Washington – The Federal Communications Commission voted Wednesday to review its media ownership rules, though the panel’s two Democrats objected that the process won’t ensure enough public comment on specific proposals.
With a Republican majority in place after a vacancy had produced months of deadlock, the commission finally reopened the hotly disputed issue of limits on the number of radio and television stations that one owner can have and the limits on cross-ownership between newspapers and broadcasters.
The rules are of great concern to giant media companies in an era of mergers and convergence of print and broadcast media inside individual companies.
They also affect every American through their impact on the credibility of news outlets, on the quality of public debate and on “whether TV and radio offer entertainment that is creative, uplifting and local or degrading, banal and homogenized,” said Commissioner Michael Copps, one of the Democrats.
Federal law requires a review every four years.
Additionally, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals suspended all the changes the commission made in 2003 and sent most of them back for re-evaluation on grounds that the FCC compiled an insufficient record to justify them.
The three Republican commissioners set new procedures for addressing the thorny issues.
Martin has supported eliminating the three-decade-old flat ban on cross-ownership and in April called on newspaper publishers to help justify repeal.
He noted Wednesday that the 3rd Circuit did conclude the FCC was right to remove that blanket prohibition on newspapers owning broadcast outlets in the cities they serve, even though it suspended that revision along with the other 2003 changes.
But Martin didn’t say what might replace the ban or even predict “what rules, if any, we’re going to make changes to.”
The commission is planning six public hearings around the country on issues such as local coverage, minority ownership, programming for children, religious programming, arts programming, and needs of rural and disabled Americans.
The FCC has allowed 120 days for public comment and allocated $200,000 for studies of issues such as how people get news, competition between media types, marketplace changes, local coverage, minority participation in media and production of children’s programming.
No one on the FCC or its staff would predict how long the process might take.
