Blethan campaign against FCC rules

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

Frank Blethan, the owner of the Portland Press Herald, Kennebec Journal,
Waterville Sentinel, and Seatle Times, has been a vocal opponent of the new
FCC rules since before they were adopted.  The focus of his opposition has
been the elimination of the cross-ownership ban.  Yesterday, the Press
Herald had another editorial about the issue, as well as a full page ad from
the Blethan Family on the issue.  I wonder how much Blethan's position has
to do with the possibility of the competing paper in Seatle being sold to
the owners of one of the TV stations in town?  The joint marketing agreement
that the two papers had has just recently broken down.

I sent in the following Letter to the Editor to the Press Herald today.  I
wonder if it will be published?

I find it humorous that the owners of your newspaper are so concerned about
the FCC rule change to allow companies to own both a newspaper and a
broadcast facility in the same market.  The Portland Press Herald was
formerly owned by Guy Gannett Communications, a company that for decades
also owned WGME-TV and WGAN radio.  If cross-ownership of newspaper and
broadcasting facilities really puts "Democracy at Risk," as a recent ad
sponsored by the Blethan Family claims, the Press Herald should be able to
provide specific examples from its own history of how Guy Gannett's
ownership of the Press Herald, WGME, and WGAN subverted democracy in Maine.
If cross-ownership is as dangerous to our country as you owners claim, there
must be something in the Press Herald's own files that will illustrate the
danger.  If you can't provide one example from the decades of
cross-ownership by Guy Gannett in Portland, I can only conclude that your
owners' real concern is that the new rules will hurt their bottom line.



Daniel Billings

Bowdoinham, ME