Congress to FCC: Don’t Rush Media Consolidation

Posted October 25th, 2007 by Craig Aaron

Pressure from Capitol Hill to slow down the headlong rush to gut media ownership rules intensified this week, as dozens of members of the House and Senate set their sights on FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.

Thursday, more than 40 members of the House joined Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) in a letter Martin asking the Commission to “resolve significant shortcomings in [the agency’s] plan regarding accountability, transparency, and scientific integrity” within the current media ownership proceeding.

The letter was prompted by last week’s revelation that Martin secretly circulated a timeline that would complete the current media ownership proceeding by mid-December, even though the FCC hasn’t completed a series of public hearings, addressed the dismal state of female and minority media ownership, or explained its shoddy and slanted research.

Also firing off a letter to Martin on Thursday were Sens. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine). The bipartisan duo called media consolidation “a critical issue” that “requires a completely transparent process” and urged the FCC head to complete its proceedings on localism and minority ownership before moving forward with any new rules.

Both these letters follow another one sent last week by Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D) and Trent Lott (R-Miss.), urging the FCC to “slow down and proceed with caution.” The two senators had even stronger words for Martin at a press conference on Wednesday.

Dorgan and Lott pledged to introduce a “resolution of disapproval” — a rarely used legislative veto of bad regulations — if the FCC continued to ignore public input and proceed with an unfair process. The Senate last approved such a resolution following ex-FCC Chairman Michael Powell’s ham-fisted efforts to do away with media ownership limits in 2003.

“If the FCC proceeds on the schedule it is planning, it will be a big mistake,” Dorgan said. “It’s clear the concentration of media ownership that has already taken place has not been good for our country. I’m confident any plan to allow additional concentration of media ownership will be rejected.”

“I think we’ve already got too much media concentration,” Lott added. “I can’t understand why a Republican administration would want to allow more concentration.”

(You can find video of their entire press conference here.)

Despite the increased scrutiny from Congress, Martin barely gave the public any advance notice about the final localism hearing — which is happening on Halloween at FCC headquarters in Washington.

In case Martin didn’t get the message or forgot to pick up his mail, now might be a good time for Congress to invite the chairman over to the Hill for a visit. Better yet, how about an oversight hearing?

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 25th, 2007 at 8:15 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.