Subject: [NEXTEL-1] FCC Given Incriminating 'New Evidence' In Media Ownership Debate

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 07 Aug 2003 02:26:43 -0400

FCC Given Incriminating 'New Evidence' In Media Ownership Debate

Aug 07, 2003

Reps. John Dingell (D-Mich.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) on Wednesday fired
off a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell
revealing what the two congressmen described as "significant new evidence
relevant to the FCC 's recent decision to weaken its media ownership rules."
The referenced "evidence" was a July 25 letter from the vice
president/general manager of WDAF-TV/FOX 4, a Fox Network-owned and operated
television station in Kansas City, Mo. "The letter confirms what many of us
in Congress have long suspected: The networks -- not the managers of their
owned and operated stations--make all program decisions for network owned
and operated stations," Dingell and Burr said in their joint letter to
Powell.

The WDAF-TV letter was a response to a viewer's complaint about the content
of a Fox network program. It said: "The Network, not WDAF- TV 4, decides
what goes on the air for the Fox Owned and Operated Television Stations."
That statement flies directly in the face of assertions by the major
networks to the FCC and Congress that local managers of network-owned
stations are "attuned to the needs and interests of local viewers and can
preempt network programs they believe to be inappropriate" for their
respective viewers.

Dingell and Burr said the WDAF-TV letter makes "a mockery of 'localism' and
underscores why Congress initially allocated broadcast spectrum to diverse
interests in order to better serve the needs of local communities. It also
confirms that allowing networks to acquire stations in new markets, as the
[FCC] did in increasing the national television ownership cap to 45 percent,
will further diminish the number of television stations that have the
ability to broadcast programs consistent with the values and tastes of the
communities they serve."

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