The Solicitor General got more time to appeal to the Supreme Court an indecency case remanded this year to the FCC by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, said a participant in the case. The government has until Feb. 1 to file, Media Access Project President Andrew Schwartzman said. The government got at least one extension earlier. In Fox v. FCC, the 2nd Circuit said the FCC didn’t give broadcasters adequate notice that they could be fined for airing a program containing one obscenity (CD June 5 p1).
Split FCC votes probably will greet two controversial ownership orders set for votes Tuesday, industry and agency sources said. They expect commissioners to vote 3-2, with the Democrats resisting, for a media ownership order that in some cases would let a company own a station and a daily newspaper in the 20 largest markets (CD Dec 14 p1). An FCC official termed the outcome too distant to handicap. The official and other FCC sources also predicted a split vote on an order to cap at 30 percent the proportion of U.S. pay-TV subscribers each cable operator can serve.
Commissioners have held off negotiating with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin over his media ownership draft order because they want to see whether he will yield to congressional pressure to delay the Dec. 18 vote, agency sources said. They said the chairman hasn’t told colleagues of any plans to delay action, as Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps sought Wednesday (CD Dec 13 p1). But commissioners didn’t want to start revising Martin’s draft order -- which would allow common ownership of a newspaper and radio or TV station in most cases in the top 20 markets -- until they're more certain a vote set for Tuesday won’t be postponed, the sources said.
An FCC advisory committee voted Monday for actions billed as helping minorities raise capital and independent programmers get low-power FM licenses, two participants said. The Advisory Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age unanimously voted to recommend that the agency set up an event in New York early in 2008 for minority-group members to meet Wall Street and other investors interested in financing media and telecommunications deals, said committee chairman Henry Rivera. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told the committee he would try to attend the gathering, the idea for which was first raised by Commissioner Deborah Tate, said Rivera, a commissioner from 1981 to 1985. The FCC commissioners will be invited to the event, where the advisory committee will hold its next meeting, Rivera said. He said Martin sought committee suggestions on a rulemaking that aims to help minorities buy radio and TV stations. If the chairman issues a further rulemaking notice on how to define small, disadvantaged businesses for purposes of commission rules, the subcommittee would consider recommendations, Rivera said. The definition is part of a minority media ownership rulemaking that Martin has set for a vote by the commissioners Tuesday. (See separate report in this issue.) The advisory group also voted on two low-power FM recommendations, said Rivera and Media Access Project President Andrew Schwartzman, also a committee member. The committee unanimously endorsed a recent FCC recommendation that Congress eliminate third-adjacent channel protection rules limiting the amount of spectrum available to LPFM licensees, they said. Another recommendation would allow full-power radio stations to move between cities in their markets but in some cases require them to underwrite some costs of licensing and building an LPFM station. One member abstained from a vote on the second LPFM recommendation, Rivera added.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin violated the Administrative Procedure Act or similar procedural controls in his media ownership deregulation proposal, both foes and fans of consolidation told the agency in comments on an order Martin scheduled for a Tuesday vote. Several broadcasters said the chairman violated administrative laws, including the APA, by not entirely repealing a 1975 ban on a company owning a daily newspaper and a TV or radio station in the same city. Foes of deregulation said Martin ran afoul of the APA in the unusual way he publicized his plan. The accusations come as other commissioners and members of Congress from both parties take the FCC to task for its rulemaking under Martin (CD Dec 6 p1). Martin says he followed APA rules. Other FCC officials, opponents of consolidation and a professor of administrative law said Martin’s method of announcing his plan was unusual.
The part of FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s media ownership proposal of most concern to some commissioners and opponents of consolidation is a waiver process, said agency and public- interest group officials. Tuesday, Martin unveiled a plan that would let the FCC under certain circumstances waive a ban on joint ownership of a broadcaster and a newspaper in smaller markets (CD Nov 14 p7). In the 20 largest markets, cross-ownership rules would be lifted entirely for companies not seeking to merge a top-four TV station and in cities with at least eight other newspapers and TV outlets.
With several proceedings at the FCC touching on media ownership including the proposed XM-Sirius merger and Tribune’s buyout, the commission has to consider all the moving parts together, Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters after the commission’s localism hearing Wednesday. “We're going to have to address them in a consistent fashion, not just on a case by case basis,” he said.
FCC Consumer Affairs and Outreach Division Chief Louis Sigalos will moderate the localism hearing to follow the FCC’s Wednesday open meeting, the commission said. Panelists include NAB Executive Vice President Marcellus Alexander, Consumer Federation of America Research Director Mark Cooper, XM Satellite Radio host Bob Edwards, National Organization for Women President Kim Gandy, Capitol Broadcasting CEO Jim Goodmon, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights CEO Wade Henderson, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition President Reverend Jesse Jackson, Media Access Project CEO Andrew Schwartzman, George Washington University Professor Christopher Sterling and Free Press Research Director Derek Turner.
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.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin drew more fire from within and outside the agency on his handling of reviews of media rules (CD Oct 25 p1). At particular issue was his decision to give less than a week of public notice on a localism hearing. Late Wednesday, the FCC said its monthly meeting will occur Oct. 31 along with a second and final hearing on how well broadcasters serve their communities. The localism hearing is separate from comprehensive agency review of media ownership rules, slammed Wednesday by senators of both parties. But Martin has pledged to wrap up the FCC’s localism hearing before finishing the media ownership review.