FCC Seen Tackling Local Broadcast Obligations Amid Ownership Review
FCC Chmn. Martin may address local broadcast obligations to get a media ownership rulemaking he’s long championed (CD June 15 p13) approved by all fellow commissioners, said sources. Some last-min. 8th floor communications have focused on a 2003 notice of inquiry on localism that has since lain fallow, said a Commission source and lobbyists familiar with the item. Martin’s further notice of proposed rulemaking, set for a vote today (Wed.), seeks public comment on lifting cross ownership restrictions and loosening broadcast property caps without addressing localism.
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Martin could agree as early as today to tackle localism, said a source. Even if he doesn’t agree to immediately open a localism proceeding, sources said chances for a split media ownership vote are low. The ownership item may be tweaked to include localism to assuage FCC Comrs. Adelstein and Copps, said sources. Another likely scenario is an agreement from Martin to start a separate localism rulemaking, they said. An aide to Martin declined comment.
Political pressure may give Martin further motivation to agree to an enhanced review, said a regulatory source. A May 25 letter from Sens. Dorgan (D- N.D.) and Lott (R-Miss.) asking that he conduct a local inquiry before changing media ownership rules could factor into his decisionmaking, said the source. Other concessions Martin’s considering are a longer-than-usual public comment period, lasting more than a month, in the media ownership inquiry and soliciting further input before proposing specific orders, said sources.
Meanwhile, media activists, gearing up for today’s (Wed.) FCC meeting, said the Commission should make media firms better serve the public interest by encouraging diversity of opinion and ownership. Groups including Consumers Union, Free Press, Newspaper Guild and Rainbow/PUSH, which jointly started stopbigmedia.com, voiced concern about FCC Chmn. Martin’s plans to loosen media ownership rules -- but offered few concrete solutions. The “broad community” of groups “will launch a whole variety of responses to efforts to (get) more consolidation,” Consumers Union D.C. Dir. Gene Kimmelman told reporters. The ban on one firm owning a newspaper and TV station in the same market that Martin wants to lift “should be retained,” said Newspaper Guild’s Linda Foley. Ending the cross ownership ban “is not good for journalism,” she said. Speakers offered few specifics on their campaign during a teleconference frequently interrupted by technical glitches.