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Rules rejected by senate Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2003/09/17/new_rules_for_media_rejected_by_senate/http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2003/09/17/new_rules_for_media_rejected_by_senate/
New rules for media rejected by Senate
Resolution seen having little chance in House
By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff, 9/17/2003
Federal regulators' controversial drive to allow more consolidation of television and media companies drew opposition yesterday from the US Senate, which voted 55-40 to throw out media rules adopted in June by the Federal Communications Commission.
But the Senate "resolution of disapproval," a type of legislation that has been passed just once before, is likely to have only symbolic impact in the near term. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican, declared the Senate resolution "dead on arrival" in the lower chamber, and aides to House Speaker Dennis Hastert said they have no plans to bring it up for the House vote needed to make it law.
President Bush has vowed to veto any congressional move overruling the FCC policy changes. Yesterday's vote suggested the Senate would be at least six votes short of overriding a Bush veto.
The FCC media rules, which would let corporations own more TV stations and also own both TV and newspaper properties in all but the smallest markets, have already been plunged into uncertainty by a Sept. 3 ruling by the Philadelphia-based US Circuit Court of Appeals. It delayed their implementation until challenges are heard, probably in early November.
Nevertheless, backers of the Senate move said it represented a clear, bipartisan sign of concern about the prospect of national media conglomerates gaining further control over local TV and radio stations and newspapers. Several senators want to adopt budget bill language, similar to what the House approved this summer, that would specifically block the FCC from allowing single companies like Viacom Inc., News Corp., or General Electric Co.'s NBC unit from owning TV stations reaching 45 percent of US households, up from 35 percent previously.
Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat who led the push for yesterday's vote, said, "Make no mistake, this is a very big step . . . We're telling the FCC to do it over and do it right." Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican, said the FCC rules do "not protect the localism and the diversity, particularly in the newspaper-television market."
Representative Edward J. Markey, a Malden Democrat and ranking member of the House telecommunications subcommittee who has strongly opposed the FCC media ownership changes, praised the Senate vote as a stark repudiation of FCC chairman Michael K. Powell, a Republican who pushed through the changes on a 3-2 party-line vote.
"The Senate's unprecedented rejection of chairman Powell's media ownership rules in their entirety reflects the widespread and growing concern of the American public over the radical sweep of the FCC's media decision," Markey said, adding that "Powell would do well to go back to the drawing board."
Powell again defended the FCC's changes, noting that the commission was under direct court orders to rewrite ownership limits that had been judged unconstitutional and that TV stations face growing competition from satellite, cable, and Internet news sources. If legislators prevail in throwing out the June FCC vote, Powell said, "It would bring no clarity to media regulation, only chaos."
The Bush administration backed Powell, who is the son of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell. "We think the FCC did its job," White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said. "They took almost two years to develop these rules."
Josh Bernoff, a media analyst with Forrester Research in Cambridge, said, "Obviously, the FCC has moved in a direction that legislators are not comfortable with, but I find this a little mystifying because there's not a huge mass of consumers complaining about the rule changes."
David Kaut, an analyst with Legg Mason, a Baltimore money-management firm, said Senate foes of the FCC changes "fell well short" of getting enough votes to override a Bush veto. But Kaut said the Senate move "does appear to prepare the way for a showdown on separate legislation" to maintain the 35 percent TV-station ownership cap by attaching riders to an FCC budget bill.
The two firms that would be most directly affected by maintaining the old cap are Viacom Inc.'s CBS and UPN units and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., parent of Fox Television. Both News Corp. and Viacom are now about 4 percent over the 35 percent limit because of short-term FCC waivers.
Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com. Material from Globe wire services was used in this report.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
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