MVN - Most Valuable Network

San Diego update on citizen protests — XETV’s anti-soccer bias in TV news policies

excerpt from Monday report…

“Viewers and other San Diego citizens are now openly questioning this station’s news policies, which simply do not gel with the local community’s interest, the public trust, or viewer interest. There are likely many legal violations, and they are ignoring viewer requests.”

“Hispanic groups are organizing legal actions against the station claiming discrimination; The Televisa-owned station is losing its FOX affiliation in August; their cross-border contract expired, and the network affiliation is switching to Tribune-owned KSWB.”

“There is no reason why the station - regardless of affiliation in past, present, or future times, is not covering this pro sport of great local interest among all segments of the population, and is not covering the local L.A. teams, and the world’s best-known athlete - who plays here.”

Should such a lawsuit succeed, it would be a potentially potent tool supporters groups and other soccer fans could use it in their own communities to seek better coverage.

There are some legal precedents for such a challenge being successful in the form of historically African-American radio stations which served a community being bought out by new owners who subsequently changed their format to one in which a judge felt the community was under served by.  These stations were then forced by law to provide news coverage and community affairs programming serving the community in which they were based or risk losing their broadcast license when it came up for review and renewal.

It is quite possible the station is violating California State Law, as well as local and Federal regulations. I am not enough of an expert to know about Mexican law, but since their transmitter and ownership are in that country, they may be in violation there, too.

Complete Statement from San Diego MLS Project founder

Related Support Article (gives specific legal precedent for one of the applicable laws)

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 3:47 pm and is filed under Soccer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.