ROBERT SAMUELSON ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP

It's tough to discuss the FCC's controversial June ownership rule changes without mentioning what dissenting FCC commissioner Copps called the "Clear Channelization" of radio, a process that resulted from the last big wave of media regulation. That would seem to be the natural case to study if you want to try to predict what consolidation in free TV will accomplish -- it's not a perfect analogy, to be sure, but it's tough to do without a discussion of radio if you want to both understand the outcry and guess what might happen in TV. Unless you're Robert Samuelson, that is. Read his editorial here, and read Copps's statement here (PDF file). Samuelson basically states Michael Powell's arguments without acknowledging any of the [radio-related] fears that led to the vigorous dissent of Copps and Adelstein (his statement is here as a PDF file). For Michael Powell's defense of the rules, you can go here (PDF file as well).