Murdoch, victim
of discrimation

Apparently unhappy with the lighter touch of the invisible hand of self-regulating markets, Senator Conrad Burns, Republican of Montana, last week announced a more heavy-handed approach, vowing to make the federal government an arbiter of media ratings, reports AdAge. A key senator on the Commerce Committee, Burns said he is proposing legislation that would give the federal government oversight authority over media ratings systems.

"We are going to move forward on the legislation," he said after a hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee. "It may change in form a little [but] Nielsen needs some kind of effective oversight."

Nielsen intends to replace its paper-based method of tracking media audiences with the "local people meter" in major markets. The new technology is reviled by larger companies such as Rupert Murdoch's Fox, Tribune and Gannett - and praised by the ad industry and smaller broadcasters for providing more accurate, quicker local ratings and more audience data.

The large broadcasters view that as a threat to traditional tracking methods - which likely overcount in their favor.

According to AdAge, both sides of the issue trotted out "dueling minority ministers" at last week's committee hearings, with the Rev. Jesse Jackson speaking on behalf of Nielsen, and the Rev. Jacques DeGraff, pastor of New York's Canaan Baptist Church, for the Don't Count Us Out Coalition, formed by large broadcasters to oppose the local people meters, which they claim discriminates against minority viewers.

The Federal Trade Commission in April said it would not get involved with or monitor Nielsen's rollout of the new measuring system, saying the best approach to monitoring problems would be a voluntary one. Nielsen has been working with the Media Ratings Council since launching the new system last year.