In their latest love-fest — I mean interview —PBS’ Bill Moyers and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) take on new rules proposed by the Federal Communications Commission which they fear would lead to further media consolidation.
Both men are up in arms about a draft proposal being circulated by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski that would loosen restrictions preventing a single company from owning newspapers and broadcasting outlets in the same media market. Just yesterday, Sanders and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) held a Capitol Hill press conference to blast the proposed changes.
In their conversation, which will air this weekend on Moyers & Company, Sanders and Moyers talk about how media consolidation has already impacted Vermont journalism. Reading from a May 28 New York Times story, Moyers notes that Burlington’s Fox44 and ABC22 are technically owned by separate companies, but are essentially a single entity. (Yet another company is currently in the process of buying both stations, as we reported last month.)
“That’s exactly what I’m talking about,” Sanders says in the interview. “I can tell you that when I was mayor of that same city, Burlington, Vt., and we used to hold press conferences, you would have four or five or six different radio stations showing up. And, you know, we’d be talking about the school board or the city council — local issues. Now if we’re lucky we’ll have one radio station showing up, and that’s true all over the United States of America.”
Here’s a preview of the Moyers show:
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