hydrarchist submits: The following article is reprinted from May's Black Commentator

"Treat Corporate Media Like the Enemy,

& No Free Pass for Black Radio"

On June 2, transnational corporations claiming to be
American citizens are likely to win permission to complete
their conquest and consolidation of U.S. mass media, both
broadcast and print. Their servant is Colin Powell's son,
Michael, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission
and the most anti-public overseer of the public airwaves
since passage of the Federal Communications Act of 1934.Powell, intent on nullifying the public hearings process,
has doubtless committed a host of felonies in smoothing the
way for the final conglomerization of broadcasting. The
beneficiaries of the political power that grows out of radio
and television ownership have enforced a near universal
silence on the issue. In addition to the media giants that
already control the vast bulk of what is electronically seen
and heard in the United States, the print opinion leaders of
The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Washington
Post have all urged final deregulation of broadcasting, so
that they might sit at the feast table with the handful of
broadcast and cable conglomerates.

This conspiracy of silence is designed to ensure that we
hear nothing but what rich white men in suits want to say -
forever.

It is impossible to exaggerate the consequences that flow
from corporate monopolization of media. However, it can be
argued that effective electronic media monopoly has already
been achieved through the Telecommunications Act of 1996,
legislation that the FCC describes as allowing "any
communications business [to] compete in any market against
any other," but which in practice allows the big fish to
swallow up the less big while exterminating the small.

The Black radio experience

In terms of effective Black access, the airwaves have long
been a wasteland. In a fundamental political sense, all
corporations resist popular power and speak a common
language of profit - including Black-owned media
corporations, once they have gained sufficient foothold in
the marketplace. The corporatization of the media message
has proceeded without interruption since well before the
FCC's Fairness Doctrine was finally discarded, in 1987.

The Doctrine imposed responsibility on broadcast owners to
encourage and facilitate the airing of all sides of
controversial issues. In the late Sixties through the
Seventies, FCC rules were interpreted as requiring stations
licensed to serve Black audiences to demonstrate that their
programming provided the public with practical avenues of
access to the airwaves. As a result, Black-oriented radio
stations got "Blacker," whether they were owned by Blacks or
not. Television stations, which assumed responsibility for
serving all segments of the community, felt compelled to
create or carry syndicated programs tailored to African
Americans.

For a brief time, Black journalism and public affairs
programming proliferated in markets large and small,
empowering political movements in these localities. However,
aspiring business voices within the Black community combined
with the general corporate cacophony to shift the discussion
away from public access to the airwaves. Instead, Black
ownership became the political objective - a game that large
corporations knew they could control. The Black community
became spectators in the buying and selling sport, their
actual access to the airwaves dependent on the program whims
of owners. With a very few exceptions, local news staffs
shrank or disappeared from Black radio.

Although some Black entrepreneurial players became rich -
very few, actually, considering the potential that existed
at the turn of the Seventies - by the beginning of the
Eighties grassroots Black politics was crippled. African
American activism had been informed by mass organizational
strategies. Black-oriented media - including radio outlets
owned by whites anxious to demonstrate sensitivity to Black
opinion and conform to the FCC's community access rules -
were no longer forums for grassroots expression. A political
vacuum imploded over much of urban America, filled crudely
and to little organizational effect by Hip Hop music
storytellers. It became possible to say that the Civil
Rights Movement was dead - certainly, you couldn't hear it
breathing.

Despite the self-congratulatory noises of the small Black
media class, very little of substance was gained by shifting
the focus from Black popular access in favor of limited
Black ownership. Minorities have never owned more than 3
percent of U.S. media. Today, minorities own just 1.8
percent of broadcasting - and that includes white women! The
"stand-alone" Black radio station, locally owned and
responsive to local activists, is all but extinct, as are
stand-alone stations in general. (Radio's Clear Channel
chain, which grew from 40 stations to 1,200 outlets under
deregulation, owns six stations in Minot, North Dakota, a
city of only 37,000 people. Almost all of the programming is
automated, canned at corporate headquarters.)

In dollar terms, Black radio is stronger than ever, with by
far the most loyal listener base in the demographic
spectrum. But it is generally unresponsive to Black
community action, having largely dismantled the news
organizations that once empowered local activism.

