MEDIA LOBBYISTS: AN UNREPORTED STORY

...CBS, NBC, and ABC all have registered lobbyists in Washington, as do several radio networks...

...members often come up to me and say the local publishers have talked to them...

...The option to sell is further enhanced by a willingness of chains to pay up to fifty to sixty times the annual earnings of an independent newspaper...

...He says there is a "feeling of guilt" among the chains because "there is no good argument against the bill and they are so big already...

...For example, as the postal system developed, daily and weekly newspapers lobbied vigorously and received favorable treatment through lower postal rates...

...Because many legislators believe it is these news organizations which control their political fates, media lobbyists have leverage unlike any others...

...But the real battle is raging now, as warring lobbyists seek to persuade legislators to support or fight specific portions of the bill once it reaches the full Commerce Committee and the House floor...

...It is quiet not because it lacks intensity, but because the activities of lobbyists who work for the media don't make the headlines or the 6 o'clock news...

...Like many who deal with communications issues, James says most media lobbying is education, not arm-twisting...

...Each time broadcasters seek renewal, they are required to demonstrate their programming is in the public interest, especially when it comes to news and other public affairs shows...

...so he's going to lend me an ear' kid-vid issue may become nothing more than advisory...

...Everybody would be asleep...

...Readers may be presented with less divergent ideas...

...The independent paper — long cherished as the "Watchdog" of American society — is threatened with extinction...

...Such neglect is nothing new — while radio, television, and newspapers are quick to cover almost every other industry, they rarely cover their own...

...In short, then, Van Deerlin's bill (and to a lesser degree, bills proposed in the Senate) would throw open the broadcast industry and leave programming decisions entirely to the discretion of broadcasters...

...Even the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio — which are largely funded by the Federal Government — retain lobbyists to influence Congress and the FCC...

...And the irony of the newspaper lobby in Washington is that it self-righteously represents freedom of the press while often ignoring press inquiries into its own activities...

...While media lobbyists have been busy with the rewrite of the Communications Act and Representative Udall's inheritance tax bill, coverage of these issues has been almost non-existent...

...Representative Lionel Van Deerlin, Democrat of California, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Communications and a former newsman, also attests to the clout of the media lobbies: "Broadcasters are the same as newspapers...

...In fact, if all the media owners had common goals, they'd seldom lose a battle...

...Yet the only television news camera to be seen at the press conference belonged to a college student from upstate New York, who was working on a documentary...

...Our members are close with their congressmen and are able to get through to them...

...The FCC has seldom revoked a license, but many media watchers say its power to do so is enough to keep broadcasters conscious of public-interest responsibilities...

...Similarly, the Rewrite would open up the cable business to communications giants such as AT&T...

...Because they differ, Washington is locked in a communications war...

...The cable interests are fighting to keep AT&T out of their business, and small broadcasters are fighting for more stations...

...Newspapers would be permitted to buy or retain ownership of broadcast stations in the markets where they publish, overturning current FCC restrictions on cross-ownership...

...And if a legislator doesn't listen, or votes the "wrong" way, would Costello find it hard to provide the coverage he previously had...

...Concerned that some broadcasters were skirting equal opportunity requirements by manipulating job titles — for example, listing a black janitor as VicePresident for Sanitation Services — FCC commissioners voted to study whether broadcasters should be required to make public information on their employes' race, sex, salary, and precise job title...

...There were no signs of network news correspondents, although the network lobbyists were present — attentive to Van Deerlin's intentions...

...As a result, few Americans know that Congress may virtually abandon regulation of the broadcast industry by rewriting laws which have stood for forty-five years...

...Because of the savvy he gained in sixteen years as a Capitol insider — most of them as chief assistant to the late Democratic Senator Carl Hayden of Arizona — Elson often is cited as one of the most effective media lobbyists in Washington...

...That night, not one television network news program carried mention of the bill's introduction...

...My Representative] knows he's got to buy time on my radio station, so he's going to lend me an ear," Costello said...

...The simple fact is, the American newspaper and broadcast industries are myopic when it comes to reporting on issues of concern to their own economic self-interests...

