Candidates' Differences on Media Outlined

At the Minority Media & Telecommunications Council conference on Tuesday, former Federal Communications Commission chairman and current Barack Obama supporter William Kennard again sparred with former Assistant Secretary of Commerce and current John McCain supporter John Kneuer. They offered sharply different views of the FCC's future under their candidates. Kennard questioned Sen. McCain's support for increasing the number of broadcast stations owned by minorities through certificates to ease taxes while supporting ownership changes that lead to more consolidation of media ownership. Kennard also said proponents of consolidation wrongly cite the Internet and new media as providing competition, when most Americans still get their news and information from traditional broadcast and cable media. Advertisers too spend most of their media dollar on the traditional media. Noting that every candidate for president announced their intentions on the Internet, Kneuer said Obama is underplaying the competition new media offers, saying these are no longer "nascent" technologies. Kneuer also said Sen McCain backed the view that the government should proceed carefully in any regulation of the Internet and rely mostly on antitrust regulation, rather than rules on Network Neutrality.