WSJ.com - FCC Opens Debate On Rules Limiting Media Ownership A divided Federal Communications Commission kicked off a review of media-ownership caps, launching what is expected to be a long battle over the merits of such limits in the Internet age.The FCC will consider whether to loosen or remove rules that restrict the ownership of radio and television broadcasters, as well as the ownership of broadcast and newspaper properties in the same market.
The review is likely to stretch into next year, but advocacy groups, which helped to scuttle the FCC's last attempt in 2002 to establish new ownership rules, have mobilized for a fight. Those earlier rules were struck down by the courts.
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The FCC's two Democrats complained Mr. Martin could be angling to fast-track a proposal on broadcast and newspaper cross-ownership limits. They noted that a long-stalled FCC study into how local coverage was affected by out-of-town owners hadn't been completed and was only a small part of the review. Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, a Democrat, called the proposed effort “thin gruel to those hoping for a meaty discussion of media-ownership issues.” Mr. Martin countered that Democrats were “rushing to judgment” on the FCC's plans.The FCC will hold six public hearings throughout the country. Separate meetings organized by interest groups, however, begin next week in Mr. Martin's home state of North Carolina. The FCC's two Democrats are expected to attend; Mr. Martin isn't.
Mr. Martin and his Republican colleagues held together yesterday on the media-ownership proposal. The chairman was in the embarrassing position this week of pulling off the meeting agenda another controversial item, involving requirements that cable operators carry more than one channel from local broadcasters.
The FCC had rejected the proposal twice, but Mr. Martin gambled he would be able to push it through with the panel's new Republican majority. However, the newest commissioner, Republican Robert McDowell, informed the chairman last weekend that he doubted the FCC's authority to impose the requirement, an FCC official said.
