Sen Lautenberg Calls for More Consideration of Ownership Rules

Veteran News Corp. critic Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) is the latest legislator to ask Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski to rethink his media ownership proposal.

The chairman has circulated an item loosening the newspaper/TV cross-ownership rules and lifting limits on newspaper/radio and TV/radio cross-ownership, which has upset a number of longstanding consolidation critics, including minority groups who say the FCC has not sufficiently gauged the rule change's impact on diversity, as a federal court instructed it to do. "I urge the FCC to carefully review, in an open and transparent manner, the full impact of any such revisions before enacting them," he wrote. In a letter, Sen Lautenberg renewed his criticisms of News Corp.'s WWOR-TV Secaucus, which the senator says "has not lived up to its obligations to serve the people of New Jersey." News Corp. disputes that characterization. He asked the FCC to review the revisions before voting them.