Can the Marketplace Deliver the Media We Need?

CAN THE MARKETPLACE DELIVER THE MEDIA WE WANT?
[SOURCE: Benton Foundation, AUTHOR: Charles Benton]
[Commentary] Some are hailing the outcome of the Don Imus fiasco as a triumph of media companies' self-regulation. But within days of CBS firing Imus, we saw the limits of relying on the marketplace to ensure the public interest. Today, marketers are truly the reigning power in the media world, but that how it should be. There’s been a slow erosion of broadcaster public interest obligations that has left Americans to ask whether broadcasters are really serving their local communities, whether they are meeting the diverse needs of all Americans who own the airwaves, and whether they are contributing to a vibrant and well informed democracy. If the FCC had real public interest standards that broadcasters must meet to win renewal of their licenses to use our airwaves, broadcasters would have focused on the national tragedy in Virginia instead of offering its typical escapist fare. If the stations airing the Imus show were owned by a minority, had a more diverse set of workers, still followed the ascertainment rules that required them to meet with the community it served, Don Imus would have been a better person, his show would have been more responsive, and the whole episode might have been avoided. Broadcasters can offer more than escape ­ and, according to the law, they should. Consumers deserve to know how broadcasters will serve their day-to-day television needs ­ healthy programming for children, healthy programming for our democracy, healthy programming for our communities, and as much information about the TV programs that come into our living rooms as what’s in the food that comes into our kitchens.
http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=node/5538

* For more on Public Interest Obligations see:
http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=issues/obligations

-- See also --
* As with Imus, marketplace a fair arbiter of bad speech
[Commentary] Media and entertainment figures who think they have to shock to be successful would do well to consider self-policing in light of the Imus, Mel Gibson, Ann Coulter and Michael Richards slurs, and other recent incidents. It could be that the marketplace is beginning to define just what it is willing to accept. This is not a constitutional matter.
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070419/OPINION01/...