...It began when the Federal Trade Commission finally succumbed to the appeals of citizens' groups critical of television advertising aimed at young children...

...In his book America Inc., Morton Mintz wrote that "some senators acknowledge privately that certain powerful publishers had given them crude ultimatums: support the bill or the publishers would oppose them the next time they were up for reelection...

...Jerry Friedheim, executive vice president and general manager of ANPA, refused to be interviewed...

...Other lobbyists represent Time Inc., Reader's Digest, and the Motion Picture Association of America...

...Under proposed legislation, licenses would be The authors are graduate students at the American University School of Communications...

...But broadcasters and newspapermen who have learned how to spice up stories on trade deficits and inflation should be able to do the same with stories on communications issues...

...Most broadcast lobbyists are working to assure the deregulation they so strongly support isn't killed or diluted by legislators who don't believe, as Van Deerlin does, that marketplace forces can protect the public interest...

...At stake is who controls information and its distribution — in essence, who controls the flow of news...

...We're keeping them alive back home and that's why the newspaper and radio and TV people are more effective lobbyists...

...There is a whole raft of issues they've done pretty well on...

...Faced with this issue concerning the rights of impressionable, immature children, versus those of free speech and free enterprise, broadcasters had a legitimate case to present at the FTC hearings...

...The NAB, in an editorial in its Radioactive magazine, told its members the proposal would be "disruptive as well as ruinous to morale at practically every station in the country...

...Even James admits groups such as the NAB "get the most done" when they can generate lobbying by local broadcasters, especially when those broadcasters know legislators personally...

...Udall admits the bill may not succeed in stopping the growth of newspaper chains but might simply raise the cost of acquiring independent papers...

...No longer would broadcasters have to prove their programming is geared toward the needs of the community...

...The Government has to regulate broadcasters, that principle says, because if it did not, they could air whatever it takes to make money and to hell with public service programs like the 6 o'clock news...

...The '. . .don't expect to see the footsteps of media lobbyists traced on the 6 o'clock news' most intense lobbying, he says, is coming from the small independent dailies and weeklies...

...Narrowly failing in that attempt, the broadcasters along with other concerned lobbyists are now pushing legislation to restrict the authority of the FTC...

...Nicholas Johnson, a former FCC commissioner and now a director of the National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting, goes one step further: "There are broadcasters, then there is everybody else," he says...

...One independent network showed up for several hearings, but was more interested in filming Captain Kangaroo testifying than in providing adequate coverage of the advertising issue...

...Add to that the clout the NAB gains from a membership of 4,500 radio and television stations and eight radio and television networks, and it's easy to see why a Senate staffer described the NAB as "one of the most influential groups around...

...Current restrictions on the number of radio stations a single company can own would be etimitnated, but no one could own more than one AM and FM station in the same market...

...Naturally, media lobbyists have been busy during the four years since Van Deerlin and former Representative Louis Frey, Republican of Florida, first decided to rewrite the 1934 act...

...They are awfully powerful," says Senator Ernest F. Hollings, Democrat of South Carolina, who is chairman of both the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and the appropriations subcommittee handling communications bills...

...There's very little of 'God damn it, if you don't do this, we're gonna turn out the guys and defeat you in the next election.' " But despite James's assertions, there is evidence that precisely such leverage was used by newspaper lobbyists during the successful fight for the Newspaper Preservation Act, which allowed competing newspapers to merge their printing operations — an exemption to anti-trust laws which do not allow such mergers in other industries...

...Since the first Communications Act was passed in 1934, she said, the number of broadcasting outlets has grown substantially and new technology such as cable and video recorders is offering the public even more options...

...He can earn the support of 175 radio stations in the state of Louisiana by voting for something that only affects [those stations]," Costello said...

...Also in Washington at that time were hundreds of members of the American Agricultural Movement...

...That's why we don't have to come to Washington with tractors...

...As a result, there is no longer a scarcity of programming and no longer a need to regulate programming to ensure diversity, she said...

