Gridiron 2002
By Garett Kamemoto
Chapter Director
Sources are beginning to leak details of the musical tour de farce that is becoming Gridiron 2002: Photo Enforced.
Gridiron Producer Keoki Kerr is refusing to answer the most asked question of the year: "Will Gordon Pang appear in a dress?" Kerr declined to comment.
The event will be Oct. 25-26 event at Diamond Head Theatre.
But sources indicate:
Sunset on the Beach-goers will be singing: (Tune of Comedy Tonight)
"Here in the city
Here in the county
We're watching movies out
With Jeremy Tonight!"
The Democratic Party will ask the question: (Tune of How do you
solve a problem like Maria)
"How do you solve a problem like Cayetano?"
We'll also make fun of Linda Lingle, June Jones, Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, television news, the van cam debacle, and the story that kept all Hawaii riveted while tax collections went south: Hokget the dog.
Kerr is being assisted again this year by Garett Kamemoto and stage manager Donna Bebber.
Letter to FCC on Emmis waiver request
Aug. 4, 2002
W. Kenneth Ferree
Chief, Media Bureau
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th St., S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20554
Dear Mr. Ferree:
The Board of Directors of the Society of Professional
Journalists, Hawaii Professional Chapter, questions Federal
Communications Commission actions that have allowed the continued
joint ownership of two of the top four TV stations in the
Honolulu market.
As you know, Emmis Communications Corp. has since September 2000
been the licensee of both CBS-affiliate KGMB-TV and Fox-affiliate
KHON-TV in Honolulu, despite a commission rule barring common
ownership of TV stations that are ranked in the top four in terms
of audience share within the same Nielsen Designated Market Area.
Emmis already owned KHON-TV when it acquired 15 broadcast TV
stations, including KGMB-TV, from Lee Enterprises Inc. in 2000.
In order to proceed with that multi-station deal, Emmis requested
and received from the commission a six-month waiver of the
duopoly rule, pledging to divest one of the two Honolulu stations
during that period. A Sept. 25, 2000, Memorandum
Opinion and Order from the commission's Mass Media Bureau stated
that the six-month waiver would “not harm diversity or
hinder competition in a manner conflicting with the public
interest.”
That may have been the case then. However, with Emmis now
approaching the second anniversary of its acquisition of KGMB,
the corporation continues to hold licenses for both KGMB and
KHON, thanks to repeated extensions of the initial waiver.
Recently, Emmis has taken steps toward consolidating operations
of the two stations - which venture down the slick slope of
violating the intent behind the commission's initial waiver, as
well as both the letter and spirit of the duopoly rule even as it
was revised in 1999 to allow greater opportunities for common
ownership of broadcast stations within local markets.
We believe that journalism in Hawaii (those stations also serve
Kauai, Maui County and the Big Island) will suffer due to
co-ownership of KHON and KGMB. We believe it will limit
competition among news stations and silence one of the four major
independent voices in our sometimes limited marketplace of views
and facts. And probably most importantly, we believe the public
in Hawaii will suffer due to that loss of an independent voice.
In July of this year, Emmis appointed a single executive, Rick
Blangiardi, to lead KHON-TV and KGMB-TV as senior vice president
and general manager of both stations. At the end of the month,
newsroom staffs were told that KHON-TV and KGMB-TV -- whose news
programs are rated first and third in Honolulu, respectively --
would begin sharing a photographer for selected news stories.
Despite assurances from management that the two stations will
remain editorially independent on big news stories, we find it
hard to imagine how such an arrangement could be seen as
advancing the FCC's still-held goal of preserving competition and
diversity of voices among the broadcast media.
The commission may well decide, after a planned new review of the
duopoly rule, to abandon the prohibition on common ownership of
stations within the top four in a Designated Market Area. But
until it does, we fail to see why the commission should not
enforce existing rules when the public has not had a formal
opportunity to comment on what amounts to a dramatic, if
indefinite, policy shift. Our concerns were not eased by the
explanation to our board president, Stirling Morita, from Clay C.
Pendarvis, chief of the Television Branch of the Video Services
Division of the FCC's Mass Media Bureau (please see attachment).
In an Aug. 9, 2001, letter to Mr. Morita, Mr. Pendarvis wrote:
“On March 23, 2001, Emmis was granted an extension of the
six-month temporary waiver. In the extension request, Emmis
demonstrated that it had made good faith attempts to find a buyer
willing to purchase the station at a fair and reasonable price.
The Commission staff letter noted that, given the specific
economic factors discouraging purchase of a television station in
the Honolulu market, there was substantial risk that holding
Emmis to the six-month divestiture period would result in a
forced sale. A forced sale of assets could unnecessarily restrict
the value of the station to be divested and could artificially
limit the range of potential buyers. ... ”
Surely, Emmis was aware of economic conditions in Hawaii when it
agreed to acquire KGMB-TV as part of the multi-station deal. In
this case, we believe the broader public's interest in diversity
and competition far outweighs the limited business interests of a
single corporation. Nor do we see it as the FCC's mission to
ensure risk-free transactions for large broadcast corporations.
While aspects of the duopoly rule have been portrayed as under
attack by the courts as “arbitrary and capricious,” we
hasten to point out that the specific portion of the rule that
deals with joint ownership of two stations in the top four of a
local market has not been targeted in recent rulings by
the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
We are left to wonder whether the commission's criteria for
deciding when to enforce and when to waive its duopoly rules are
not themselves arbitrary.
