WHO OWNS YOUR
LOCAL NEWS MEDIA?
With the June 2 decision by the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) to roll
back restrictions on consolidation of media
ownership, an information resource recently
made available to the public becomes not
only timely but invaluable.
The Center for Public Integrity, a nonpar-
tisan, nonprofit government and media
watchdog group, has created a searchable
database where anyone can easily locate
which companies own which radio and TV
stations anywhere in the country. You simply
type in the city and state, or zip code, and the
database returns a list of all electronic media
channels and their owners in that area.
In the southern Willamette Valley, nine of
the 40 radio stations, or 22 percent of the
market, are owned by Texas-based Clear
Channel, the largest radio station owner in
the country. Six stations, or 15 percent of the
market, are owned by Atlanta’s Cumulus
Media, second-largest in the nation.
Currently the area’s main network TV sta-
tions are owned by three different companies.
KMTR belongs to Clear Channel, KVAL is
run by Seattle-based Fisher Communi-
cations, and KZEL is owned by Eugene-
based Chambers Communications.
Media and business analysts predict a
rush of buyouts and mergers after the FCC
decision, as the giant companies take advan-
tage of the regulatory reductions. With little
sign of self-criticism by media owners, the
CPI web site may be the only reasonably ac-
• Imagine yourself an editor of The
Register-Guard. You’re receiving
hundreds of letters for and against
the war in Iraq. How do you decide
which ones to run? That’s the
question answered by the
Columbia Journalism Review, May-
June issue, in the “Currents” col-
umn. They polled 10 papers across
the country during the weeks of
March 11, 24, and April 7, to find
out the slant of letters received. R-
G reported letters running 4-1
against the war the week of March
11, 4-1 against the war week of
March 24, and 7-1 against the war
the week of April 7. R-G editors
told CJR that they gave equal pre-
sentation of the letters for and
against the war despite the imbal-
ance of what was submitted. Why?
Some papers, such as EW, tried to
publish letters to reflect what
12 JUNE 5, 2003
cessible source for determining precisely
who owns what information channels. For
more on this widely controversial decision,
and links to the media ownership database,
go to www.publicintegrity.org Bookmark the
page and check it again in six months.
— Steve McQuiddy
GOAL 5 INVENTORY
GOES TO HEARINGS
Public hearings are under way on the
state-mandated Goal 5 Natural Resource
Inventory for the Eugene/Springfield area
and the proposed Metro Plan “Environmental
Resources Element” amendments (see
“Natural Resistance,” Page 9).
A Eugene City Council worksession was
held May 28, a joint public hearing of city
and county planning commissions happened
June 3, and a Eugene City Council public
hearing is planned for 7:30 pm Monday, June
9, at the Council Chambers, 777 Pearl Street.
“There is absolutely no other local plan-
ning project that has experienced so much
abuse at the hands of certain elected officials
and certain special interest groups,” says
Lauri Segel, Lane County Planning Advocate
for 1000 Friends of Oregon. “The ‘on the
ground’ impact of the ongoing abuses against
legal mechanisms to protect natural resources
has resulted in a loss of possibly thousands of
acres of rich and ecologically vital resources
within the Metropolitan area.”
Segel says local jurisdictions have re-
ceived “substantial funding from the state” to
carry out the inventory over the past eight
came in and that seems fairer. It’s
pure conjecture, but perhaps the
R-G adopted this policy to provide
“balance” on their editorial page
to their strong editorials against
the war. We did applaud those edi-
torials, but we do wonder about
the letters policy in our local main-
stream paper.
• “No Child Left Behind Act”
sounds like a wonderful govern-
ment initiative — until we discover
it means little in terms of educat-
ing children or raising them out of
poverty. One thing it does mean is
that no child will be left behind
when it comes to harassing
recruitment by the U.S. armed
forces. Don’t want your teenager
called and cajoled at home by
gung-ho hawks selling the glory of
war? Too bad. If you’re not paying
attention and don’t get your
paperwork in to the school district,
it’s gonna happen. Pissed-off par-
years and “only step one of a six-step process
has ever seen the light of day.”
