Media Concentration: Myth and Reality

• Published date: 01 September 1979
• Date: 01 September 1979
• DOI: 10.1177/0003603X7902400302
• Subject Matter: Article

The Antitrust Bulletin/Fall 1979

MEDIA

CONCENTRATION:

MYTH

AND

REALITY

by

LEE LoEVINGER*

Anyone viewing the American scene from Washington

could reasonably conclude

that

the most intense and con-

tinuous competition in this country is for public attention. The

competition is conducted on two levels. On the first level,

politicians (i.e, policy makers, including bureaucrats and, occa-

sionally, judges) compete for the attention of the mass media.

On

the

second level,

the

mass media compete for the attention

of

the

public. The politicians operate on the assumption

that

the media control their political existence;! and the media

*Hogan &Hartson, Washington,

D.C.

EDITOR'S

NOTE:

This article is an adaptation and substantial revision

of a statement made by the author to the FTC Symposium on Media

Concentration, held on December 14 and 15, 1978 at the Washing-

ton Hilton Hotel in Washington,

D.C.

In the statement, the author

noted

that

he and the law firm in which he is a partner have repre-

sented a number of clients who are engaged in broadcasting and in

publishing newspapers. The author and his law firm have, in the

past, represented the National Association of Broadcasters, but do

not represent that association at the present time. The views ex-

pressed in the article are solelythose of the author.

1The attitude of politicians toward the media was well expressed

by Lyndon Johnson, who is quoted as saying to a journalist, "You

guys. All you guys in the media. All of politics has changed because

of you.

You've

broken all the machines and the ties between us in

Congress and the city machines.

You've

given us a new kind of

peo-

ple

....

Teddy. Tunney. They're your creations, your puppets. No

machine could ever create a Teddy Kennedy. Only you guys. They're

all yours. Your product." Quoted by David Halberstam in

T1I,e

Powers That Be

(1979).

See

Review

by James David Barber,

Washington Post Book World, April 22, 1979. Halberstam's book is

an account of four mass media institutions, the Washington Post,

CBS, Time Incorporated, and the Los Angeles Times. For more

critical reviews see Henry Fairlie, "Pretenders to Power," Harper's,

Copyright 197Y by Lee Loevinuer .

479

480 THE ANTITRUST BULLETIN

operate on

the

assumption

that

the politicians control their

economic existence." This naturally results in a continuing

state of tension and conflict between the media and the

government, which is manifested by critical reports about

politicians in

the

media and recurrent attacks on

the

media by

politicians. Since

it

appears

that

the best way to get media

(and thus public) attention is to attack

the

media, politicians

are encouraged to vent their unhappiness with

the

media in

denunciation and proposed "reforms."

An old theme being heard anew in Washington is

that

control of the mass media is concentrated in the hands of a

few who have,

in'the

view of

the

complainants, too much in-

fluence.3The "reform" proposed is to break up the "media

June 1979, p. 78; Business Week, May 21, 1979, p. 10; Edmund

Fuller, "Viewing the Media From Inside the Cocoon," Wall Street

Journal, May 7, 1979, p. 20.

2Broadcasters are, of course, completely dependent on the

Federal Communications Commission

(FCC)

for the right to operate

broadcasting

stations,

which requires agovernment license.

Newspapers are not licensed to publish, but successful operation

depends upon a host of economic circumstances

that

are greatly

influenced, if not controlled, by the federal government. The

availability and cost of second class mailing privileges, which are

controlled by the Post Office, and the availability and level of press

rates on telephone, telegraph and cable, which are controlled by the

FCC, are very important elements in the economic success or failure

of newspapers.

3

It

was reported

that

FTC Chairman Michael Pertschuk, in open-

ing the two-day FTC symposium on media concentration referred to

in the text, said

that

the FTC cannot in good conscience ignore the

apparent trend or pace of developing concentration of ownership in

America's mass communications industry. He vowed to begin a

process of information gathering to determine the impact of the

trend toward consolidation on both performance and independence

of various media. Washington Post, December 15, 1978, p. C 1,

''Media Concentration Rapped." Ben H. Bagdikian, a professional

newspaper critic and viewer-with-alarm, who spoke twice at the sym-

posium, said

that

100 executives in the media industry "constitute a

private ministry of information and culture for the United States."

Broadcasting, Dec. 18, 1978, pp. 24-25, "Around and Around on

Media Concentration."