Senators Push Public-Interest Proceeding

SENATORS PUSH PUBLIC-INTEREST PROCEEDING
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
Senators Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) have written to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin asking that the FCC wrap up a 2003 proceeding on broadcasters' public interest service before launching a rewrite of deregulatory ownership rules. "The FCC must first establish that there are sufficient mechanisms in place to ensure that broadcasters are serving their local communities before any loosening of ownership can occur," the senators wrote. Former-FCC Chairman Michael Powell, in an effort to preserve his deregulatory ownership rules, argued that loosening those rules was a procedural matter and that the public-interest implications of the changes were better addressed in a separate proceeding, which he opened in 2003. Now Chairman Martin has tentatively scheduled a vote on launching the long-delayed omnibus proceeding at the FCC's June 15 meeting, but according to a source, the public-interest proceeding was not part of the proposed notice, which folds in the 2003 ownership rule remand, two open proceedings -- on newspaper-broadcast crossownership and radio markets -- and the congressionally mandated quadrennial review of FCC rules.
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6339853?display=Breaking+News