Raycom had a "so there" for media ownership
critics who cited its combination of a duopoly and shared services agreement
involving three stations in Honolulu as an example of concentrated control that
hurts local news.
In a filing in the FCC's media ownership review docket,
Raycom introduced some new evidence for why it thought that might not be the
case after all: a handful of awards for local news in Honolulu.
"In response to some commenters' claims that the local
news coverage aired on Raycom's Honolulu television stations ‘harm consumers,'"
said Raycom attorney Kurt Winner in the filing, "Raycom hereby submits for
inclusion in this proceeding's record the attached press release."
That release announced that the company had received three
regional Edward R. Murrow awards from the Radio-Television News Directors
Association for its Honolulu news over three stations and online, including for
best newscast and best hard news reporting.
The FCC last fall denied a Media Council Hawaii complaint
against Raycom over the trio of stations, but the bureau said it thought that
trio probably violated the spirit of local ownership limits and signaled it
would look at whether to attribute such combos for local ownership purposes in
its media ownership review.
