Kudos To Hillary Clinton And Barack Obama!

[Hope And Change]

Obama Urges Swift Passage of FCC-Blocking Bill


Senate Commerce Committee Resolution Reverses FCC Decision on Newspaper-Broadcast Cross-Ownership

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/24/2008 1:50:00 PM

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said Thursday that the recent newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership-rule change approved by the Federal Communications Commission was the kind of special-interest-engineered change he opposes, and he sought a quick vote on the bill in the full Senate. Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), who is motormanning the effort, said Tuesday that the bill was on a fast track.

“We must ensure that we have an open media market that represents diverse voices throughout the country," Obama said in a statement e-mailed to B&C. "The rules promoting the public interest and diversity in media ownership are too important for the FCC to accept an agenda supported by the Washington special interests that I have fought against for more than a year.”

Both Obama and his Democratic presidential opponent, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), co-sponsored the bill, introduced by both Dorgan and former Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.). The bill -- a resolution, actually -- essentially invalidates the FCC's Dec. 18 vote to loosen the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban.

Obama also weighed in against further media deregulation at an FCC field hearing in Chicago last year.

“I commend chairman Inouye and Sen. Dorgan for fully taking into account the interests of all of our minority communities by demanding a transparent and inclusive rule change process," Obama continued Thursday. "I urge my colleagues to expeditiously move this bill to the Senate floor.”

Although the FCC did not lift the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban entirely, as broadcasters had wanted, and it took no other deregulatory steps -- and arguably took a couple of reregulatory ones -- key Democrats were not appeased. They also argued that FCC chairman Kevin Martin short-circuited the rule-change-vetting process by announcing it in a New York Times op-ed, rather than through official channels, and by not allowing enough time for response before the December vote.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6554700.html?nid=3341