Activists ask FCC for openness in impending media ownership debate

The group emphasized "the need for adequate public hearings, studies, and time for comment on the proposed rules."

In 2003 the FCC ruled that TV stations could own newspapers, other TV stations, or stations in the same area, and that TV networks could control a greater share of the national market. But in June of 2004 the Third Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the decisions as unjustified by the evidence presented. They recommended that the FCC revise their conclusions.

With the likely appointment of telecom lobbyist Robert M. McDowell to the FCC this month, the agency will once again tackle the controversial question of media ownership limits.

Comments are already coming in from telecom firms. In late February, National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) president David K. Rehr personally met with FCC Chair Kevin Martin to call for the end of the FCC's ban on TV/newspaper cross-ownership and "duopolies"—one or more TV stations owned by the same company in the same market. On February 24th, MediaGeneral, which owns newspapers and TV stations in the Southwest, met with FCC Commissioner Tate and also urged the lessening or elimination of newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership restrictions.

The company filed a statement charging that the FCC cross-ownership ban "actually stifles innovation; the public interest in fact requires the complete elimination of such restrictions."

At the March 15th meeting the media reformers, who oppose further loosening of media ownership limits, urged the Commission to consider all the rules in one proceeding—"or the Commission must adequately justify a decision to review the rules piecemeal," their filed statement emphasized.

Several members of the group also commented that the proposed AT&T/BellSouth merger shows the importance of a "meaningful horizontal ownership cap" for cable companies. One of the FCC's struck down proposals would have allowed TV networks to reach 45 percent of the national market; the previous limit had been 35 percent.