Genachowski: FCC Should Not Dictate Programming

The Federal Communications Commission will be an "active partner" in supporting public media as one response to a crisis in journalism, says FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, but he also said that "this agency cannot and should not dictate programming."

Saying that whatever the FCC does, it must be "in the full spirit of the First Amendment," the chairman added that "nothing should ever be done to hobble the independence of the press." That came in opening remarks from the chairman at a daylong workshop on the future of "Public and Other Noncommercial Media in the Digital Era," the commission's second workshop in its ongoing review of the future of media. Chairman Genachowski said several seismic shifts were occurring simultaneously, prompting profound change in both noncommercial and commercial media. He said those changes have disrupted models of journalism and threatened to create a crisis for democracy. He also said it was not about preserving the journalistic industry or journalist's paychecks, but about the citizen's access to local news and information. Commissioner Michael Copps called it a great day, with as impressive a group as had ever been assembled at the FCC--it included the heads of CBP and PBS. Commissioner Copps said there were two problems: the "very immediate" challenge facing traditional media "on life support, where there is still life." The second, he said, was the future of online media. But he said they were actually one challenge: "Making sure that we have the information infrastructure that provides citizens what they need to know so they can make intelligent decisions about their future." He called public media the jewel of American broadcasting, and said it was amazing what they did with the "poverty" of funding for the system.