Comments (PDF)
The Communications Workers of America is the nation's largest media union, representing over 700,000 workers nationwide. CWA's comments to the FCC systematically dismantle Big Media's arguments for lifting ownership protections. Addressing Big Media's claim that deregulatory relief is needed to save the industry from financial ruin, CWA states "[m]edia owners are crying wolf when they claim that they need to merge to survive. In fact, newspapers and local television stations continue to earn healthy profits, in the range of 20 percent for newspapers and 40 to 50 percent for local television stations." CWA also demonstrates that consolidation is not the answer to declining revenues seen in some sectors of the media industry, as these declines are actually a byproduct of consolidation. "Media outlets are caught in a vicious cycle of decline which is largely of their own making. To boost profits, they cut staffing and resources. As the quality of the product declines, readers and viewers depart. To reverse this trend, newspapers and broadcasters must return to the basics: invest in a quality product that people want to read and to view." CWA draws on the first hand experience of its members, who report that cross-owned and duopoly media mergers have resulted in less competition and differentiation in news gathering, ultimately leading to the offering of an inferior news service to local communities.
CWA also filed several additional studies to support the case against media consolidation (all files are in pdf format):
"How Journalists See Journalists in 2004", Pew Research Center for The People & The Press
"Employment and Wage Effects of Radio Consolidation", Peter DiCola, Future of Music Coalition
The marriage of Comcast and NBC is bad news for consumers. But Washington and Wall Street have already bought into the idea that it's a done deal. That's why Americans need to speak out now and stop the mega-merger!
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