...Other broadcast groups, too, effectively combine the political savvy of their Washington lobbyists with the political clout of their members back home...

...According to Udall, the bill is gaining momentum in Congress and is being co-sponsored by about eighty members...

...Instead, the broadcast lobby tried to cut off funds for the hearings by pressuring members of appropriations committees in Congress...

...Yet the lawmaking these lobbyists are influencing is every bit as vital as deliberations on energy policy or wage guidelines...

...In addition to these associations, the most powerful broadcast corporations have their own lobbyists...

...Or that legislators have a chance to help keep control of local news where it belongs — in the hands of local publishers...

...They're really in a class no one else can touch, when it comes to power...

...Representative Morris K. Udall, Democrat of Arizona, says he has come up with a "stop-gap measure" for sustaining the remaining independent newspapers by discouraging them from selling out to chains such as Gannett, Newhouse, Knight-Ridder, and Scripps-Howard...

...Apparently they haven't tried...

...Newspaper groups also have lobbyists in Washington, and like broadcasters they have been effective in mobilizing local members for massive lobbying efforts...

...Actually] they take a back seat to no one...

...He's very interested in satisfying that local broadcaster because it's instrumental in his reelection...

...Nobody would listen," says Frey, former ranking Republican on the House communications subcommittee, and now a Washington lawyer for broadcasters...

...When copyright statutes were codified in 1909, the ANPA effectively lobbied for a reduction of the maximum penalty for photographic copyright infringement from $5,000 to $200...

...Unlike others who give money as a means to the end, they [broadcasters and publishers] are the end...

...When the publishers meet to discuss lobbying issues, their meetings often are closed to press coverage...

...Newspapers also are represented in Washington by the American Newspaper Publishers Association and the American Society of Newspaper Editors...

...vote anything that the local broadcasters want...

...And who wins that war is far more than the parochial concern of the media — it is the concern of the public...

...If they succeed, the commission's power in the [My congressman] knows he's got to buy them...

...But even taking into account television's poor track record in covering itself, its neglect of the introduction of the Communications Act rewrite was a surprise...

...Newspapers: The independently owned daily is fast becoming a thing of the past — there are only 600 today, and they are disappearing at the rate of sixty a year...

...They'd be the first to tell you that...

...With that could come less diversity in programming and more of the same mediocre, formula shows offered by the networks today...

...They want to know what they can do...

...Costello owns and operates five radio stations in Louisiana and is remarkably candid about the power he has as a broadcaster...

...Among them are the Daytime Broadcasters Association, which represents several hundred small radio stations, and the National Cable Television Association, which claims as members 1,600 cable owners...

...The newspaper chains argue they offer the money and new technology needed to maintain and in fact improve local newspapers...

...The publishers are "a good group of people to have on your side...

...They are constantly voting with inadequate information...

...The average Senator...

...While Van Deerlin and others say the power to withhold or slant coverage is rarely if ever exercised, our conversation at a Washington convention showed us at least one broadcaster is willing to use that power...

...When Representative Van Deerlin stood in front of some 200 journalists, lawyers, and lobbyists on March 29, he was not just introducing a bill...

...But Congress is considering throwing cable competition wide open — and control of the wired empire could end up in the hands of a few corporate giants such as AT&T...

...While Congress is considering proposals which could drastically change the broadcast industry, equally important changes are underway for American newspapers...

...ABC news aired a three-part series on television advertising but passed up the obvious opportunity it offered to take art in-depth look at whether children's advertising should be limited...

...Whereas in the past new assignments were made after the FCC studied the proposed programming of competing applicants, assignments would now be handled by lottery...

...The NRBA quickly issued a shrill warning to its members at 1,200 radio stations around the country of the FCC's "Big Brother" plan...

...Bill Mullen, NNA president, explains that "when there is an issue of importance to our members, we can generate a lot of grassroots support...

...All of those concerned — including broadcasters, cereal makers, and toy manufacturers — would be given a chance to testify during the kid-vid inquiry...

...In a recent example, a reporter for the Columbia Journalism Review repeatedly called the ANPA to ask why the association had ended a program of minority scholarships...

