Will the FCC Ignore Media History and Further Undermine the Public Interest?

[SOURCE: Center for Digital Democracy]
[Commentary] With the release of its "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to Ensure Reasonable Franchising Process for New Video Market Entrants," the FCC is poised to alter the basic rules that have long governed the business of delivering multi-channel video to cities across the country. At stake is whether communities will still have the ability to help determine how their residents can benefit from advanced communications networks. That the FCC is even considering the fanciful notion proffered by the telephone companies that the “local franchising process is serving as an unreasonable barrier to entry” shows how it is under the political thumb of media lobbyists. The Commission should instead be focusing on an inquiry into how the phone company plans for TV will fail to provide for new video-based public interest programming services. Public comments on the FCC's NPRM are due by 13 February (with replies due by 14 March). There will also be a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on video franchising in late January. But while public comments and Congressional hearings on the importance of local franchises are important, it’s also time for FCC Commissioners Copps and Adelstein to forcefully decry this entire proceeding for what it really is -- another attempt to foster the corporate goals of media consolidation, further weakening the public’s First Amendment rights in the process. And while they're at it, perhaps the two commissioners can offer Chairman Martin a history lesson in this regard.
http://www.democraticmedia.org/news/washingtonwatch/FCCNPRM.html