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FCC Vote Debate Rages On

As the Federal Communications Commission's June 2 vote on media ownership draws closer, it would not be wrong to say the atmosphere is charged. In a speech to the Media Institute last week, FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein basically attacked Chairman Michael Powell. The FCC is charged by law to serve the public interest, Adelstein said. And the public has zero interest in seeing media conglomerates grow bigger.

"A majority of five unelected bureaucrats shouldn't substitute their own judgment, or the judgment of self-interested corporate CEOs, for the protection of the American people," he added.

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After the speech, Adelstein said that while Powell was following "tradition" in refusing to allow him or his Democratic colleague, Michael Copps, to publicly discuss the contents of the proposed ownership rule changes, Powell was breaking tradition in refusing Adelstein and Copps their request for a temporary courtesy "hold" on the scheduled vote.

Meanwhile, Copps has taken his road show of ownership hearings - the Magical Mystery Tour, as it's known on the eighth floor of the FCC building - to the lion's den itself. His last round of public comments against media consolidation will be held May 27, at the FCC. Some 20 groups, including the Catholic Conference of Bishops and Common Cause, will all speak. It was uncertain whether Powell himself would attend.

While Copps and Adelstein played their last cards, Powell's side produced a press release from Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.), urging the vote to raise the national network cap from 35% to proceed without delay.

In the Senate, John McCain (R-Ariz.) held his third hearing in three weeks on media consolidation. The good news for Powell's majority at the FCC is that no commissioner has been asked to testify. But McCain's growls about consolidation get louder each week. He's starting to sound like his favorite witness, Gene Kimmelman of the Consumers Union. After Rupert Murdoch testified that his purchase of DirecTV wouldn't harm competition, and that his company would ask the FCC to guarantee certain program access agreements, Kimmelman countered that Murdoch's empire is a threat to "meaningful competition between media companies in this nation."

McCain has said he will revisit the issue after the June 2 vote.

THE NEXT QUESTION:

*Will Senators Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), Ted Stevens (R-Ala.) and Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.) be able to block part of the FCC plan by adding a clause to a pending budget bill?

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FCC Vote Debate Rages On

Cable World, May 26, 2003

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