News mergers threaten local coverage.(View point: THE CONSUMERS UNION PERSPECTIVE)

Publication: Consumer Reports

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COPYRIGHT 2006 Consumers Union of the United States, Inc.

Despite 24-hour news channels and thousands of Web sites, most of us still turn to our local media outlets to find out what's going on in our communities. We expect our hometown newspapers and TV stations to cover the events that affect our daily lives, and to aggressively compete to offer us a wide range of views. To make sure that happens, the government has generally required that media outlets in our communities remain independent of each other, with different owners.

But the Federal Communications Commission is considering changing the rules, which may leave consumers with far fewer independent media voices. The threat is real; in 2003 the FCC issued new rules allowing one company to own a daily...

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