Localism and Viewpoint Diversity are Vital to Functioning Democracy, Say Experts in Comment to Federal Communications Commission 

Washington, D.C. – The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should not lift current limits on the number of local broadcasting stations a single entity may own, says a broad coalition of experts, academics, and entertainment professionals in a comment letter sent today to the FCC. 

In the comment submitted to the FCC by Democracy Forward as part of the Commission’s 2022 Quadrennial Regulatory Review, a coalition of organizations and individuals including the Archival Producers Alliance, Future Film Coalition, Media and Democracy Project, Multicultural Media and Telecommunications Council, and Public Knowledge, as well as Professor Patricia Aufderheide of the School of Communication at American University, Professor J. Israel Balderas of Elon University, Professor Victor Pickard of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and Professor Christopher Terry of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, argued that a strong diversity of local media is crucial to a functioning democracy and that efforts to consolidate local broadcasting stations should be rejected. 

“Localism, viewpoint diversity, and competition all promote intelligent, informed democratic self-governance in the United States,” wrote the organizations and individuals in the comment letter. “And because the Commission’s local media-ownership rules promote those three values, and no legitimate empirical evidence exists that economy of scale improves localism or diversity, the rules are manifestly in the public interest for a democratic society.” 

The comment underscores the value and importance of local media-ownership, and points out that media consolidation in local media markets adversely affects the quantity and quality of local news programming available to local communities. In turn, that adversely affects those communities’ ability to participate in public discourse and the political sphere more broadly. “The ability of individuals to participate in their local community thus serves as a safeguard against antidemocratic governance.”

“The need for civic and community engagement could not be more important in this moment. And at a time when First Amendment challenges and bullying have pervaded the media landscape, we need more diversity and locality in our communication platforms,” said Paul Wolfson, Senior Legal Advisor at Democracy Forward. “Democracy Forward is honored to represent this coalition to urge the FCC to continue their current limits regarding media consolidation.”

Read the full comment here. 

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Democracy Forward Foundation is a national legal organization that advances democracy and social progress through litigation, policy, public education, and regulatory engagement. For more information, please visit www.democracyforward.org.