A handful of senators from both parties has sent a letter to the head of the Federal Communications Commission signaling concern over media consolidation.
Nine senators, including Trent Lott, R-Miss.; Olympia Snowe, R-Maine; Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.; John Kerry, D-Mass.; and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., signed the letter, dated Monday, to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.
Democrats will take over Congress next year. Their control, and the fact that members of both parties express concern about consolidation, increases the likelihood that lawmakers could override the FCC if it dismantles rules barring one company from ownership of both a newspaper and a television station in one market, said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, president of the Media Access Project, which opposes any rule change.
But opponents, who took the FCC to court after the panel voted 3-2 to change the rules in 2003, aren’t counting on lawmakers to settle the issue.
Whether the FCC or Congress has the last word, the matter likely will be settled in court, Schwartzman predicted.
“It is fair to say that whichever side loses will take it to court,” he said. “The final decision is way off.”
The FCC is under no deadline to decide the issue, but with the 2008 presidential election looming, the commission will probably try to finish by summer, Schwartzman said. If members wait, the issue could get swept into election-year politics.
In 2003, when Michael Powell was FCC chairman, more than 2 million people contacted the commission, and most said they opposed changing the rules. But the FCC approved allowing one company to own up to three television stations, the local newspaper, the cable system and up to eight radio stations in one media market.
The U.S. Third District Court of Appeals stopped the rule changes in 2004, setting the stage for the FCC to reconsider them.
In doing so, the court said the FCC was justified in determining that a blanket ban on newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership was no longer in the public interest. But the three-judge panel objected that an index the FCC designed to determine markets where cross-ownership rules should be retained was flawed.
The FCC held the first of six planned public hearings on the matter in September in Los Angeles. The next is scheduled for Monday in Nashville, Tenn.
Owners of media companies say the regulations are obsolete because consumers can get news from the Internet, cable TV and other sources, not just network broadcasts and newspapers. Combining broadcast and newspaper resources can increase a company’s ability to cover events and issues, they say.
“This rule was put into place in 1975 in a world that doesn’t exist anymore and never will again. It is crucial that this rule go away so that newspapers can invest more in providing news and information to the local audience in the way the local audience wants to receive it,” said John Sturm, president of the Newspaper Association of America.
Those opposed fear that gutting the requirements would result in less local news and dampen the diversity of opinion to which media customers are now exposed.
“We want to make sure there is diversity of ownership of media. If you have one person that owns the television station and the newspaper, you are just going to get one stream of viewpoints,” said Rex Wilmouth, state director of the Colorado Public Interest Research Group.
Prior to changing the rules, the FCC created a task force to examine how local ownership of media outlets affects content. The review wasn’t finished before the panel voted, and the senators’ letter urges its completion.
An FCC spokesman said Martin is reviewing the letter and will respond to the lawmakers.
Sturm predicted that opposition from lawmakers won’t stop the rule from being changed.
“There are some folks on the Hill who may be opposed to changing this rule, but ultimately the rule will be changed at least to some extent that will pass court muster,” he said.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
