ACLU Asks Senate to Block FCC Media-Ownership Change

American Civil Liberties Union Latest to Challenge Federal Communications Commission's Rule Change

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/2/2008 8:12:00 AM

The American Civil Liberties Union wants to see the Federal Communications Commission's recent media-ownership-rule change overturned.

In a letter to the heads of the Senate Commerce Committee -- which is holding a hearing Wednesday on a resolution to overturn that decision -- the ACLU said it was all for it.

"While S. J. Res. 28 will only return us to the pre-December rules, it at least prevents further consolidation, further erosion of minority ownership and diversity and further narrowing of the spectrum of opinions expressed in the media," ACLU director Caroline Frederickson wrote. "We urge you to support S. J. Res 28."

The resolution was introduced by veteran media-consolidation critic Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) after the FCC voted Dec. 18 to loosen, though not lift, the ban on ownership of a broadcast station and newspaper in a single market.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez sent a letter to the committee Tuesday night opposing the resolution and saying that he would advise the president to veto it if it got to his desk.

Talkback

We would love your feedback!

Post a comment

» View All Talkback Threads

Related Content

• Topics
• Author
• Most Popular Pages

Senate Commerce Committee Postpones Hearing on FCC-Blocking Bill

04/02/2008

ACLU To Congress: Keep Hands Off Violent TV

06/25/2007

Senate Commerce Committee Tees Up FCC-Blocking Bill

04/17/2008

Copps: FCC Not Asleep at Indecency Switch

01/29/2008

President Advised to Veto FCC-Blocking Resolution

04/01/2008

Also by this author

• DISH Avoids STELA Noncom Mandate

• Boucher, Stearns Introduce Voluntary Spectrum Auction Bill

• FCC Proposes Sticking With Outdoor Antenna Standard For Distant Signals

• FCC Extends Comcast/NBCU Comment Period

• MMTC To FCC: Save Our Quality of Service

Also by John Eggerton

Most Popular Pages

No Top Articles

Product Wire

• Resource Center
• Browse Categories
• Browse Companies

Featured Company

• Akamai

  

  Akamai provides market-leading managed services for powering rich media, dynamic transactions, and enterprise applications online. Having pioneered the content delivery market one decade ago, Akamai's services have been adopted by the world's most recognized brands across diverse..more

---

Most Recent Resources

• Multi Format Encoding for Efficient Content Repurposing
• The CIOs Guide to Videoconferencing Security Keeping Pace with th..
• Extracting and Preparing Metadata to Make Video Files Searchable
• Robust Encoding, Transcoding and Streaming Systems – Critical B..
• Simultaneous Multi-Format Encoding for Efficient Content Repurpos..