...One proposal in Congress would change inheritance tax laws to make it easier for families to keep such newspapers, and another would break up the chains which are buying them...

...If independent papers are not protected or strengthened, control of the daily press could soon be almost totally dominated by a handful of big chains...

...Another group, the Independent Local Newspaper Association, seeks legislation to help family-owned newspapers resist takeover by chains such as Gannett and Knight-Ridder...

...Radio would be totally deregulated immediately, and television and cable would be deregulated over the next ten years...

...This bill is saying, in effect, that the broadcaster is no longer a public trustee,'' said a staffer on Van Deerlin's communications subcommittee...

...Many of the groups had been calling for a total ban on "kid-vid" advertising, and the FTC decided to study just what effect such ads were having, and what if anything should be done to limit them...

...The result may be that there will be only a handful of voices in the American press...

...Senator Thomas Mclntyre of New Hampshire told a Chicago audience early in 1970 that "lobbying for this bill may well have set new records" in pressure tactics...

...Although the Rewrite is supposed to encourage diversity of ownership, this easing of ownership restrictions could allow corporations to own dozens of radio stations across the country...

...As a newspaper conglomerate controls each of its subsidiaries from hundreds of miles away, it is feared communities will have less voice or input on affairs affecting their particular communities...

...The broadcaster, Joe Costello, was in town to attend a "Rally Against Over-Regulation," sponsored by the NAB, NRBA, and other broadcast groups...

...Van Deerlin was talking about the future of television — a medium viewed in 99 per cent of American homes...

...Many of the acquisitions made by chains are the result of independent publishers panicking over the thought of an heir having to pay huge chunks of money in inheritance taxes...

...Other legislators attest that newspaper owners, too, have enormous influence on legislation...

...Media lobbyists: an unreported story The battle for news control is seldom in the news Dick Brown, Susan Antigone, Richard Cowan, Ron Duhl, and Jeremy Gaunt Aquiet war of influence is being fought in Washington over the future of American television, radio, and newspapers...

...Van Deerlin has thrown the public interest concept out the window, and he hopes Congress as a whole will leave it there...

...Ed James, executive editor of Broadcasting magazine, says the power of media lobbyists is "grossly exaggerated...

...With communications technology growing more complex every day, media lobbying may become even more intense...

...But as the controller of news they also have responsibilities to report on their own lobbying and to avoid misusing their news power as a political weapon in their own behalf...

...Costello said that by listening to his local broadcaster and voting on issues 'You would be amazed how members [of Congress] respond when the local publisher calls on them' accordingly, a legislator can benefit where it really counts — back in his home district...

...But while the spoils of this war of influence are great, media reports from the battlefield are sparse...

...This article was written in a course on media criticism directed by A djunct Professor Nick Kotz...

...Some of the independent publishers have been doing their work and you would be amazed how members [of Congress] respond when the local publisher calls on them," Udall says...

...Udall says he does not expect intense lobbying against the bill...

...Of equal consequence, there is the development of highly concentrated and effective lobbying groups representing the newspaper giants which have the potential of dictating their will in Congress...

...The Fairness Doctrine would be eliminated — broadcasters would no longer be required to "seek out and broadcast contrasting points of view on controversial issues...

...Despite substantial evidence as to just how influential media lobbyists are, some legislators and many of the lobbyists themselves downplay their power...

...Lobbying is less a case of applying gross, Boss Tweed type of political pressure than a case of political education...

...Aside from several brief accounts, the broadcasters ignored the hearings entirely...

...I think so," Costello said...

...The ANPA has more than 1,300 member newspapers in the United States and Canada...

...Instead, the FTC hearings got only a brief mention in another part of the news show...

...Broadcasters took their cues in the kid-vid battle from Roy Elson of the National Association of Broadcasters...

...Some of those in the media — and even some legislators who decry the lack of coverage — claim that stories about broadcast licensing or the Fairness Doctrine aren't "sexy" enough to compete for air time with reports on hydrogen bomb stories...

