Skip Oliva has an interesting post on the FCC’s recent approval, by a 3–2 vote, of Univision’s purchase of Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation, and particularly of Democratic commissioner Jonathan Adelstein’s dissent. His point, as reported in the Washington Times, was that allowing a merger of the two largest Hispanic broadcasting companies would reduce the “diversity” of Hispanic programming.
But Democratic FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said the “FCC is turning a deaf ear to millions of Spanish-speaking Americans.””
“By allowing this transaction to go forward with no protections for consumers, the FCC denies Spanish speakers their right to receive a diversity of perspectives over the nation’s airwaves,” Mr. Adelstein said.
As Oliva astutely notes:
How exactly does a group obtain a “right” to diversity? …. What would Adelstein do if there was only one Spanish-language media company to begin with? Or what about the various language groups that don’t have any broadcast stations dedicated to their interests? Should the FTC force the networks to develop “Russian-language” or “French-language” formats to satisfy the “right” to diverse programming?
Indeed. In fact, if Hispanics have a right to a “diversity” of programming that is violated by the merger of the two largest Hispanic broadcasters, wouldn’t other language groups have a similar right to more than one source of programming in their language?
Adelstein strikes me as somewhat addled, but then most “diversity” arguments begin to unravel in a similar fashion if you push them hard enough.
The “right to diversity” is the legal right to be free of monopoly, and it is no different than if the only two English language media companies were merging. If Spanish speakers cannot get their news from a non-Spanish-language source, then that single source has a monopoly. This may not affect the actual listeners, but it will certainly drive up advertising rates, as there is now no longer a need for media outlets to compete for Spanish language ads.
Adelstein’s basic assumption–a right to “diversity” is of course risible.
If one wants a variety of views expressed in Spanish, move to Mexico or one of dozens of other countries where Spanish is the dominant language. Or, if one wants a variety of views to be available in the United States, then learn to speak English.
Now, that wasn’t too hard, was it?