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Consumer-Friendly Media Rules Latest Victim of GOP
Caving in yet again to White House veto threats, Republicans in Congress have agreed to let the FCC increase the number of local TV stations that networks are allowed to own, making the country's media giants even bigger.
The agreement announced Nov. 24 only affects the FCC rule regarding networks and local TV stations. Specifically, the FCC wanted to allow a network to expand its potential national audience through ownership of local TV stations to 45 percent. Presently, the cap is 35 percent. The compromise raises the cap to 39 percent.
The media cap issue is tied to the pending omnibus spending bill that the Bush administration has threatened multiple times to veto over the media ownership and overtime issues. Last week, Republican moderates who supported the amendment to protect workers' overtime pay buckled under to White House pressure.
"We have an administration that will stop at nothing to defy the will of Congress and the American people in order to further enrich their corporate friends," CWA President Morton Bahr said. "President Bush made it clear that he would be willing to shut down the federal government by vetoing the spending bill if Congress didn't do things his way."
NABET-CWA President John Clark said members of the broadcasting sector are deeply concerned about the effects of media consolidation and had hoped Congress would stand firm against the administration's bullying.
"Some day Congress will learn that it is not in the best interests of the American public to allow the major media companies to operate in an increasingly regulation-less environment," Clark said. "Hopefully, they will learn that lesson while there's still some semblance of an open, meaningful and unbiased media left."
TNG-CWA President Linda Foley, who was on the front lines pushing the FCC to hold public hearings on the issue earlier this year, said she, too, is outraged by the so called "compromise." "The public has spoken loud and clear on this issue and so, we thought, had Congress. To back down now at the behest of the White House is a disgrace."
The actions Congress took to reverse other FCC media ownership rules still stand, including changes that would have allowed companies to jointly own a community's daily newspaper and one of its TV stations, or own multiple TV stations in a single community.
The agreement announced Nov. 24 only affects the FCC rule regarding networks and local TV stations. Specifically, the FCC wanted to allow a network to expand its potential national audience through ownership of local TV stations to 45 percent. Presently, the cap is 35 percent. The compromise raises the cap to 39 percent.
The media cap issue is tied to the pending omnibus spending bill that the Bush administration has threatened multiple times to veto over the media ownership and overtime issues. Last week, Republican moderates who supported the amendment to protect workers' overtime pay buckled under to White House pressure.
"We have an administration that will stop at nothing to defy the will of Congress and the American people in order to further enrich their corporate friends," CWA President Morton Bahr said. "President Bush made it clear that he would be willing to shut down the federal government by vetoing the spending bill if Congress didn't do things his way."
NABET-CWA President John Clark said members of the broadcasting sector are deeply concerned about the effects of media consolidation and had hoped Congress would stand firm against the administration's bullying.
"Some day Congress will learn that it is not in the best interests of the American public to allow the major media companies to operate in an increasingly regulation-less environment," Clark said. "Hopefully, they will learn that lesson while there's still some semblance of an open, meaningful and unbiased media left."
TNG-CWA President Linda Foley, who was on the front lines pushing the FCC to hold public hearings on the issue earlier this year, said she, too, is outraged by the so called "compromise." "The public has spoken loud and clear on this issue and so, we thought, had Congress. To back down now at the behest of the White House is a disgrace."
The actions Congress took to reverse other FCC media ownership rules still stand, including changes that would have allowed companies to jointly own a community's daily newspaper and one of its TV stations, or own multiple TV stations in a single community.