Critics' Challenge   

Covering the Company's TV Station

I IT'S A HEADACHE unique to markets where the same company owns a television station and a newspaper. It's a headache plaguing one beat reporter in particular: the paper's TV critic.
"It's been a source of exasperation," says Tim Feran, TV and radio critic for Ohio's Columbus Dispatch. "I'm on a high wire here."
Whenever a critic takes aim at a parent company's local station, whether in a negative or positive piece, it's bound to raise suspicions and questions of whether a paper's management influences coverage. Readers and media onlookers inherently scrutinize the critic's work to a higher degree and, in turn, critics are all the more cautious when they sit down at the keyboard.
Feran says he endured a bit of a migraine last fall when WBNS, a CBS affiliate owned by the same company that owns the Dispatch, went to war with the local cable carrier. The cable company initially declined to make a spot in its lineup for another Dispatch Printing Co. station, the Ohio News Network. In return, WBNS threatened to pull itself from the local cable carrier's lineup.
The whole affair was a messy battle, but particularly harrowing for Feran to cover.
"It was a month-long excruciating process," Feran reflects, noting a deal was struck in which WBNS withdrew its threat and Dispatch Printing began negotiations with the cable company to include ONN in Columbus' cable package. "I was very careful to keep both sides at bay."
Feran says he draws fire whenever he writes about WBNS, but makes every effort to be fair.
"It's not like I can come in and ignore it," Feran says. "Everybody in town knows we own WBNS and ONN.... My supervisors have been a real help about making sure we keep a very evenhanded approach."
Thomas Schwartz, an associate professor of journalism at Ohio State University, kept a close watch on how the conflict played itself out and how Feran dealt with the competing interests.
"A perception of bias hurts everyone involved," Schwartz says. "But I do have to commend the Dispatch because they said they were owned by the same company that owns the television station. A lot of people try to act as if they are not affiliated with anyone else, but [the Dispatch] asserted that they did have that connection."
The Federal Communications Commission regulates broadcast/newspaper cross-ownership. Regulations are reviewed every two years, FCC spokesman David Fiske says.
The current rule, last reviewed in 1998, does not allow a company to own a television station and a newspaper in the same market. But companies seeking to own both are individually reviewed and may be given waivers. And a grandfather clause allows the situation if the owner had possession of the two mediums prior to an FCC rule change.
The result is many examples of companies owning TV and print in the same market: At least 14 such situations exist in the country, three of which are due to the recent Tribune Co./Times Mirror merger. Those cross-owned properties--in Los Angeles, New York and Hartford--won't face the FCC rules until their licenses come up for renewal, starting in 2005. While these situations present collaborative opportunities, many media watchers, including the public, are concerned about the concentration of media.
Tim Cuprisin, the television and radio columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, says he has never experienced any backlash from his editors for criticizing the NBC affiliate, WTMJ, which is also owned by Journal Communications. But he's always battling the public's perception that he has an agenda.
"Everything I do is suspect," Cuprisin says. "People are always looking for some reason to find some bias on my behalf."
Cuprisin is quick to point out that he has never felt limited in what he can write about the station. "I've never had any editor say I shouldn't say something because [WTMJ] is part of the same company," he says.
The critic's independence was highlighted in November 1998, when WTMJ's evening newscast was to go up against a Monday Night Football game featuring the Green Bay Packers on the local ABC affiliate. Instead of taking what likely would have been a brutal beating in the ratings, WTMJ pulled the newscast quietly off the air.
"I called them to task for several days. I felt no constraints for ripping them for it," Cuprisin says. "I work hard to not let [mutual ownership] stop me."
Although Feran and Cuprisin say they are able to freely comment on all stations, there are critics being silenced on some subjects.
Ed Bark, who has been the TV critic for the Dallas Morning News for 20 years, is no longer able to review the content of any of Dallas' newscasts, he says.
Belo owns the Morning News and the local ABC affiliate, WFAA. The two have begun a collaborative approach in news coverage, in which they co-report or share resources on certain stories. "We are very much becoming a part of their news operations," Bark says. "We are such partners, it has been thought that we can't look at the content objectively."
The ban on newscast critiquing is fairly new--it was implemented at the start of the February sweeps period--but the limitation is unsettling. "I don't think it will be a comfortable situation, and I believe there are people who don't think it's a good idea," Bark says of the ban.
Still, the critic has plenty to write about, he says, and he does so without pressure from above. "I think I do my job with good conscience," Bark says. "I call them as I see them."