In today’s media landscape, where mega corporations run amuck, it’s easy to forget that the airwaves belong to the public. But they do, and in return for the free use of this extraordinarily valuable public resource, station owners agree to serve the public by providing a certain amount of public interest programming.

The Federal Communications Commission was formed in part to ensure that media companies act as good stewards of the public airwaves. In a speech last night at the Columbia School of Journalism, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps reminded us how far the agency has slipped away from its mission. He warned of grave consequences if the FCC fails to step up and reinstate a strong “public values test” that will ensure the public interest is met by license holders.

“The ethos has changed,” he told the crowd. “Old ideals of stewardship were pushed aside and too often demolished; and the speculative fires burned on—at heavy and destructive cost to journalism, to the businesses themselves, and, most damaging of all, to our democracy.” Copps blames his own agency for encouraging consolidation and “eviscerating” hard-won public interest responsibilities.

Current public interest requirements are few and far between, and are often poorly enforced. For example, stations are required to disclose paid content when it’s aired, but undisclosed “fake news” segments paid for by PR firms are invading our airwaves at alarming rates. As for requirements to provide local news programming -- or any news programming for that matter; there are none.

Back to the original bargain

What’s worse is that the public has virtually no recourse when a station violates the public trust agreement to serve its own interests. Why? Because the FCC has rolled back its own reporting requirements and turned the license renewal process into an offensively simple postcard and rubber-stamp affair.

Broadcasters argue that anything more would be unduly burdensome—they expect the government to allow the broadcast industry to use a public asset worth an estimated $70 billion with virtually no oversight. And up until now, the FCC has capitulated.

But Commissioner Copps wants things to change. He’s proposed the creation of a 7-point Public Value Test that would make the license renewal process meaningful once again. These few criteria “would get us back to the original licensing bargain between broadcasters and the people”. The following seven points in bold are included in the Commissioner’s remarks, but their explication is ours:

1) Require a meaningful and quantifiable commitment to news and public affairs programming. Shockingly, no requirement currently exists to curb the broadcast industry’s runaway airwave abuse. This would force stations to comply with their commitment to air programming that serves the needs of their communities.
2) Enhanced Disclosure. Copps wants to beef up the information stations are required to keep in their “public file”, and make them available online. Current requirements are so minimal that they are “laughable”, and provide almost no meaningful information. Because the FCC relies on the public to report violations of public interest obligations, these “enhanced disclosure” rules are critical. An enhanced rule – initially proposed by a Republican-run FCC -- is ready and waiting for FCC action. Copps is calling for the proceeding to be concluded in the next 90 days.
3) Political Advertising Disclosure. In response to the $3 billion of undisclosed political advertisements spent during the mid-term elections, Copps says “the FCC should quickly determine the extent of its current authority to compel release of what interests are paying” for the ads.
4) Reflecting Diversity. An FCC committee has spent years developing targeted recommendations to correct the shamefully low rates of female and minority ownership of media outlets, but most of these recommendations never get put to a vote. It’s time to adopt measures to encourage increased minority ownership.
5) Community Discovery. Before consolidation did away with the friendly neighborhood station owner, stations were required to meet with viewers to determine whether programming was meeting community needs. Now, station owners are largely absentee, but community discovery requirements could be reinstated and implemented online.
6) Local and Independent Programming. Copps proposes a requirement that all stations produce a certain percentage of local news and information programming. Access to local news and information programming is the core of the public’s interest in the airwaves, and we should require diverse local information as a condition of licensure.
7) Public Safety. Stations that are not locally operated and have no capacity to produce local programming are ill-equipped to save lives by providing critical information during a disaster. The commissioner proposes a requirement for all stations to have a detailed, approved plan to go immediately on-air in the event of a disaster in the community.

It remains to be seen where Commissioner Copps’ proposal will lead at the FCC, but we applaud the Commissioner for his tireless efforts to defend the public interest and take his own agency to task. Copps said:

Getting our media landscape right is not just the job of agencies, Congresses or Presidents. It’s all our job….Yes, powerful interests spend billions of dollars to make sure the waters of truth don’t flow on these issues. But real citizen action can counter that….It takes dreams, but we’ve dreamed before. It takes hard work, but we’ve worked hard before. My request to you is to act like your democracy depends upon it. You know what? It does.

Copps is right – he can’t defend a silent public. We have to stand up and speak out if we want the “public” reinstated in this “public interest” arrangement.