[DMCA-Activists] Senate Committee Votes to Overturn FCC

[Seth Johnson]

(Forwarded from Pho list)

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: pho: Senate Committee Votes to Overturn FCC
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 09:43:51 -0400
From: "Brian Franklin" <address@hidden>
To: <address@hidden>

http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article_lc.asp?storyid=42622

6/19/2003 1:17:55 PM

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By DAVID HO
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate Commerce Committee voted Thursday to overturn
parts
of a Federal Communications Commission decision freeing media companies from
decades-old ownership limits and allowing them to buy more outlets and merge
in
new ways.

The proposal, which faces an uncertain future in the full Senate and a tough
road
in the House, would roll back changes that allowed individual companies to
own
television stations reaching nearly half the nation's viewers and
combinations of
newspapers and broadcast stations in the same city.

"I would like the FCC to start all over," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison,
R-Texas, who opposes the changed rules. She said they are "potentially
dangerous
to media diversity in this country."

Many media companies wanted relaxed rules, saying the old restrictions
limited
their ability to grow and provide better services in a market changed by
cable
TV, satellite broadcasts and the Internet. The broadcast networks say the
changes
will aid in keeping free TV alive by helping them compete with pay services
for
quality programming.

The rules, originally adopted between 1941 and 1975, were created to promote
diversity of opinion in the media, encourage competition and prevent a few
big
companies from controlling what people see, hear and read.

The Republican-controlled FCC relaxed those rules on June 2 with a 3-2
party-line
vote.

The bill, sponsored by Sens. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and Ernest Hollings,
D-S.C.,
would roll back the national ownership limit so a company can own TV
stations
reaching only 35 percent of U.S. households instead of 45 percent. The bill
passed by a voice vote.

The proposed legislation also would reinstate a ban on newspaper-broadcast
cross-ownership. However, it would allow state regulators to recommend to
the FCC
exemptions for small communities where a merger may be needed to support
media
outlets in financial trouble.

The bill also would clarify the FCC's authority to strengthen as well as
relax
media ownership restrictions, a question raised by courts that have rejected
past
rule changes.

Another component of the bill would require the FCC to hold at least five
public
hearings on future ownership rule changes before voting. Lawmakers
criticized the
agency for not seeking more public comment before its June 2 decision.

An amendment narrowly approved 12-11 would expand new, stricter radio
ownership
rules so they apply to existing and future deals. If made into law, the
change
could force companies like Clear Channel, the country's largest radio chain
with
1,200 stations, to sell stations in markets where they exceed ownership
limits.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and other lawmakers say they also will try other
legislative methods to overturn the changes.

"The airwaves belong to the people," Dorgan said. "The FCC ignores that
requirement and advances corporate interests at the expense of the public's
interest."

It's unclear how far these proposals will get beyond the Senate Commerce
Committee. Challenges to the FCC rules face stiffer opposition in the House,
where Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce
Committee, supports the changes.

FCC Chairman Michael Powell and the two other Republicans on the five-member
commission pushed through the changes despite opposition from two Democratic
commissioners and a diverse circle of critics that included media moguls Ted
Turner and Barry Diller, consumer advocates, civil rights and religious
groups,
writers, musicians, unions and the National Rifle Association.

Even without new legislation, legal challenges to the rules are expected
from
consumer groups seeking stiffer restrictions and media companies wanting
even
more deregulation.

News Corp., owner of Fox, and Viacom Inc., which owns CBS and UPN, benefit
from
the higher national TV ownership cap because mergers have pushed the media
giant
above the 35 percent level. The companies could be forced to sell stations
if a
new law is enacted and upheld in court.

The major networks wanted the cap eliminated, while smaller broadcasters
said a
higher cap would allow the networks to gobble up stations and take away
local
control of programming.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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