Television and corporate print media feel they can ignore
Black political demands. Managers point to Black faces on
the screen and Black bylines in their news pages. However,
actual coverage, the essential product, is governed by
corporate imperatives.

No access without a demand

The Civil Rights and Black Power Movements were mass
activities whose fortunes were closely tied to the behavior
of mass media. The frenzy of Black newsroom hiring three
decades ago occurred in response to Black activism. African
Americans demanded that media provide coverage of Black
struggles, or be considered "part of the problem." The FCC
and corporate media temporarily accommodated these demands,
allowing a brief expansion of the social space in which the
Black political drama was acted out. That door is now
virtually closed, and will remain so, no matter how the FCC
rules in June, unless Black organizations retool their
strategies to force a media response.

It should be clear to everyone that the corporate media is
an active enemy of popular power in the United States. It is
also true that Black-owned or managed radio is not generally
responsive to Black political concerns. (The exceptions are
well-known, and do not need to be complimented for doing the
right thing.) We must return to basics - and this applies to
activists of all ethnicities. The demand must be for
coverage of community concerns and events. Nothing else
matters. That means Black activists must measure media by
the coverage it affords their activities, rather than the
station's roster of Black employees or the race of the
owners or managers.

In a society such as ours, events do not exist unless media
covers them. Demonstrations are organized primarily for the
purpose of garnering news coverage. Success or failure is
measured, first, by whether the media show up at all and,
secondly, in how the story is framed. It is ridiculous to
continue treating media as somehow removed from the
structures of power. Activism is not defined by FCC rules.
When media act as the enemy, treat them that way. If
coverage is what is necessary, go to the source - with the
intent to disrupt their activities and destroy their
reputations.

The publishers of BC are media veterans, and know from
intimate experience that mass broadcasting and print are the
weakest links in the chains of power. Their product is
public credibility, a fragile quantity. Relatively small
numbers of determined activists can snatch it from them.
They are uniquely defenseless against demonstrations,
inherently so. We have seen managers cower at the mere
thought of being visited by angry activists - not because of
possible threats to their FCC licenses (although this was
once a consideration), but in fear of being exposed as just
another business on the make.

Media treasure their fancied positions as arbiters of the
public good. It is the reason they spend huge sums on
promotions to convince the public that they are "on your
side." This investment is wasted when it is dramatically
proven that community accountability is a myth. Moreover,
once it becomes clear that the community demands outlets
that respond to popular concerns, and will retaliate against
the reputation of stations and newspapers that ignore
community demands, media relent every time. Reputation and
good will make up the largest portion of their corporate
value, a highly perishable commodity.

Every serious protest campaign must consider media as a
secondary or even primary target. Media managers must be
confronted with a choice: either provide coverage of
legitimate community demands, or become the object of
protest.

Revoke the free pass

Black media are often given a free pass, while providing
little more than music as proof that they are on anyone's
side but the owners. Yet Black media are central to any mass
organizing effort, since that's where the people are. Just
as white-owned newspapers cannot be allowed to ignore Black
concerns by simply pointing to the presence of Black
reporters who do not show up at demonstrations, or whose
stories are given limited exposure, or who may be downright
hostile, so Black-owned or managed radio stations cannot be
left unaccountable.

In today's environment, failure to confront media means
political impotence. It does not take much to shake up
businesses that pose as community resources. As a last
resort, go after their advertisers, directly. "Boycotts" of
broadcasters are not in themselves effective, since they
cannot be enforced and are unlikely to have measurable
results in the ratings. However, actual demonstrations to
publicize boycotts do have effects. Valued retail
advertisers can also be picketed for supporting the
offending broadcasters, just as the South Africa divestment
campaign targeted U.S. corporations and financial
institutions that bolstered the white regime. The local car
dealership does not relish the idea of paying for the
privilege of becoming the target of community wrath aimed at
the station with whom it advertises.

FCC Chairman Michael Powell may complete the corporate
consolidation of media, but in the end, sales and audiences
are local. Go for the weakest link in the chain. Powell
can't do a thing about that.

Copyright (c) 2003 The Black Commentator.