Senate Commerce Committee Did the Right Thing

Posted April 24th, 2008 by Joe Torres

The Senate Commerce Committee did the right thing today by unanimously voting out of committee a “resolution of disapproval” sponsored by Sen. Bryon Dorgan (D.N.D.) that would overturn the FCC’s Dec. 18 decision to relax the longstanding limits on how much media one company can own in your town.

It’s the first step toward an official Congressional “veto” of the FCC’s new rule, which permits one company to own both a major daily newspaper and a broadcast outlet in the same market.

Hundreds of thousands of individuals have called on Congress to block the FCC’s new rules – today the Senate began listening.

Dorgan, as well as Democratic and Republican leaders, had warned FCC Chairman Kevin Martin last December not to lift the 30-year ban that forbids “newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership.”

But Chairman Martin did not heed their warning and plowed ahead to gut the rules. Martin has claimed the new regulations are just a “modest” tinkering. But because of waivers and loopholes, the new rules could lead to more consolidation in cities large and small across the country.

And we have already seen that Martin does not take these new rules seriously. Throughout the history of the cross-ownership ban, only four permanent waivers had ever been granted by the commission. But at the last minute before the FCC vote, Martin covertly granted five more permanent waivers for companies already violating the rules.

Martin never mentioned his intention to allow five permanent waivers during the commission’s rulemaking procedure. He had ample opportunity when he appeared before the House and Senate commerce committees in December. But he failed to disclose his intention, and slipped this Big Media handout in under the radar.

The disastrous repercussions of the ownership rules are already apparent. Just this week media mogul Rupert Murdoch announced another greedy grab for his third New York newspaper – Newsday.

Murdoch already owns The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and two television stations in this one media market! Murdoch’s move to build his empire is a sign of things to come across the nation if the FCC’s rules survive.

Today’s Senate committee vote is the first step in stopping the FCC and closing the door on cross-ownership. Now it’s time to push the full Senate to take action and stop runaway media consolidation in its tracks.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 10:47 am 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.