Ownership Awaits Fifth Commissioner

OWNERSHIP AWAITS FIFTH COMMISSIONER
[SOURCE: Broadcasting&Cable, AUTHOR: John Eggerton]
That fifth commissioner is Robert McDowell was confirmed by the Senate Commerce Committee March 16 and now awaits a full Senate vote. What awaits him at the FCC. Media Ownership. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin tried to launch late last summer in what he thought was a "pretty neutral" order, he said that that was one of the "few" issues that the four-person commission could not get a majority on. There were reported differences over how many local hearings to hold and on the cost of new research to replace that pilloried by a federal appeals court. Chairman Martin said that if he could get consensus on how to start a new notice of proposed rulemaking on revised ownership rules -- the originals were thrown out as insufficiently supported by the courts -- he would do it now. He said that although he is ready to update the newspaper/broadcast ownership rules (i.e. get rid of the outright ban), he doesn't plan to break off that issue into a separate proceeding in advance of the overall media ownership rewrite. Before he was a chairman, and before the FCC rewrote the rules all of a piece, Commissioner Martin had pushed for dealing with the newspaper/broadcast crossownership separately. But after the court ruled on them together, he said Friday that he thought it was important to "do a neutral notice that opens up all the issues that are in front of us."
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6316913?display=Breaking+News

* FCC Chief Says Media Ownership Rules Need To Be Addressed
"When we get a fifth commissioner, obviously he could end up being a tiebreaker vote and we would be able to move forward on it," Chairman Martin told reporters in Washington as he completed his first year as head of the FCC. "I do think we need to end up addressing it."
http://news.morningstar.com/news/DJ/M03/D17/200603171726DOWJONESDJONLINE...

* Activists ask FCC for openness in impending media ownership debate
Meeting with FCC Commissioner Tate, Media Access Project, Free Press, the U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops, the Prometheus Project, and the Institute for Public Representation urged the Commission for "procedural transparency and extensive public participation" when the FCC again considers revising its media ownership rules.
http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/redir.php?jid=7b6667f55ef54fe3&cat=dacc7...