Press Release
''A Christmas Gift to Rupert Murdoch''
Contact: Timothy Karr, 201-533-8838
Washington, DC – Free Press, a citizens group focused on media policy, criticized the FCC’s 3-2 vote today to approve NewsCorp’s takeover of the DirecTV satellite service. The move – which expands NewsCorp CEO Rupert Murdoch’s media empire to include the nation’s largest direct-broadcast satellite service – comes as the agency continues to face a firestorm of criticism for its controversial June 2 vote to dramatically relax limits on media concentration.
The merger approval gives NewsCorp control of more than half of the satellite television market, in addition to an existing empire that includes the Fox broadcast network, more than 30 television stations, several cable channels, movie studios, book publishers, newspapers, and other media holdings. Murdoch is known to have aggressively lobbied for this lucrative deal, including having a private meeting with FCC Chairman Michael Powell earlier this year – while Powell was refusing to host a series of public hearings on media ownership.
“The FCC has rolled ahead with this Christmas gift to Rupert Murdoch, even as the public, the courts and Congress have lambasted the agency’s decision to write rules to favor media monopolies,” said Free Press founder Robert McChesney, media scholar at the University of Illinois. “It sends a terrible signal: Although ordinary citizens are worried about unchecked media consolidation, the FCC seems to only tune into the concerns of media moguls like Rupert Murdoch.”
Free Press (www.mediareform.net) is a national citizens group that seeks to increase informed public participation in media policy and to promote a more competitive, public interest-oriented media system.
The merger approval gives NewsCorp control of more than half of the satellite television market, in addition to an existing empire that includes the Fox broadcast network, more than 30 television stations, several cable channels, movie studios, book publishers, newspapers, and other media holdings. Murdoch is known to have aggressively lobbied for this lucrative deal, including having a private meeting with FCC Chairman Michael Powell earlier this year – while Powell was refusing to host a series of public hearings on media ownership.
“The FCC has rolled ahead with this Christmas gift to Rupert Murdoch, even as the public, the courts and Congress have lambasted the agency’s decision to write rules to favor media monopolies,” said Free Press founder Robert McChesney, media scholar at the University of Illinois. “It sends a terrible signal: Although ordinary citizens are worried about unchecked media consolidation, the FCC seems to only tune into the concerns of media moguls like Rupert Murdoch.”
Free Press (www.mediareform.net) is a national citizens group that seeks to increase informed public participation in media policy and to promote a more competitive, public interest-oriented media system.
