Dick Armey


October 11, 2002


BOB GARFIELD: We're back with On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And I'm Brooke Gladstone. For his entire congressional career, House Majority Leader Dick Armey has been a vocal deregulator, supporting among other measures the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that has led to sweeping consolidation of media ownership. But now, 6 weeks before his departure from Congress, Armey has been attempting to legislate the breakup of one particular media combine -- the Belo Corporation, owner of 4 daily newspapers and 19 TV stations. Two of those papers are the Dallas Morning News and the Denton Record Chronicle. One of the stations is WFFA, the Dallas ABC affiliate. Armey himself has been boycotting these news organizations since an election runoff in which his son Scott, a Denton County judge, lost in a bid to succeed his father in Congress. That loss followed critical coverage of his role as a judge in several matters before his court.

BOB GARFIELD:Now were Dick Armey's legislative efforts to succeed, Belo Corporation would need to divest itself of one of its 3 Dallas properties, a circumstance its chairman has called "an abuse of power and naked display of political vengeance." All of this comes as quite a surprise to the pro-regulation lobby. Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy has spent his Washington career battling the likes of Dick Armey. Now, briefly, they are comrades in arms. He joins us now. Jeff, welcome back to the show.

JEFF CHESTER: Thanks, Bob.

BOB GARFIELD: Well they say politics makes strange bedfellows. Have you ever had a stranger one in your battle for more regulation of media and telecom?

JEFF CHESTER: Well I'm grateful that Representative Armey has finally seen the light. But I guess this is the "reap what you sow" division of media karma, because Majority Leader Armey has been one of the biggest supporters of media deregulation.

BOB GARFIELD:But all of a sudden not so. Let's talk about the Belo Corporation. On the facts --forgetting any question of editorial bias --on the facts do you think that Congressman Armey is right?

JEFF CHESTER: Well I think Mr. Armey has a good reason to be worried. I mean you have this common ownership of the most powerful media outlets in his district, and it's very likely they share similar viewpoints. They may also share similar resources in terms of news gathering. So he has a gripe, but instead of opposing further media consolidation, Mr. Armey's -appears to be a cheerleader for more such consolidation.

BOB GARFIELD:Just by way of background, how is it that Belo is in the situation it's in? I thought the current state of deregulation was still such that a-- a newspaper property couldn't control the broadcast properties in the same market.

JEFF CHESTER: Well we have to give Mr. Armey thanks for giving the country a wakeup call. What he is suffering from is what's called a "grandfathered" media combination. When the FCC came up with its policy back in 1975 that prohibited common ownership of a TV station and a newspaper in the same market, they grandfathered in as those existing combinations which occurred in a number of cities, but what Mr. Armey has been complaining about -- a single owner of most of the major media outlets in a community -- may soon be coming to most places around the country if FCC Chairman Michael Powell has his way.

BOB GARFIELD:Because the FCC is now contemplating relaxing those regulations across the board -- not merely for those like Belo that have been grandfathered in.

JEFF CHESTER: Absolutely. Recently the FCC released a proposed "rule making" as it's called that in essence would allow these kinds of combinations. The moral here is that if it's good enough for Mr. Armey to have a diverse-owned media, it should be good enough for the rest of us too.

BOB GARFIELD:I'm just curious. You have been for many years involved in this often-lonely fight against media concentration and for continued broadcast and media regulation. How easy is it for you to suddenly embrace your longtime political enemy now that he seems at least with respect to the Belo corporation to be in your camp?

JEFF CHESTER: Well, listen - I think Mr. Armey is just focused on this for the moment because of his son's future political career, but I do think once again we have to applaud Mr. Armey's stance because the FCC under Michael Powell and many others are saying we can't find the harm in having one owner control most of the powerful media outlets in, in a community. Dick Armey is in a position to cow the local powerful media monopoly, but very few people will be if we allow these kind of combinations to emerge. What public interest advocates and I think many others know is that having fewer owners of most of the media outlets in this country is not good for democracy, it's not good for diversity and journalism.

BOB GARFIELD: All right. Jeff Chester, thanks very much.

JEFF CHESTER: Thank you, Bob.

BOB GARFIELD:Jeff Chester is the executive director of The Center for Digital Democracy in Washington, DC. He spoke to us from a conference in Montreal, Canada. [MUSIC]