Dorgan Working Up Media-Ownership Bill
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/18/2007 3:00:00 PM
Media-consolidation critic Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) is working quickly with other like-minded legislators, likely including Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), on a bill dealing with media-ownership rules the Federal Communications Commission is currently reviewing.
A Dorgan staffer confirmed that a bill was in the works but would not comment on the substance of the bill, saying that it had been prompted by the news that FCC chairman Kevin Martin wanted to wrap up the media ownership rule review by mid-December.
The bill's likely goal would be to delay that process until the FCC came up with separate proposals and sought sufficient public comment on issues including the effect of consolidation on broadcast localism and women and minority ownership.
On learning of Martin's plan, Dorgan, who has long pushed the commission to deal with localism as a separate issue, said Wednesday that if that were the case, there would be a "firestorm of protest, and I will be carrying the wood." Apparently, that wood is the "big stick" of legislation.
The FCC has been reviewing its 2003 media-ownership-rule rewrite for 18 months, including holding media-ownership hearings and localism hearings and commissioning independent studies. Martin has recently said that it was time to wrap up that process.
