25 Senators Write Martin, Urging Him to Delay Dec. 18 Vote

Dorgan Rounds Up Group of Mostly Democrats to Push Federal Communications Commission Chairman

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/17/2007 3:03:00 PM

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) rounded up a group of 25 senators, almost all Democrats, to write Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin asking him to delay a planned Dec. 18 vote on modifying the ban on newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership.

If not, they said in their letter Monday, they will "immediately" push a bill to essentially nullify the rule change.

Dorgan helped to get a similar bill passed in the Senate back in 2003 to block the original media-ownership rule changes, but it was mooted by a court remand of the rules, which is what Martin is trying to wrap up with the vote on what he has called a "relatively minor" adjustment to the rules. In 2003, the FCC was also proposing to loosen local TV and radio multiple-ownership rules.

In the letter -- also signed by the chairman and co-chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, which oversees the FCC -- Dorgan and company said the commission had not provided enough public comment on the proposed change, which was published in an op-ed in The New York Times Nov. 13.

“In light of this," they wrote Martin, "we request and expect that you will postpone the action scheduled for Dec. 18, 2007.”

The Senate Commerce Committee already passed a separate bill, introduced by Dorgan, which would have effectively blocked the vote.

The senators also said the FCC provided a far longer comment period for a ruling on migratory-bird collisions with communications towers than for the cross-ownership change.

“When you proposed a new rule on the effects of communications towers on migratory birds," they added, "you allowed for a 90-day comment period. How could you decide to allow 90 days for a migratory-bird rule and then shortchange the public on the media-ownership rule?”

Martin responded to the comment-period criticism before, saying that the public had months to comment on media-ownership and cross-ownership issues, and that if the FCC put each rule iteration out for separate comment and response, it would be a revolving-door process from which rules would not escape.

Martin volunteered to change his cross-ownership proposal to make it clear that its waiver policy for smaller markets is a hurdle, not a loophole, and he said he would not try to loosen local multiple-ownership rules, as his predecessor attempted and he voted for in 2003. But he also has said it is time to finish the process.

The signatories to the letter were mostly Democrats, but also signing were Trent Lott (R-Miss.) who is exiting the Senate at the end of the year and who co-sponsored the 2003 nullification bill; Subcommittee Co-Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska); Larry Craig (R-Idaho); Olympic Snowe (R-Me.); and independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont.

An FCC spokesperson could not be reached for comment, but no agenda items had been struck from the meeting at press time.