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Obama to FCC's Martin: Slow Down and Open Up

Presidential candidate and Illinois Democratic Sen. Barack Obama wants Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin to take a series of intermediary steps before making the leap to rewrite media-ownership rules, saying that not to do so would be irresponsible.

In a letter to Martin Monday (see below), the senator asked the FCC chairman to "reconsider your proposed timeline, put out any specific change to the rules for public comment and review, move to establish an independent panel on minority and small-business media ownership and complete a proceeding on the responsibilities that broadcasters have to the communities in which they operate."

The letter came in response to the news last week that Martin had come up with a timetable for moving forward on the congressionally and court-mandated rule review, planning to put out his own proposals for media ownership rules Nov. 13, then letting the public comment for four weeks before holding a mid-November vote on the changes. Obama Calls On Martin to Slow Down on Ownership Review

Setting aside for a moment the impossibility of putting out rules on Nov. 13, having public comment for four weeks, then holding a mid-November vote - I'm sure that's a typo - this news item is noteworthy in so much as FCC actions are getting scrutiny from a leading presidential candidate.

Granted, Barack Obama is a sitting US Senator and so it's not as noteworthy for a Senator to address concerns to the head of an executive agency, but one can see how all such issues start to take on more poignancy as the political campaign cranks up.

Fof the nearly seven years of the Bush administration, the FCC has typically seen rulings among the commissioners as a three-vote Republican majority outweighing the challenges of the two-vote Democratic minority. Not so often are challenged FCC rulings and processes detailed in the main stream press.

That all may change as the political campaign heats up in a few months, with this challenge as a harbinger of things to come.

Posted on October 23, 2007 at 10:52 PM

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