Milwaukee Media Reform
Less than 2% of Milwaukee local TV news coverage was focussed on state and local elections during the four weeks prior to the 2024 general election. For this reason, a coalition of groups and Milwaukee-area residents led by the Democracy Campaign today filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission challenging the renewal of all commercial television licenses in the Milwaukee market.
The basis of the coalition’s petition is a marketwide failure of local stations in Wisconsin’s largest TV market to serve the public interest documented by a national study showing a minuscule portion of local newscasts were devoted to covering state and local election campaigns.
The broadcast airwaves are public property that stations are licensed to use so long as they serve the public interest. Localism is one of the FCC’s three tests of whether a station is acting in the public interest (along with diversity and competition). Milwaukee stations failed the localism test miserably by devoting three-quarters of their meager election coverage in the month leading up to the 2024 general election to the presidential race, even though the national networks and other national media also were providing coverage of that race.
The root cause of the abandonment of localism in local broadcasting is the growing consolidation of media ownership. One of Milwaukee’s top-rated stations is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, a politically conservative national chain that is one of the largest television conglomerates in the nation. Sinclair has pioneered centrally produced faux local news. Another top Milwaukee station is owned by Fox Television Stations, Inc., part of Rupert Murdoch’s global news and entertainment empire known as News Corporation.