It’s hard to understand the distinction between broadcast and print reporters that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia made, said Judge Michael McAdam, pres. of the American Judges Assn. (AJA). “I don’t understand the distinction if the issue is an accurate description of a public event,” McAdam said. At issue is an incident at a high school in Hattiesburg, Miss., last week where a federal marshal guarding Scalia ordered 2 reporters to erase tape recordings they were making of his speech (CD April 12 p7).

Citing an alleged “public service deficiency” in broadcasters’ coverage of political candidates, ex-FCC Chmn. Newton Minow and former NTIA Dir. Henry Geller Wed. asked the FCC to launch an “expedited” rulemaking to require free time this fall for candidates in campaigns for local and regional offices. Their proposal would require TV and radio stations to provide 20 min. per day free to candidates, in 5 min. segments, starting 30 days before general elections.

FCC Chmn. Powell said the agency was weighing its options in deciding how to proceed after the 9th U.S. Appeals Court, San Francisco, refused to rehear a case involving the agency’s regulatory classification of cable modem service. The FCC could take the case to the Supreme Court or decide to forbear (not enforce) the rules. The appeals court let stand a decision by a 3-judge panel, which struck down the FCC’s decision that cable modem should be classified as an interstate information service. That panel had said it was bound by an earlier decision, AT&T v. Portland, that cable modem has elements of both an information service and telecom service.

FCC Chmn. Powell said the agency was weighing its options in deciding how to proceed after the 9th U.S. Appeals Court, San Francisco, refused to rehear a case involving the agency’s regulatory classification of cable modem service. The FCC could take the case to the Supreme Court or decide to forbear (not enforce) the rules. The appeals court let stand a decision by a 3-judge panel, which struck down the FCC’s decision that cable modem should be classified as an interstate information service. That panel had said it was bound by an earlier decision, AT&T v. Portland, that cable modem has elements of both an information service and telecom service.

The NAB said it would form a task force to review creation of a code of conduct and other options for broadcasters. The announcement Thurs. followed a daylong closed summit on responsible programming (CD April 1 p5)

Any toughening of TV indecency enforcement almost certainly will end up in court -- eventually the U.S. Supreme Court -- regardless of whether it’s initiated by Congress or the FCC, legal experts said. They also expressed pessimism about whether the courts would uphold tougher enforcement, with even the head of Morality in Media telling us the Supreme Court vote would likely be “5 to 4, at best, if we win.”

The U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., Fri. upheld FCC biennial review procedures challenged in 2 cases by Verizon and Verizon Wireless (CD Dec 16 p1). In a decision written by Judge Judith Rogers, the court said the Telecom Act “neither mandates the completion of the [biennial review] process within the biennial year itself nor requires the Commission to repeal or modify every rule that the Commission doesn’t determine to be absolutely essential, and thus does not impose a special evidentiary burden.”

Congress took a step Tues. toward putting the media ownership issue to rest. In a compromise between the White House and congressional Republicans, officials said, the omnibus appropriations bill would establish a permanent 39% broadcast ownership cap -- sidestepping a veto threat, weakening the court challenge to the cap, eliminating questions of waivers and divestiture and making further legislation on the ownership cap unnecessary.

The Appropriations rider on media ownership agreed to by House and Senate negotiators, if signed into law, would have little practical effect on the companies involved in the near future, industry and govt. officials said. That’s because the rider would stop the FCC for only one year from implementing its new 45% ownership cap by blocking any federal money from being used for that purpose. The rider, which is part of an omnibus Appropriations package, would be void after Oct. 1, 2004.

Communications lawyers and public interest advocates said broadcasters could face increased scrutiny when applying for license renewals over the next couple of years. After years of relatively lax enforcement, there are several signs that broadcasters could face stricter enforcement, they said, including: (1) Creation of a Localism Task Force that grew largely from the FCC’s embattled media ownership rule. (2) Calls from members of Congress and Democratic commissioners to examine whether stations are violating public service requirements. (3) Recent record indecency fines against a radio broadcaster. (4) Dozens of fines for public file violations.