WASHINGTON - When the Democratic Party takes up its platform next week at the presidential nominating convention in Boston, one of the planks it will consider is media concentration.

While the one-sentence statement is buried deep in the 41-page document, its supporters contend that it is a recognition by the party that big media is becoming a threat to democracy.

"Because our democracy thrives on public access to diverse sources of information from multiple sources, we support measures to ensure diversity, competition and localism in media ownership," the proposed platform plank states.

Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., who helped get the plank in the platform proposal said the 27-word statement points out a big difference between the two parties.

"We were able to get this in as a very direct and simple statement of the need for diversity," he said in an interview. "We're saying essentially that this is the only way our democracy survives. It's a statement of policy by our party that is opposite of what the (chairman Michael) Powell FCC and Republicans have said going back to (President) Reagan."

Hinchey is a long-term opponent of attempts by the GOP-led Federal Communications Commission and the big media companies to remove barriers that limit the number and type of media properties companies they can own.

During a news conference Tuesday unveiling a poll of journalists' and technicians' opinions on the consolidation trend in American media, Hinchey said he expected tougher media ownership restrictions in a Kerry administration. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., is slated to accept the party's nomination July 29.

"If Kerry takes the White House I think it's going to turn around completely," Hinchey said. "When Kerry appoints the chairman, there will be much more openness, more fairness and a reversal of the monopolization of the media."

Kerry and John Edwards already have spoken out against the increasingly concentrated media landscape. In a Jan. 27 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Kerry called media consolidation "a serious problem in the country" saying: "I think the consolidation of information is a dangerous trend in America because it has the ability to shape our Democracy and shape the flow of information." He made similar statements on C-SPAN last month.

On Tuesday, lawmakers who support tougher media ownership restrictions said a new poll points out the need for more restrictions.

According to the 400-person poll, front-line media employees believe that industry consolidation has compromised the quality of news reporting and they fear that further media concentration will continue the trend and lead to too much control over the news by a few corporate executives. AFL-CIO's Department for Professional Employees sponsored the survey.

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), the Writers Guild of America-East, Actors' Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild and the Communications Workers of America were among a dozen unions that signed a letter asking Powell to conduct field hearings on the issue and to make public any proposed changes in the rules. Union leaders said the poll underscored the need for more transparency in the FCC's process.

"This scientific poll confirms what AFTRA has asserted -- and has long been hearing from working media professionals ever since the excessive deregulation ignited by the 1996 Telecommunications Act and subsequent FCC actions: That media ownership consolidation is doing irreparable harm to local and national news coverage and thus to a key fabric of democracy in our country," AFTRA president John Connolly said. "Even as the literal number of entertainment, news and information outlets increases, actual decision-making, including news judgment, is falling into fewer and fewer hands."

On a 3-2 party-line vote in June 2003 the FCC agreed to ease most of the nation's media ownership rules. A year later the federal appeals court in Philadelphia sent the rules back to the FCC saying the panel had failed to justify the changes.

The ruling rejected major rule changes concerning the cross-ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations and the concentration of broadcast ownership in local markets. Under the FCC's deregulation policies, one company would have been allowed to own three TV stations, eight radio stations and the monopoly newspaper in a single market.

The FCC also raised the national audience-reach ceiling for TV broadcasters from 35%-45%. Congress lowered it to 39%.

© 2004 Reuters Ltd/Hollywood Reporter

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