If you've got déjà vu, that's because the FCC tried to push through the exact same set of rules in 2003. The commission voted 3-to-2 along party lines to lift broadcast cross-ownership restrictions, loosen limits on local broadcast ownership, and permit one company to own stations reaching 45 percent of the national audience.
These changes were made with little or no public input. In fact, then-Chairman Michael Powell appeared at just a single official public hearing in Richmond, Va., limiting the rest of his appearances to speeches before industry and trade groups.
But the new rules were met with an unprecedented groundswell of popular opposition. A broad array of groups from across the political spectrum -- many of whom have reunited as the StopBigMedia.com Coalition -- urged their members to weigh in against the changes. Nearly 3 million people contacted the FCC and Congress in 2003. More than 99 percent of the public comments to the FCC were against media consolidation.
In response to the public outcry, a bipartisan majority in the Senate voted to overturn the rule changes. Congress eventually reached a compromise -- limiting the number of stations one company could own to 39 percent of the national audience.
Then in June 2004 – a year after the FCC's vote -- a federal appeals court overturned the other changes to the media ownership limits in a landmark decision in the case of Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC. The court's ruling sent the FCC's controversial rules back to the drawing board.
The most significant aspects of the court ruling:
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The marriage of Comcast and NBC is bad news for consumers. But Washington and Wall Street have already bought into the idea that it's a done deal. That's why Americans need to speak out now and stop the mega-merger!
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