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.

The fight over the XM-Sirius merger, playing out at the FCC, demonstrates the need for the FCC to develop some way of distinguishing whether comments filed are phony or real, Andrew Schwartzman, CEO of the Media Access Project, said Monday. Schwartzman, whose group opposes the merger, was one of several speakers during a debate sponsored by the D.C. Bar Association.

The largest-ever FCC inspector general’s report is deeply flawed, said one of several senators who had requested the study, along with former bureau staffers and opponents of media consolidation. They said the report glossed over significant problems at the agency and its Media Bureau. The IG unfairly singled out Kenneth Ferree - the bureau chief in 2003 and 2004 when two reports were held back -- as the only agency official deserving administrative punishment, said three people who worked in the office at the time. The IG didn’t fully explain why the two reports weren’t released, two staffers said. Another said the IG should have interviewed him. The IG’s office said the report, written independently, was thorough. FCC officials declined to comment, referring questions to the IG.

FCC officials didn’t suppress two media ownership studies under Chairman Michael Powell, a year-long Inspector General report said (CD Sept 20 p1). But the report raised troubling questions about why Kenneth Ferree, then Media Bureau chief, blocked release in 2003 of a report on radio consolidation by circulating an e-mail questioning the wisdom of releasing the reports at the time. The FCC Inspector General found that a report on local TV news wasn’t made public in 2004 because Media Bureau staff deemed it shoddy. The IG noted internal dissent on the report’s worthiness for release. One author thought it could go out; all revisions sought by supervisors had been made. But the IG concluded that neither Ferree nor other FCC officials tried to squelch either study.

The FCC should talk about rulemakings to all parties at the same time, the Government Accountability Office said in a report faulting the agency for filling in corporate officials before making the same information public. The report issued Wednesday urged more “transparency in the rulemaking process.” The study focused on information obtained by lobbyists, though a Communications Daily report also was mentioned.