Major media rules

Bowing to pressure from the White House, Congress has agreed to a "compromise" on changes to media consolidation rules, reports the Washington Post.

Back in June, the FCC, chaired by Republican Michael (son of Colin) Powell, dramatically loosened rules restricting media concentration and cross-ownership. One of those changes would allow a single TV network to own enough stations to reach 45% of viewers, up from the present 35%.

Responding to a public outcry that was truly massive, especially considering there was a near media blackout prior to the vote, in July the House adopted language overturning that change by blocking the use of any money to implement it. The Senate followed suit in September and as recently as last week House and Senate negotiators included it in an omnibus spending bill, to the delight of consumer advocates.

But in spite of the clear public position and its own repeated votes, Congress backed down in the face of a threatened Bush veto, agreeing to raise the ownership limit to 39% of viewers in return for having that limit be established in law (as opposed to FCC regulations). Supposedly that will make the figure harder to change, but considering how Congress has been flummoxed, flattened, bullied, and bulldozed on issues ranging from Iraq to Medicare to overtime pay, I don't find that at all reassuring.

By the way, you might be wondering, why 39%? Why such an odd number as opposed, say, to the more obvious 40%? Simple: Two of the Big Four networks, CBS and Fox, already own enough stations to reach 39% of viewers. (Notice how aggressively the FCC has pursued that matter.) So this "compromise" actually serves to legitimize what had been a clear violation of existing federal regulations on the part of two networks while allowing the others (NBC and ABC, which now reach 35% and 25% of viewers, respectively) to expand their reach.

Bizarro Dept.: "Powell and others have argued that there may be no legal justification for setting any ownership cap."

Uh, Mike, uh, guy - didn't you propose a cap (just a higher one) in the vote that started all this? I hate to tell you, but you're never going to be a headliner on the reactionary lecture circuit if you're a trimmer. You just go back to DC right now and start pushing through motions to remove all controls from corporate media and shut yourselves down!

Well, except of course for powers to investigate things like if someone accidentally said "fuck" on live TV and similar issues equally vital to the public interest.