Reply #1: Thanks Cally - The coverage itself could help us [View All]

[salin]

get attention to one of the aspects of the problems with control of media that is not local.

Of specific note of a Duers experience - David Zephyr knew the fires were in the general region... watched the LA late news (11pm) last night (as I have heard the story second hand, I admit) - where there was little (any?) info. Within hours - the first real news of the seriousness - were the firemen on the street rousing people in the middle of the night - to evacuate. The house a few doors down was on fire.

For whatever reason the news a few hours earlier did NOT cover the seriousness and/or accurately project where the problems were - since he and his parter were looking for this news they would have had a little bit of time to start preparing (eg what would you pack if you had an hour or two's warning to evacuate?). This could present a very serious public safety problem.

Right now - Congress is debating turning back the FCC rule about further consolidation of media ownership - which in most cases is about moving ownership further and furthe away from the local community. It also involves accumulation of more and more debt (each acquisition means more and more debt/loan obligations) - which means there are fewer and fewer dollars available for things like adequate staffing at the local level of news staffs. The reported coverage of the LA fires outside of San Diego (which sounds like it has had good coverage) - seems to demonstrate - at a very serious level - the potential gravity of a side effect of media consolidation.