According to a report at CNSNews.com, the FCC’s Michael Copps has initiated a Notice of Inquiry on the state of journalism in America. Actually, it will probably be looking at the decline in journalism, with special attention paid to traditional broadcast outlets and the newer internet based outlets that are thought to be contributing to mainstream journalism’s decline. The study will also consider the possibility of taking journalism into account to draft licensee public interest guidelines. Once such a report is completed, stakeholders and the public will be given an opportunity to comment.
RBR/TVBR observation: You can decry a loss of quality in journalism, but how, in a free society, can you demand that a private company dish out the tons of cash it takes to run a first-class journalism operation? Journalism right now is a hurting business in search of a new business model, and there’s nothing the FCC can do about it.
