Save Access - FCC Media Ownership

Senator Seeks to Overturn FCC Media Ownership Rule

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 08:32:39 -0500

Senator Seeks to Overturn FCC Media Ownership Rule

From Reuters, March 5, 2008
By Peter Kaplan

A senior Democratic senator on Wednesday introduced a resolution aimed at overturning a decision by regulators that loosened media ownership restrictions in the 20 biggest U.S. cities.

They're Back! Prometheus Asks Court to Vacate Ownership-Rule Change

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:02:58 -0500

from: Broadcasting and Cable

They're Back! Prometheus Asks Court to Vacate Ownership-Rule Change
Group Says Decision Was Arbitrary and Capricious and Beyond the FCC's Authority
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/26/2008 4:27:00 PM

As promised, anti-media consolidation activists asked a federal court to throw out the Federal Communications Commission's recent media-ownership decision.

Potential Reform of FCC Could Go in Many Directions

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:27:13 -0500

from: MultiChannel News

The Winds of Change
Potential Reform of FCC Could Go in Many Directions
by Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 1/28/2008

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is shining a spotlight on FCC chairman Kevin Martin’s management of the agency. (See “Watching the Martin Watch,” page 18, Jan. 21, 2008).

The Good FCC

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 08:38:40 -0500

from: Lasar's Letter

The Good FCC
by Matthew Lasar Dec 21 2007 - 11:22am Politics

On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission, by a bare majority, voted to lift its over three decade old prohibition against an entity owning a newspaper and a television station in the same market. Most FCC watchers will now shift their visors to Congress and the circuit courts, where media reform activists will doubtless turn in a bid to reverse this ruling.

F.C.C. Reshapes Rules Limiting Media Industry

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 08:14:22 -0500

from: NY Times

December 19, 2007
F.C.C. Reshapes Rules Limiting Media Industry
By STEPHEN LABATON

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission approved two new rules on Tuesday that are likely to reshape the nation’s media landscape by setting new parameters for the size and scope of the largest news and cable companies.

FCC Adopts 30% Cable Ownership Cap

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 07:46:17 -0500

Note: While unleashing media cross-ownership in their other ruling, the FCC wisely curtailed the growth of cable companies.

from: MulitChannel News

FCC Adopts 30% Cable Ownership Cap
Move Stops Comcast From Acquiring More Cable Systems
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 12/18/2007 3:47:00 PM

The FCC Voted: Time to Raise Hell

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 23:33:30 -0500

The FCC Voted: Time to Raise Hell

By Josh Silver

Today, Bush-appointed Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin rammed through a 3-2 partisan vote to remove the longstanding "newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership" ban that prohibits a local newspaper from owning TV and radio stations in the same market. Witness yet another shining moment: the Bush administration serving up a wholesale giveaway to the largest media corporations in the most corrupt process imaginable.

The FCC, Again clueless and unable to communicate for or with the American People

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:44:47 -0500

It wasn't a surprise, we are now accustomed to the FCC voting on significant orders under the cover of the holidays when mainstream media coverage of such obscure political issues is at a minimum (not to mention media self-interest). It was this time last year that the FCC drove a spike into PEG, and only this past Halloween that they drove another (quite literally crucifying PEG to a company owned telephone pole). Today Chairman Martin pushed through the media ownership changes that had been overwhelmingly rejected in public hearings around the country over the course of the past year

FCC's New Media Rules Worse than Advertised

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:43:05 -0500

Dec. 18, 2007
For Immediate Release

Contact:
Jen Howard, Free Press, (202) 265-1490, x22
FCC's New Media Rules Worse than Advertised
StopBigMedia.com pledges to 'raise hell' in Congress and the courts

WASHINGTON -- The new media ownership rules passed by a 3-to-2, party-line vote at the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday are far worse for the public interest -- and more favorable to Big Media companies -- than anything FCC Chairman Kevin Martin previously revealed to the public.

UCC media justice advocates condemn FCC decision to relax ownership rules

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:42:06 -0500

UCC media justice advocates condemn FCC decision to relax ownership rules
http://www.ucc.org/news/ucc-media-justice-advocates.html

Written by staff and wire reports
December 18, 2007

The UCC's Office of Communication, Inc. – the UCC's media justice agency -- is decrying a Dec. 18 decision by the Federal Communications Commission to relax its 32-year-old cross-media ownership rule, allowing companies in the largest markets nationally to own both print and broadcast media outlets.

FCC vote lifting cross-ownership ban shows agency still doesn’t get it

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:40:48 -0500

For Immediate Release
Dec. 18, 2007

Contact: Mary Boyle
(202) 736-5770

FCC vote lifting cross-ownership ban shows agency still doesn’t get it

WASHINGTON -- Today, the Federal Communications Commission voted to remove the longstanding "newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership" ban that prohibits a local newspaper from owning a broadcast station in the same market.

Common Cause President Bob Edgar made the following comment:

Does Congress Have the Resolve to Disapprove of Big Media?

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:39:45 -0500

Does Congress Have the Resolve
to Disapprove of Big Media?
By Scott Sanders and Mitchell Szczepanczyk
Chicago Media Action
12/18/07

Chicago Media Action (CMA) is dismayed at the FCC's repeal of the
TV-newspaper cross-ownership rule. The FCC has ignored nearly unanimous
public input opposing media concentration -- including hundreds of
Chicagoans who attended a September 2007 FCC hearing in Chicago to

New Ownership Rules Threaten Diversity

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:38:50 -0500

New Ownership Rules Threaten Diversity,
Necessitate Clearer Public Interest Obligations

Acting on a remand by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Prometheus Radio Project, et al. v. FCC., 373 F.3d 372 (2004), the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) majority today decided to lift the ban on common ownership of newspapers and broadcast outlets in the same local communities. The following comments can be attributed to Charles Benton, Chairman and CEO of the Benton Foundation and member of the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee:

FCC Chairman Martin Proposes Local Boards of ‘Good and Great’

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 08:02:25 -0500

from: Media-Space-Place-Network

FCC Chairman Martin Proposes Local Boards of ‘Good and Great’

From Fred Johnson Blog, December 17, 2007

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is indulging in one of the FCC’s oldest, time honored traditions: making a lot of noise about “localism” and local programming, while creating policies that are destined to have the opposite effect.

Free Press Study Says Minority Media Ownership Down

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 08:28:02 -0500

from: TV Newsday

Study Says Minority Media Ownership Down

November 28, 2007

Free Press today released Out of the Picture 2007, an update of the group’s Out of the Picture study completed last year that assessed female and minority ownership of commercial broadcast TV stations. The new data, Free Press says, suggests that the future of minority TV station ownership is in jeopardy.