Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012, July 24, 2003, Page 4, Image 4

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    Nation & World News
012070
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FCC policies spark
congressional battle
The House passed a bill containing
a provision that would nix a recent
iooseningof media ownership rules
By Heather Fleming Phillips
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
WASHINGTON — A political
showdown is shaping up in Washing
ton over federal rules that govern how
many TV stations a single company
can own.
Defying the will of the White
House and the Republican-controlled
Federal Communications Commis
sion, the House voted 400-21 on
Wednesday to overturn controversial
rules adopted by the FCC in June that
would allow a single company to own
IV stations serving 45 percent of TV
viewers nationwide.
"There's a great deal of consterna
tion about that across the country,"
said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., a
leader in the move to throw out the
FCC's media ownership rule
changes. "In my view that is a severe
threat to democracy."
The measure was added as an
amendment to a vital government
spending bill, making it politically
dicey to kill. The next move will be for
the Senate to consider its version of
the bill. Any differences between the
two measures will be hammered out
in a House-Senate conference. House
Republican leaders have vowed to kill
the media ownership language in
those discussions.
The White House has threatened
to veto any measure that would
overturn the national TV ownership
rule or any other media ownership
rules recently revised by the agency.
The FCC rules "more accurately re
flect the changing media landscape
and the current state of network sta
tion ownership, while still guarding
against undue concentration in the
marketplace," the White I louse's Of
fice of Management and Budget said
in a letter sent to Congress.
The issue of who can own what in
the world of television, radio and
newspapers has ignited the passions
of thousands of consumers, who have
flooded the FCC and Congress with
letters and calls over concerns that the
FCC's new rules would place control
of the nation's news outlets in the
hands of too few owners. And it has
united groups as politically diverse as
the National Rifle Association and the
National Organization for Women,
who worry about losing access to the
nation's airwaves.
But they're up against the nation's
largest media companies. Companies
like Viacom's CBS and News Corp.'s
Fox say the FCC's old rules can't be
justified in an era of 500 cable TV
channels and the Internet. Prior to the
FCC's lune vote, companies could
own TV stations reaching 35 percent
of the national audience.
Just before the House vote Wednes
day afternoon, FCC Chairman
Michael Powell issued a statement de
fending his agency's rules. "We creat
ed enforceable mles that reflea the re
alities of today's media marketplace,"
he said. "Ihe FCC based its judgments
on evidence that the new rules would
benefit Americans."
The FCC by law is required to re
view its media ownership rules
every two years and scrap those it
can no longer justify. A federal court
in February, 2002 also ordered the
FCC to review its 35 percent owner
ship cap, saying it was "arbitrary
and capricious."
The agency spent 20 months re
viewing its rules before voting in June
to make dramatic changes. Groups
spanning the ideological spectrum
blasted their decisions, saying the
agency ignored evidence that illus
trated the dangers of a consolidated
media marketplace.
The national TV ownership cap is
just one of a series of media owner
ship rules the FCC relaxed in June.
Taken together, the rule changes
could potentially unleash a wave of
consolidation that could put the na
tion's IV networks, radio stations
and newspapers into the hands of
fewer owners.
Other controversial rule changes
that aren't addressed in the House's
bill include: lifting of a ban that pre
vented a company from owning both
a newspaper and IV station in the
same market; and relaxing local own
ership mles to allow a company to
own up to three TV stations in the
largest markets.
(cj 2003, San Jose Mercury News (San
Jose, Calif.). Distributed by Knight
Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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