Senate Bill Would Delay FCC Media Vote

Vote Responds to Martin’s Hope to Relax Newspaper-Broadcast Cross Ownership Rules

By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 12/4/2007 3:38:00 PM

Washington – The Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday passed by unanimous voice vote a bill that would force the Federal Communications Commission to postpone a planned media deregulation vote for at least 90 days.

The panel’s vote came in response to Republican FCC chairman Kevin Martin’s hope to relax the so-called newspaper-broadcast cross ownership rule at the agency’s Dec. 18 public meeting. Republicans hold 3-2 majority at the agency, which regulates providers of voice, video and data services nationwide.

“Media ownership rules are important in a democracy,” said Sen. Bryon Dorgan (D-N.D.), who introduced the bill with retiring Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) “We won’t allow the FCC to rush to judgment, and we won’t allow the public to be shut out of the process.”

Since 1975, the FCC has banned the common ownership of a daily newspaper and TV or radio station in the same local market. The rule had prospective effect, meaning combinations in existence were grandfathered by the agency.

Martin’s proposal, unveiled in November, calls for allowing a newspaper-TV station combination only in a top-20 market and only if the TV station is not ranked among the top-four and eight independently owned voices (defined to include newspapers and commercial TV stations) would remain in the market afterward.

The Dorgan-Lott bill (S. 2332) would also require the FCC to take other steps prior to relaxation of any media ownership rules, including: (1) completion of a “separate proceeding to evaluate how localism is affected by media consolidation” and, (2) creation of “an independent panel on female and minority ownership,” with the FCC required to “provide the panel with accurate data on female and minority ownership.”

The FCC may not vote to change media ownership rules until it has received and acted on the panel’s recommendations.

“Transparency in the FCC’s media ownership proceedings is not only fair, it is right. This bill encourages the FCC to provide a forum for meaningful discussion and brings us a step closer to balanced media ownership rules,” Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii) said in a statement after the vote.