Under the Big Apple
• Boston Globe (1993)• Worcester Telegram & Gazette (1999)• Boston.com• New England Sports Network (14 percent)• Boston Red Sox (17 percent)• Boston Metro (49 percent)
Possible conflicts of interest
• Red Sox– Game coverage– Stadium– Ancillary businesses such as travel
Possible conflicts of interest
• Red Sox– Game coverage– Stadium– Ancillary businesses such as travel– NASCAR
Possible conflicts of interest
• Red Sox– Game coverage– Stadium– Ancillary businesses such as travel– NASCAR– Unflattering feature stories
Possible conflicts of interest
• Red Sox
• Worcester Telegram & Gazette–Media coverage–Media scandal
Possible conflicts of interest
• Red Sox
• Worcester Telegram & Gazette–Media coverage–Media scandal– A two-way street
Possible conflicts of interest
• Red Sox
• Worcester Telegram & Gazette
• New England Sports Network–What’s a TV critic to do?
Possible conflicts of interest
• Red Sox
• Worcester Telegram & Gazette
• New England Sports Network
• Boston Metro– Boston Herald’s antitrust case
Possible conflicts of interest
• Red Sox
• Worcester Telegram & Gazette
• New England Sports Network
• Boston Metro– Boston Herald’s antitrust case– Putting the Herald out of business
Elsewhere in Boston
• Boston Herald is largest independent daily in New England
• GateHouse Media of Fairport, N.Y., owns 100+ papers in Eastern Mass.
• Nearly all TV and radio stations owned by out-of-state corporations
A.J. Liebling
• Legendarymedia critic forthe New Yorker
• 50 years ago, warned of “one-ownership towns”
• A publisher’s paradise — “Good, better, bestest”
Death of commercial radio
• Telecommunications Act of 1996 removed most ownership restrictions
• Clear Channel (Minot, N.D.) and Cumulus (Dixie Chicks) become symbols
• Why is broadcast different from print?
Danny Schechter
• “The News Dissector”
• Warns against the “mediaocracy” — “a political system tethered to amedia system”
• Example: Run-up to war in Iraq
Setback for monopolists
• Michael Powell’s FCC proposes more deregulatory goodies inJune 2003
• A left-right coalitionfights back
• Congress, courts put FCC planon hold
Back to Liebling
• Liebling’s concern was the one-city monopoly
• Fewer dailies today than 50 years ago
• What has changed?
Back to Liebling
• Liebling’s concern was the one-city monopoly
• Fewer dailies today than 50 years ago
• What has changed?• More concentration,
yet more diversity
News Corporation
FNC, Fox network, worldwide satellite TV, Wall Street Journal, NY Post, and HarperCollins