Questionable Journalism Ethics from Newspaper Assoc. of America

Questionable Journalism in the Newspaper Association of America Talking Points

The talking points recently circulated by the Newspaper Association of America in their lobbying campaign to convince Congress not to overturn the recent FCC rules are highly misleading-and wrong.

The NAA claims that "the FCC modified its newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership regulations. Under the new rules, in small markets with three or fewer TV stations, the ban continues to be enforced. In mid-size markets with 4 to 8 TV stations, limited cross-ownership is allowed."

The suggestion that the FCC merely "modified" the rules with "limited" cross-ownership is utterly misleading.

• The rule grants blanket approval to TV-newspapers cross-ownership in all market with more than 4 TV stations. Every newspaper in every mid-sized market can be cross-owned with a TV station.
• Over 97 percent of all Americans live in cities where blanket approval of newspaper-TV cross-ownership will be granted - i.e. all markets with 4 or more TV stations.
• For the first time, the FCC invites companies to request waivers of the rules in small markets with 3 or fewer TV stations without any restriction on the basis for the waiver.
• For the first time, the public will not have a right to challenge these media mergers.

The NAA claims that the ban is not needed "in today's highly diverse mass media marketplace." This claim simply does not apply to local news markets.

• The number of daily newspapers has declined by 20 percent and the number of independent owners has declined by 66 percent as newspapers consolidate in national chains that squeeze out local news.
• The typical American city is served by a dominant daily newspaper with 60% of the total circulation and a second newspaper with about 20% of the circulation.
• The typical American city is served by four TV stations that do local news.
• The FCC's own expert recognized that cable TV and the Internet are not local sources of news.

The NAA claims that two studies, one by the FCC and the other by the Project for Excellence in Journalism independently found that co-owned newspaper/broadcast combinations provide higher quality and more news and information than other broadcast stations." The studies that the NAA cites are not scientifically valid.

• Here is what the FCC said about the study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism "Whether or not the PEJ Study is unbiased, its results appear statistically insignificant, the underlying data have not been made available, and therefore it cannot be considered reliable or convincing evidence."
• The FCC's own studies did not claim statistical validity and failed to control for key factors, such as market size and market rank of the cross-owned entities.
• The only scientifically valid studies on cross-ownership in the record show that the cross-owned newspapers were biased and underreported the Telecommunications Act of 1996 in which their owners had a strong interest.

The blanket approval of newspaper-TV opens the door to a potentially staggering wave of TV stations swaps and acquisitions. The twelve corporations in America that own both newspapers and TV stations, but not in the same city, have a huge portfolio of assets to make deals.

• They already own approximately 20% percent of all TV stations in America
• They own 20% of all daily newspapers.
• They account for about 50% of all daily circulation.

While the FCC adopted a ban on mergers between dominant TV stations and networks (prohibiting mergers among the top four) it failed to adopt a ban on mergers between dominant TV stations and dominant newspapers. As a result, cross-owned newspapers-TV combinations will be able to thoroughly dominate local news markets. For example:

• In Tallahassee, Florida, a TV-Newspaper combination of the top TV station and the leading newspaper would have 60% of the newspaper circulation, 60% of the TV viewing audience, and employ over 60% of the total newspaper/TV newsroom staff in the city.
• In Austin, Texas, a TV-Newspaper combination of the top TV station and the leading newspaper would have 80% of the newspaper circulation, 25% of the TV viewing audience, and employ over 55% of the total newspaper/TV newsroom staff in the city.
• In Des Moines, Iowa, a TV-Newspaper combination of the top TV station and the leading newspaper would have 70% of the newspaper circulation, 41%of the TV viewing audience, and employ over 40% of the total newspaper/TV newsroom staff in the city.
• In Madison, Wisconsin, a TV-Newspaper combination of the top TV station and the leading newspaper would have 55% of the newspaper circulation, 32% of the TV viewing audience, and employ over 40% of the total newspaper/TV newsroom staff in the city.
• In Reno, Nevada, a TV-Newspaper combination of the top TV station and the leading newspaper would have 65% of the newspaper circulation, 29% of the TV viewing audience, and employ over 45% of the total newspaper/TV newsroom staff in the city.