...The NAB and another lobbying group — the National Radio Broadcasters Association — demonstrated their power late last year in forcing the Federal Communications Commission to back down on a proposed policy dealing with employe records...

...A case in point is the current fight over the issue of children's advertising...

...The guiding principle behind regulation of the broadcast industry has always been, "in the public interest...

...Under the provisions of Udall's bill, an independent publisher could establish a trust from which advance payment of estate taxes could be made...

...They also contend that local news control is retained...

...Although in some instances First Amendment freedoms actually are involved — for instance, search of newsrooms — in many others the press cloaks itself in the First Amendment while arguing for special treatment on purely economic issues...

...Most of the companies now offering the service are relatively small and locally owned...

...It has really snowballed...

...The power is the ability to defeat or elect a candidate...

...But a House staffer who deals with communications issues comments: "One of the greatest things lobbyists do up here is profess their impotence...

...The "answer" is a bill introduced into the Ninety-sixth Congress which would relax inheritance tax laws for independent newspapers...

...The very next month the same NAB editorialist crowed about killing the FCC proposal, calling it a victory for effective lobbying pressure by hundreds of broadcasters...

...Licenses would be granted in perpetuity — subject to revocation only for violation of technical standards...

...For example, the National Newspaper Association lobbies on such issues as postal rates and regulations, wage and hour laws, reporters' shield laws, and freedom of information...

...In that way, heirs to the paper would not be faced with the immediate payment of millions of dollars in taxes...

...And fewer still know that the same organizations which assign thousands of correspondents to cover Washington are among the most powerful at lobbying for their own interests...

...granted in perpetuity — and could be revoked only for violation of technical standards...

...When Congress in 1924 considered prohibiting the labor of children under eighteen years of age, the daily newspaper industry responded with storms of protest and won exemptions which still allow carriers to begin work when they are as young as twelve years old...

...The media, like any other industry, have a right to petition government in pursuit of their own special interests...

...Although the bill would require that AT&T allow other cable programmers the use of its lines, there is no doubt the Rewrite would open the door to conglomerate takeover of the cable industry...

...Most congressmen are grossly misinformed," he says...

...In fact, Udall adds, the newspaper chains may have decided not to fight his bill so that they won't be hit with even tougher legislation...

...But critics say these chains have lost sight of the goals of providing information and making government accountable for its actions and instead have substituted another goal — profit above all else...

...Broadcast licensing: Since 1934, licenses for radio and TV stations have been granted for three-year periods...

...Although the newspapers argued it was a matter of First Amendment freedom, press critic Ben Bagdikian terms it "strictly an economic issue...

...The proposed Rewrite already reflects lobbying victories for all three media — television, radio, and cable...

...With his introduction of the Cornmunications Act of 1979 — otherwise known as "the Rewrite" — Representative...

...That willingness is what makes a paper's market value — and thus inheritance taxes — so high in the first place...

...But don't expect to see the footsteps of media lobbyists traced on the 6 o'clock news...

...There isn't anyone [in Congress] who doesn't have the feeling — however misplaced — that they can make or break you...

...The trusts would be exempt from taxes and would be available only to publishers who own and operate a single newspaper in a market...

...It is quickly being replaced by a relatively new institution — the media conglomerates which control hundreds of America's daily and weekly newspapers in virtually every major market...

...Both groups urged members to contact the FCC and protest the proposal...

...Similar lobbying by newspapers continues today...

...And although the FTC did succeed in holding hearings on children's advertising, you'd have learned little about the issue by watching the network news...

...While media lobbyists are becoming more sophisticated, their presence has been felt on the Mill for years...

...I'm not sure it's a deterrent, but it's a life preserver for the hardy souls who want an independent newspaper," he says...

...would...

...Beyond programming, the Rewrite proposes sweeping changes in who can own broadcasting and cable outlets and how new station assignments are given out...

...Among the issues at stake in the government arena are: ¶ Cable television: Ten years from now, cable may dominate American broadcasting as network programming does today...

...To make sure broadcasters complied with public service requirements, the FCC was vested with the authority to license radio and television stations for three-year periods...