, and at times nearly impossible in my experience, absent common ownership, to create collaborative and integrated working environments that are both durable and effective, particularly when they involve journalists with differing backgrounds, goals, and, at times, interests. Therefore, the only way these results are likely to be replicated is for the Commission to allow and, indeed, encourage common ownership of newspapers and broadcast television stations in markets of all sizes. Further, it is my opinion that competition will encourage the formation of multiple pairs of commonly owned newspapers and television stations in each DMA, each seeking to increase its reach by serving their communities with the same increased news coverage, expanded public affairs service, and greater community service demonstrated repeatedly and conclusively in these markets by Media General. Communities of all sizes can and should be allowed to receive the benefits of common ownership. What follows is a powerful lesson. And, it teaches that it is the Commission's obligation to enhance localism by eliminating - 4 - all restrictions on the common ownership of newspapers and broadcast television stations. While these trends are evident, a much more rapid trend has become obvious: an explosion of voices in all media. A far more numerous and diverse universe of voices has become available in even the smallest markets. In print, the continuing plunge in the cost of desktop publishing and similar tools has resulted in a profusion of new outlets in print. But even more dramatic, the adoption of the Internet for text, audio and video has far exceeded anything that could have been imagined even 15 years ago. The millions of new voices on the Internet, again even in the smallest markets, means that a diversity of voices is now apparent and is growing only more so at an accelerating pace. Accordingly, concerns regarding a lack of diversity of voices even in the smallest markets are arguably no longer applicable. - 5 - ADAM CLAYTON POWELL, III Adam Clayton Powell III is Director of the Integrated Media Systems Center, the National Science Foundation’s Engineering Research Center for multimedia research, at the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering. He is also a Senior Fellow at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy. Prior to joining the USC faculty in 2003 as a Visiting Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, he was General Manager of WHUT-TV, the nation’s first African American-owned public television station, adding several hours per week of local prime time news and public affairs programming. He also was the founding General Manager of KMTP-TV in San Francisco, the nation’s second African American-owned public television station, which he helped put on the air in 1991. Before joining WHUT-TV, Powell helped form and then run the Internet and computer media technology programs over a period of fifteen years at the Freedom Forum, as a consultant (1985-1994), then Director (1994-1996) and finally Vice President/Technology and Programs (1996-2001), supervising forums in around the world on information technologies and new media for journalists, media managers, educators, policy makers and researchers. Powell also served as an Executive Producer at Quincy Jones Entertainment, where he produced Jesse Jackson’s weekly television series (1990-1991) and developed nonfiction television projects; Vice President/News and Information programming at National Public Radio (1987-90); a Manager of network radio and television news for CBS News (1976-81), and News Director of all-news WINS (1973-76) in New York, introducing the 22-minute news format. He also was Co-Producer of “Keep the Faith, Baby,“ a Paramount/Showtime dramatic motion picture biography of his father, Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., which premiered on 125th Street in Harlem and then on television in February, 2002. Powell has extensive experience in Africa, most recently supervising a team of USC graduate students in South Africa in the summer of 2004. Previously, he conducted Freedom Forum technology training programs in all parts of the continent, from Cairo to Cape Town and from Accra to Nairobi, planned and supervised the 1993-94 National Association of Black Journalists exchange program with South Africa and worked with Nigeria’s television authority in the 1980’s to upgrade its engineering and journalism broadcasts. Powell has written for publications including The New York Times, Wired, Online Journalism Review and Black Issues in Higher Education. He is the author of Reinventing Local News: Connecting Communities through New Technologies (Figueroa Press, 2006) and co-author