Mega-hurts

Recently a tornado warning rolled across east Alabama. Warning sirens sounded. Folks took appropriate steps. But on one local radio station news of the bad weather was AWOL. Instead a talk-show host based in New York named Mark Levin was hurling insults left and right; no one broke in at the AM station to warn listeners about bad weather.
The episode got the editors of the Anniston Star to thinking: What is the state of broadcasting? What has come of local broadcasters' public service commitments?
The newspaper produced a four-part series called Compressed Air. It examined broadcast media deregulation 12 years after President Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Here's what one media critic -- Eric Klinenberg, New York University sociology professor and the author of "Fighting for Air: The Battle to Control America's Media" -- told us.

"When disaster strikes and having live human beings to report news becomes a matter of life or death, chain media have a hard time meeting their public interest obligations. Luckily for them — but not for citizens — the FCC doesn't seem to mind. The agency has essentially given irresponsible broadcasters a free pass to do as they please."

All four parts of the series are online.