MEDIAWATCH Big changes less likely for local media landscape BY IAN DONNIS

A decision by the Bush administration concerning media deregulation seems destined to be more significant in Rhode Island for what won’t happen rather than what will.

The White House last week decided against seeking US Supreme Court review of a lower court ruling that scrapped the Federal Communications Commission’s efforts to ease regulations on media ownership. As the Chicago Tribune reported, some media heavyweights — including the Tribune Company, Viacom, and NBC Universal — "still plan to ask the high court to intervene, but without government support their odds of persuading the court to hear the case are remote."

In Rhode Island, this development precludes the Belo Corporation, the Dallas-based owner of the Providence Journal, from being able to buy a local TV station. Even before the FCC voted in June 2003 to relax media ownership rules, it was natural to think that Belo would want to strengthen its franchise in Rhode Island by acquiring a TV operation. Indeed, after previously opposing one proposed change — raising to 45 percent the amount of television households reachable by one corporation — Belo abruptly backed the increase after an April 2003 meeting with FCC chairman Michael K. Powell and his staff (see "Belo’s bonanza," News, May 30, 2003). A Belo spokeswoman didn’t return a call from the Phoenix seeking comment.

The Bush administration’s decision also makes it less likely that California-based Freedom Communications will try to sell WLNE-TV (Channel 6), Rhode Island’s perennial third-place ABC affiliate. WLNE general manager Roland Adeszko downplays the matter, saying, "It doesn’t change anything, because we were not in discussions to sell the station. They [Freedom’s managers] have told me the station’s not going to be sold, so the question, to me, is moot." As recently reported, (see "Will Channel 6 ever get it together?" News, January 14), Adeszko and news director Edwin Hart have launched a fresh effort to make ratings gains, although WLNE is also dealing with a 10 percent across-the-board cut in Freedom’s broadcast division. Greater deregulation offered the possibility that a different owner might step in to make a greater investment in Channel 6, but the status quo has been strengthened for now.

While outgoing FCC chairman Powell had championed media deregulation, and the Republican-dominated board backed the concept in 2003, an unusually broad grassroots coalition — encompassing such unlikely bedfellows as Common Cause and the National Rifle Association — expressed fierce opposition. A federal appeals court in Philadelphia put the brakes on last year when it rapped the move toward deregulation and told the FCC to reconsider the matter.

H. Philip West Jr., executive director of Common Cause of Rhode Island, hailed the preservation of current media ownership rules as good news for the public interest.

With the prospect of a company owning the dominant newspaper and a TV station in a place like Rhode Island, he says, "You lose the ability of the major newspaper to critically report on the issues involving television." A more telling example, West says, involves the Journal’s minimal coverage of issues that could affect Belo’s financial interest, such as a past proposal to challenge the dominance of money in campaigns by giving free airtime to political candidates. "If it’s going to be against the parent company’s financial interest, even if the parent company is in another state," he says, "it’s less likely that there will be the clear editorial analysis, and possibly not the news analysis, on that issue."