Delay in FCC Media Ownership Vote Called Increasingly Likely
The FCC is increasingly unlikely to vote by Dec. 18 on a comprehensive media ownership rewrite sought by Chairman Kevin Martin (CD Oct 26 p3), agency and industry officials said. More bipartisan requests late Thursday by members of Congress that Martin delay action reduce likelihood of a 2007 vote, two agency sources said. Further reducing the chances is other commissioners’ reluctance to immediately sign on to Martin’s plan to issue a public notice giving a schedule for its remaining actions on media ownership, they said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
No commissioners other than Martin have voted for the public notice, said other FCC sources. Commissioners Deborah Tate and Robert McDowell are waiting to see if Martin can sell the FCC Democrats on a new time frame, sources said. Martin seems to have circulated the public notice with the goal of getting a vote on media ownership during the first quarter of 2008, an FCC official said. Martin indicated months ago to other commissioners that he wanted a vote early in the new year.
Martin proposed a Dec. 18 vote, but may be willing to cut a deal with Democrats to delay action until the first quarter, said Media Access Project President Andrew Schwartzman. “I don’t take the schedule that the chairman has proposed seriously,” said Schwartzman. “The commission staff can’t possibly assimilate the several thousand pages of substantive comments filed during the month of October in time to propose rules by mid-November.” He was referring to comments on 10 FCC media ownership studies. Opponents of media consolidation want the FCC to finish a localism and diversity review before voting on ownership.
Despite tensions over ownership, other commissioners are working with Martin’s office to get witnesses for Wednesday’s FCC hearing on how well broadcasters serve their communities. Martin was criticized Wednesday by Adelstein and Copps for giving people less than a week’s notice of the hearing (CD Oct 25 p3). Martin’s rushed schedule was “a stumble,” a broadcast executive said. Politicians are “just looking for an excuse to point their fingers,” and the localism hearing gives them ammunition, he added. Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Trent Lott, R-Miss., wouldn’t comment on the localism hearing’s timing. They said Wednesday that if Martin were to get a vote in December, they would use a rare legislative veto to block media ownership deregulation.
Two other Senate Commerce Committee members asked Martin to delay a vote. In a Thursday letter, Sens. Bill Nelson, D- Fla., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, asked that he put off an ownership vote until a localism proceeding begun in 2004 is finished. Martin has said he will do so. Some commissioners worry that Martin hasn’t committed to circulating an order with new localism rules, an FCC official said. Nelson and Snowe asked Martin to give “serious consideration” to ideas recommended by the FCC Diversity Committee and the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council before addressing ownership. The FCC should give the public two to three months to comment on localism and diversity, Nelson and Snowe wrote. “Only then will the Commission have the tools to move forward with a complete media ownership review.”
Also on Thursday, about 40 House Democrats asked Martin to give the public more time to comment on ownership rules before an FCC vote. Martin’s proposal provides several weeks for public comments on final rules, but that’s not enough, the Democrats said. “After all the controversy that this proceeding has generated over the past four years, we believe another full round of public commentary is essential before a full vote,” wrote Reps. Maurice Hinchey of New York, Peter DeFazio of Oregon, Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, Jim Moran of Virginia and others. House Commerce Committee members Darlene Hooley of Oregon, Anna Eshoo of California, Jay Inslee of Washington and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois signed the letter. An FCC spokeswoman declined to comment on the letters from the Hill. Martin usually responds directly to letters from Congress.
Martin is taking a political risk in seeking an ownership vote, executives and analysts said, calling the risk necessary to finish the rulemaking, begun in June 2006. “I give Kevin Martin credit for trying to move forward to relax the media ownership rules in the face of intense political pressure,” said Free State Foundation President Randolph May, who has criticized the chairman on media policies such as cable a la carte. “For anyone to argue that the issues haven’t been aired fully, or that people haven’t had a chance to make their views known, is silly,” May said.