Time running out on Bush's FCC

TIME RUNNING OUT ON BUSH'S FCC
[SOURCE: Variety, AUTHOR: Brian Lowry]
[Commentary] "Presidential election could alter shape of Tribune-Times Mirror Deal," read a New York Times headline in early 2000, which anticipated that a George W. Bush victory would lead to the repeal or relaxation of media cross-ownership rules. Fast-forward 7 ½ years, and although those Times Mirror assets are set to change hands again -- with Sam Zell's agreement to take control of beleaguered Tribune Co. -- in terms of efforts to amend or clarify the regulatory thicket, the accomplishments under now-President Bush stand at a big fat zero as his second term winds down. Indeed, taking inventory of the Bush administration's failings, among the less ostentatious but nonetheless noteworthy is the lack of progress in defining media policy -- an especially glaring oversight during a period that has witnessed the most rapid and significant technological change in telecommunications' history. The realization time is running out apparently hasn't been lost on the FCC's current chair, the ambitious Kevin Martin, who sources say is eager to expedite another attempt to update the rules, perhaps by year's end. After a series of public hearings, the deadline for a final volley of comments has been set for Nov. 1. If there has been any urgency about addressing the sweeping issues facing the media industry, however, it's hard to discern; instead, the Bush-era FCC has frittered with trifles, pressing for a la carte cable and joining with Democrats to assail the TV industry over indecency, neglecting rule-making to fret about boobs and F-bombs. The bottom line is that wherever one stands along the ideological spectrum, leaving broadcasting tangled in regulatory uncertainty for so long serves nobody.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117973713.html?categoryid=1682&cs=1