GOP & Democrats Communicate Over Media Ownership With The FCC
Thursday, February 01, 2007PAUL KANGAS: The Republican-led Federal Communications Commission got a look at what life will be like under a democratically controlled Congress. The five members of the FCC appeared before the Senate Commerce Committee. And as Stephanie Dhue explains, they were grilled over the issue of media ownership.
STEPHANIE DHUE, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Call it take two. The FCC is once again reviewing its rules that govern how many radio stations, TV channels and newspapers any one company can own in a single market. A Federal appeals court sent back the first rules for clarity. Senator Byron Dorgan says this time, the commission should be more concerned about the impact of its rules on local programming.
SEN. BYRON DORGAN, (D) NORTH DAKOTA: The commission decided that, in the largest cities in the country, that it was OK to have one owner own eight radio stations, three television stations, the dominant newspaper and the cable system. That was a spectacular failure.
DHUE: Some Democrats went even further, suggesting the FCC should require broadcasters to meet strict public interest obligations. Senator Jay Rockefeller says, since broadcasters get their spectrum for free, they should be obligated to air more news and public affairs programs.
SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D) WEST VIRGINIA: And I think that's going to be the change of this last election. There's going to be a lot more attention on the Federal Communications Commission and what they are or are not doing about critical areas in broadcasting.
DHUE: But FCC Chairman Kevin Martin made clear the commission under his leadership would be unlikely to regulate program content.
KEVIN MARTIN, FCC CHAIRMAN: I'm not convinced yet that we need to have the kind of requirements that some people put forth when they say that, when some people have urged us to adopt specific requirements about explicit kinds of programming, that we should be expecting programmers would have an obligation to put on certain kinds of programming, I'm hesitant.
DHUE: Media analyst Paul Gallant says the hearing today confirmed that the FCC will take a more cautious approach this time to media ownership rules.
PAUL GALLANT, MEDIA ANALYST, STANFORD WASHINGTON RESEARCH: Most of the energy in this debate is behind the people who oppose media consolidation, so companies like Gannett and Tribune and Belo (ph), I think, were hoping for a little bit more support today, but they didn't get it.
DHUE: The FCC says it will study media ownership over the next year. Analysts say while there may be some support for newspapers and broadcasters to join forces, the political atmosphere could shelve any changes until after the Bush administration leaves office. Stephanie Dhue, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Washington.
