Dorgan-Lott Bill Would Delay FCC Media Vote
Dorgan Wants to Force FCC to Give Public 90 Days to Review Ownership Rules
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 11/8/2007 9:31:00 AM
Washington – Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) said Thursday morning he would introduce later in the day a bipartisan bill designed to postpone a Dec. 18 vote by the Federal Communications Commission to relax certain broadcast ownership rules.
Dorgan would achieve the delay by forcing the FCC to complete work on rules designed to promote so-called broadcast localism and by requiring the agency to give the public at least 90 days to review new ownership rules that FCC chairman Kevin Martin wants to adopt.
Going ahead with a vote on Dec. 18 would be premature, Dorgan said at Senate Commerce Committee hearing Thursday.
“I think that is horrible idea, one that is counter to the public interest,” Dorgan said.
The FCC very rarely lets the public see the wording of rules before a vote. Martin’s proposed schedule would give the public far less than 30 days to analyze his new rules if a vote is to occur on Dec. 18.
“That does not meet any standard of reasonableness or any standard that I know makes any sense,” Dorgan said.
Martin has not disclosed which rules he wants to change, although he has consistently said that a 1975 rule that bans ownership of a newspaper and a TV or radio station in same local market was outdated.
Sen. Trent Lott (Miss.) has joined Dorgan as the lead Republican co-sponsor of the bill, called the Media Ownership Act of 2007. The two lawmakers have for years complained a handful of large corporations should not be allowed to dominate ownership in local markets around the country.
“If the FCC won’t do their job to keep East and West coast media conglomerates from pushing out these local voices, then there is a role for the Congress to play,” Lott said in a joint statement with Dorgan.
At the hearing, Senate Commerce Committee chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) said he met with Martin on Wednesday to discuss media ownership issues.
“I stressed to him my strong belief that rushing to judgment before the end of this year would be a serious mistake,” Inouye said. “I hope they will make the right decision.”
Inouye said Martin and the other four FCC members would be called to testify before the committee probably on Dec. 13.
Since Martin has the FCC poised to act within a few weeks, Lott and Dorgan don’t have much time to delay the FCC vote through a new law. They also have to consider a White House veto.
“This [legislation] is not symbolic,” said Dorgan spokesman Barry Piatt.
Other co-sponsors were Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), John Kerry (D-MA), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).
At the hearing, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) indicated that he was skeptical about the need to interfere with FCC policymaking, adding that the character of media markets continues to change with newspapers bleeding print readers while Internet advertising soars.
“I don’t think we know yet where that change is going to go and what it will mean for people who try to find ways to own the entities that provide the information streams,” Stevens said.
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