Senate Votes to Crush FCC Ownership Changes
Feature Story by Ritu Kelotra - 9/16/2003
Despite the threat of a White House veto, the Senate voted to reverse Federal Communications Commission's (FCC's) rules that allow looser restrictions on media ownership regulations.In a vote of 55 to 40, the Senate approved S. J. Res. 17, which, among other things, stops the FCC from allowing media giants to own more television stations. The resolution also reverses the FCC’s decision to allow individual media companies from owning a newspaper and television station in the same market. And finally, the vote today allows radio station conglomerates to grow bigger, as opposed to the FCC’s June decision to tighten radio ownership rules.
Prior to the FCC's June 2nd order, which was approved 3 to 2 along party lines, no television and newspaper mergers were allowed, unless a firm was failing or in a few instances where mergers had already occurred and were grandfathered. Under the FCC order reversed today, television and newspaper mergers would be allowed in about 200 markets, representing 98 percent of the population. Also, about 90 percent of the markets where mergers would be allowed are already heavily concentrated in their total number of major sources for local news.
The FCC’s decision to loosen media ownership regulations has been opposed by many citizens’ groups, ranging from the National Rifle Association to the National Organization for Women and The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
According to a statement issued by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), the FCC’s June media ownership order focused on market efficiencies and technological development rather than promoting competition, a diversity of voices, and local community engagement.
“The FCC’s decision to relax the rules seriously threatens the likelihood of getting diverse viewpoints through the airwaves,” LCCR Executive Director Wade Henderson said in a statement. “The airwaves belong to the people, not to big business.”
In July, the House passed a spending bill that included a provision to roll back a specific FCC rule change that allows television stations to reach up to 45 percent of the national audience, as opposed to 35 percent. Now the question on Capitol Hill that remains is whether the House will pass a similar resolution of disapproval like that in the Senate, after the House Republican leadership has said it strongly opposes such a far-reaching reversal of the FCC’s decision.
