News is not Shampoo

While Secretary of State Colin Powell is jetting around the Middle East, his son, Michael K. Powell, is trying to railroad through a massive relaxation of rules intended to prevent media monopolies.

The younger Mr. Powell, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, has handed his four fellow commissioners a 250-page draft of his deregulation plan, with a vote on the proposed new rules scheduled for June 2. That gives the commissioners just three weeks to propose any revisions. And it gives the American public the same measly three weeks to figure out how the rules will affect their reading, listening and viewing opportunities and to express their views. The two Dem-ocratic commissioners complain that that’s not nearly enough time.

One of the proposed rules would let a company own both a newspaper and a radio station in the same city. Another would allow a television company to own three stations in each of the largest markets, instead of the present limit of two. A single company’s television stations could reach as much as 45 percent of the national audience. The present limit is 35 percent, although Fox and CBS already exceed that limit and are contesting it in court.

Chairman Powell and other advocates of the proposed rules argue that the marketplace has changed and that cable and the Internet provide plenty of diversity. Opponents point out that consolidation already has reached the point where a few big companies already control most news and entertainment outlets.

The marketplace has, indeed, changed, with big-box stores squeezing out small retailers all across the country. Many consumers find it convenient enough to buy toothpaste, a pair of shoes, camera film and some pork chops all in the same big store rather than hunting all over town in different shops.

But news is something else. We all lose if a few big corporations control most of the information that reaches us and hires the same stable of loud-mouthed talk-show hosts that keep sounding off around the country.

Why the rush, Mr. Powell? Why not delay the vote? Why not schedule some public hearings, so that the American people can see what sort of new world you are leading us into?