Legislators Take Aim At FCC Localism Proposals
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/16/2008 10:00:00 AM MT
The National Association of Broadcasters got support Wednesday in its fight against proposed new localism obligations.
More than 120 legislators have signed onto a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin asking him not to impose any localism mandates on broadcasters.
A copy of the letter was released by Rep. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, but included Democrats as well.
The letter says the FCC is considering a "radical re-regulation" of broadcasting, and takes aim at FCC proposals to create community advisory boards, require broadcasters to report on programmning in a variety of categories, and to located their studios in their community of license and have their stations staffed at all times.
The FCC proposals were part of the commission's attempt to wrap up its media ownership rules by loosening the newspaper-broadcast crossownership ban while proposing steps to boost minority and women ownership and increase broadcasters obligations to outline their efforts to service the local communities.
But the legislators argue that creating the boards and program lists would add unnecessary layers of bureaucracy, create constitutional problems--a point also raised by Republican FCC Commission Robert McDowell--and burden broadcasters with requirements not imposed on cable, satellite, or the Internet,
They told Chairman Martin that they appreciated the FCC's "attempts" to boost localism, but said the methods were wrong. "Any approach to regulate media that violates constitutional principles, or unnecessarily burdens the industry when other, less burdensome methods are available, should be discarded."