For more information, contact 1000
Friends at 431-7059 or lauri@friends.org
SWAT MENTALITY
EXAMINED IN FILM
Whiteaker neighbors are organizing a
“Safety not SWAT” event including the film
Urban Warrior: The Militarizing of
American Law Enforcement. The free event
will begin at 7 pm Saturday, June 7, at the 4J
Education Center Auditorium, 200 N.
Monroe.
The documentary film screening will be
followed by panel presentation with direc-
tor/producer Matt Ehling, Lauren Regan (at-
torney for the lawsuit concerning the October
SWAT raid in Whiteaker), Seattle researcher
Paul Richmond, and organizers
challenging the militarization
of the Eugene Police
Department (EPD).
During the 1980s
and ‘90s, the Pentagon
began supplying both mili-
tary training and surplus
military hardware to do-
ents tell us they are having a hard
time getting the 4J School Board
to take a pro-active stand on this
important privacy issue. What can
be done? We hear some California
school districts have adopted “opt-
in” policies where student informa-
tion is only given out when par-
ents agree in advance. Other dis-
tricts have assertive programs to
educate both parents and students
about military recruiting. The 4J
School Board meets again at 6:45
pm Wednesday, June 11, with time
allotted for public comments.
• Politics was fun again last week-
end when Cheyney Ryan hosted a
public staged reading of his new
play Shock and Awe at Tsunami
Books. Audiences of more than
100 sat and stood each night
around the back stage of the fine
independent bookstore on South
Willamette to see the “work in
progress” as Cheyney called it. It
mestic law enforcement agencies.
Paramilitary SWAT teams, utilizing urban
combat tactics, sub-machine guns, and ar-
mored personnel carriers, now exist in 90
percent of American cities with a population
of 50,000 or more, according to the film. In
addition to providing weaponry and support,
the military has also become involved in do-
mestic law enforcement in an operational ca-
pacity — blurring the line between civilian
and military authority, and fostering a “mili-
tary mentality” in city police departments.
“This event is an opportunity to educate
ourselves about SWAT from a different per-
spective than that of EPD, which is also in the
process of ‘educating’ the Police
Commission and community about SWAT,”
says Majeska Seese-Green of the Whiteaker
Community Council.
Seese-Green says the
first weeks of June are crit-
ical in demonstrating to the
new city manager the “widespread
concerns in Eugene about the excessive
SWAT mentality in EPD, as he prepares to
begin the recruitment process for a new po-
lice chief.”
In mid-June the EPD will announce the
results of a May performance audit of their
probably wasn’t fun for any fans of
Georgie Bush who wandered in off
the street, but that was the point.
Ryan, who teaches philosophy at
UO, is writing the play as a “cultur-
al response” to what’s going on in
this country, as a way to bring
laughter and humor into the politi-
cal darkness, as the conveyor of
truth that theater should be, and,
of course, as entertainment for
the audience. Hans Christofferson
directs the characters who were
classmates of Bush when he was a
cheerleader at Yale. They gather
at the Watergate apartments a
year after 9/11 The play starts as
comedy, but doesn’t end that way.
What happens next to Shock and
Awe? We hope to see the finished
product soon in Eugene and then
launch it across the country. How
about Eugene as a starting point
for original political theater in this
new century? An exciting idea, and
that’s what Cheyney has in mind.
• PeaceHealth’s hospital plans
have been appealed by both
CHOICES and the Jaqua family
and it appears Lane County is
intervening on behalf of the
Jaquas. We hear 1000 Friends of
Oregon is also joining in support-
ing both appeals. Oddly enough,
DLCD, the state agency that was
so strongly opposed to the project
earlier on, has bowed out citing
budget and people-power issues.
But we suspect DLCD’s on-the-
record criticisms of the project will
carry a lot of weight in the argu-
ments. Meanwhile, PeaceHealth
has agreed to pick up the tab on
Springfield’s side of the appeals.
But we all know who pays eventu-
ally.
SLANT includes short opinion pieces
and rumor-chasing notes compiled by
the EW staff. Heard any good rumors
lately? Contact Ted Taylor at 484-0519,
editor@eugeneweekly.com