By Chuck Lovey
New Jersey’s news sources are disappearing. And there is little of substance coming to replace them.
In 2011, the operations of New Jersey Network were taken over by out-of-state broadcasters, and the station’s nightly newscast was replaced by a half-hour news magazine. Earlier this year, the owners of this newspaper listed The Star-Ledger’s headquarters building for sale and threatened to cease operations by year’s end. And last month, New Jersey’s only full-powered commercial television station, WWOR-TV Channel 9, killed off its news division and completely eliminated its news broadcasts.
When he shut down NJN, Gov. Chris Christie justified the move based on budget constraints. He also pointed to the news programming on WWOR-TV — a station that relocated to New Jersey nearly 30 years ago for the express purpose of providing New Jersey’s citizens with the news and public affairs programming they deserve — as an alternative. Now, that programming no longer exists.
In fact, WWOR-TV has failed the people of New Jersey for years. In 2007, a citizens group, Voice for New Jersey, filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission to deny renewal of the station’s broadcast license. The filing documented that the station’s news and public affairs programming focused on New York — not New Jersey — and that the amount of programming was less than 25 percent of Channel 9’s peer group average. That figure dropped to 10 percent in 2009, when the station further slashed its staffing and programming. Now, Channel 9’s news programming is completely gone.
New Jerseyans don’t expect something for nothing. Unlike other service providers, radio and TV stations pay nothing for their use of the public’s airwaves. Instead, broadcasters are obligated to serve the public interest by providing, among other things, news and public affairs programming that addresses the needs of their community. Fox Television Stations Inc., WWOR-TV’s owner for the past 13 years, has failed to meet this obligation.
Of course, Fox disputes this charge. To replace its news programming, Channel 9 now airs “Chasing New Jersey,” a “news magazine” formatted in the image of TMZ. The station insists this is a worthy replacement for its traditional newscast.
Don’t believe it. The debut episode of “Chasing New Jersey” featured segments titled “Wheelie Bad Boyz” (a discussion of “ATV-riding cowboys” in Trenton) and “Help! Daddy’s a Nazi!” As one reviewer put it, “This may be entertaining and informative, but (it) isn’t news.”
The FCC is charged with enforcing the obligations of broadcast station owners through its license renewal process. Here, it has failed New Jersey miserably. The FCC has taken no action on the WWOR-TV station license in nearly six years.
The FCC also failed to follow up on a 2011 investigation of misrepresentations by the station’s ownership, despite Fox’s failure to provide almost all of the documentation that the FCC demanded.
Some of New Jersey’s political leaders have shown the courage to speak out. The late Sen. Frank Lautenberg was a longstanding critic of the station, and repeatedly urged the FCC to impose specific and meaningful public service requirements in conjunction with renewal of the station’s broadcast license. More recently, Sen. Robert Menendez and Rep. Frank Pallone have responded to cancellation of WWOR-TV’s news programming with a demand that the FCC take action.
This is not a partisan issue. When broadcasters fail to meet their public interest obligations, their free use of the airwaves amounts to little more than corporate welfare — a largesse being doled out to some of the largest and most profitable media companies in the nation. If our state couldn’t afford to maintain NJN, we certainly can’t afford this.
It is time for the rest of New Jersey and its elected officials to speak out. Let us demand that the FCC act to provide us with the news and public affairs programming we deserve.
Chuck Lovey of Plainfield is a principal in the DCL Group, an IT management consulting company, and a member of Voice for New Jersey.