Media ownership debate sharpens

["Dan Billings" <billings@suscom-maine.net>]

This issue is starting to get some coverage.  Maine Senator Olympia Snowe is
one of the politicians questioning the FCC's likely changes to the rules.
Below is a link to a Portland Press Herald story about the issue and a
recent congressional hearing:

http://www.pressherald.com/business/stories/030514media.shtml

Frank Blethen, owner of the Seatle Times and three newspapers in Maine,
testified against allowing companies to own newspapers and television
stations in the same city.  I found it interesting that the Press Herald
story didn't mention that before Blethen bought the paper, it had been owned
by a company that also owned a television station in Portland (WGME).

I have a hard time taking Blethen's statements too seriously.  He may not
run the Seattle Times with profit maximization being his primary goal, but
that is how his Maine holdings are run.  When the papers were first put on
sale there was a local group that was agitating against a sale to a
corporate owner.  They made lots of predictions about cut backs and such if
a big media company bought the papers.  They cheered when Blethen bought the
papers, but most of their predictions about cut backs occurred under his
ownership.  The paper, which was pretty bad before he bought it, has IMHO,
gone downhill since Blethen bought it.

Blethen has also used the Seattle Times to campaign against the inheritance
tax.  The tax would hit the Blethen's hard, in part, because the company is
privately held and family owned.   I guess he is concerned about the media's
effect on democracy because he has used his media holdings to advance a
personal agenda.

-- Dan Billings, Bowdoinham, Maine