There can be no denying that this year's court rulings have sent
a clear signal that regulations under the duopoly rule need more
solid justification. But in our view, those rulings do not amount
to a free pass to bypass regulations that have yet to be revised
or better justified after rigorous public review.
We urge the commission to rethink its decision that continues to
allow Emmis to own two TV stations in the top four of the
Honolulu market. We also welcome assurances that Emmis' Honolulu
predicament, allowed to go unresolved as long as it has, will not
tie the commission's hands as it undertakes its review of the
duopoly rule and, in particular, the prohibition on ownership of
more than one of the top four TV broadcast stations in a market.
Honolulu is not an out-of-the-way place - it is not far from the
American mainstream - but a dynamic, richly diverse city of
nearly 1 million at the gateway to Asia and the Pacific. If
anything, Hawaii's unique and complex history and cultural
landscape make it even more important that the broadcast voices
that reach the greatest number of citizens are not concentrated
in the hands of a few. Beyond the harm we fear to our profession,
we believe our community will suffer in profound, if not always
measurable, ways if the FCC does not fulfill its traditional
mission of preserving competition and diversity on the public's
air waves.
Should you care to contact me, my address is 3054 Ala Poha Place
#806, Honolulu, HI 96818.
Thank you for your attention to our concerns.
Sincerely,
Stirling Morita
President
For the board of directors,
Hawaii Professional Chapter, SPJ
Blangiardi's Reply
Rick Blangiardi, general manager of KHON-TV and KGMB-TV, says
he plans to keep the newsrooms of both stations separate.
“News is an integral part of our operation,” and it is
“good business” to operate two separate news shows, he
said in an Aug. 29 talk with representatives of the Hawaii
chapter, SPJ, and Honolulu Community-Media Council.
Blangiardi was responding to questions raised by the Hawaii
chapter about Federal Communications Commission waivers to allow
continued, joint ownership of the two television stations.
Blangiardi defends camera-sharing between KHON and KGMB for less
newsworthy stories as practical. He says it allows both stations
to do more with their cameras, freeing them up to do more
important pieces.
He noted there was little difference between all TV stations
sharing CNN feeds and two co-owned stations sharing the same
local footage.
Besides, the camera sharing allows both stations to do pieces
that wouldn't get air because there weren't enough cameras, thus
adding to the diversity of news.
“I guarantee it: no sharing will result in any job
loss” while the request for waiver of the duopoly rule is
pending before the FCC, he said.
In fact, Blangiardi said, he is looking at hiring more staff.
He said local television news - including KHON and KGMB -- has
declined dramatically because of cutbacks by previous owners for
economic reasons.
Blangiardi said he wants to improve the news quality at both
stations. He is also looking at doing more news at KGMB.
“I am not consolidating; I am not cutting anybody, except
for performance,” Blangiardi said.
-- Stirling Morita
Dates of Interest
Sept. 12: 2002 SPJ National Convention in Fort Worth, Texas
Sept. 23: Helen Thomas gives distinguished lecture at 7:30 p.m.
Campus Center Ballroom.
Sept. 29: 1 p.m. Meeting to receive nominations for next year's
chapter board. Star-Bulletin conference room
Oct. 25-26: Gridiron 2002: Photo Enforced, Diamond Head Theatre
Chapter co-sponsors Helen Thomas talk
The longtime dean of the White House Press Corps, Helen
Thomas, will give the annual Carol Burnett Fund for Responsible
Journalism lecture on "Thank You for the Memories, Mr.
President," based on her latest book.
The free lecture, the first in a series of Distinguished Lectures
at the University of Hawaii, will be 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 23,
in the Campus Center Ballroom. It will be co-sponsored by Carol
Burnett Fund for Responsible Journalism, the Hawaii chapter, SPJ
and UH-Manoa.
SPJ members are also welcome to join journalism students and
faculty in an
informal session with Thomas from 9-11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24,
in the Campus Center meeting rooms (third floor).
Thomas resigned in May 2000 after 57 years with United Press
International.
Other events include:
Medical privacy spells problems for media
By Ian Marquand
SPJ Freedom of Information Committee co-chairman
Journalists who cover accidents and other
incidents in which people require medical care will have a harder
time determining the number and nature of injuries, or even if
someone has been admitted to a hospital, because of new federal
rules on the privacy of health-care information.
Specific information on patient injuries, illnesses and
conditions may no longer be available. In fact, the new rules
will make it harder merely to confirm that a person is in the
hospital. The Bush administration recently released the latest
version of medical privacy rules, which are intended to give
people more control over their health and medical information. In
most cases, the rules will take effect April 14, 2003.
Medical privacy rules were required by the federal Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). The
Clinton administration issued an initial version in 2000. The
Bush administration chose to re-visit the rules in 2001 following
complaints from various lobbying interests. During both rounds of
rulemakings, the Society of Professional Journalists, other
journalism organizations and other groups
interested in freedom of information submitted comments.
In most situations, the new rules prohibit hospitals and other
health providers from releasing information on patients without
prior permission. The rules also have severe penalties for
unauthorized releases. The rules allow some information called
“limited data sets” (patients' birth dates, admission
and discharge dates, and geographic addresses larger than street
addresses) to be given to research and public health entities,
but specifically not to journalists.
So, journalists now may have a hard time merely confirming that
someone is in a hospital.
SPJ President Al Cross, who began his journalism career reporting
hospital admissions and other news for his hometown radio station
in Southern Kentucky, called the new rules outrageous.