Newspaper Lobby Wants Senate Bill Blocked
Group Wants FCC to Relax Cross Ownership Ban
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 12/10/2007 7:23:00 AM
Washington – The Newspaper Association of America is trying to block a Senate bill that would postpone a Dec. 18 vote at the Federal Communications Commission that would relax the ban on the ownership of newspapers and TV stations in the same local market.
“I urge you to derail any legislative attempts to derail the FCC’s Dec. 18 vote,” said NAA president John Sturm in a letter Monday to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
Last Tuesday, the Senate Commerce Committee approved a bipartisan bill that would require the FCC to postpone action for at least 90 days.
Since 1975, the FCC has barred the common ownership of a TV station and a daily newspaper of general circulation inside the same local market. FCC chairman Kevin Martin has proposed relaxing the ban in the top 20 markets, provided the TV station isn’t ranked among the top four and at least eight independent media outlets would remain afterward.
In his letter, Sturm said the cross ownership ban was outdated because the market was producing an abundance of information, some it from sources that did not exist in 1975.
“The maintenance of this 32-year-old rule ignores cable television, the Internet, satellite television, satellite radio, podcasting, blogs, cell phones and all the other ways people can get information,” Sturm said.
The Senate bill (S.2332) is co-sponsored by Sens. Bryon Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.). Dorgan spokesman Barry Piatt, unsure when the bill would reach the Senate floor, said he would check on its progress.
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