Late Friday, Sens. John Kerry [1] (D-Mass.) and Barack Obama [2] (D-Ill.) weighed in on the media-ownership debate, telling Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin [3] in a letter that if he did not delay an FCC vote on the broadcast-newspaper cross-ownership rules, they would ask that the Appropriations Committee deny any funding to implement that decision.

It is the latest in a series of gambits to try to block the vote, including a Senate bill that would not allow it to go through.

"This is a showdown with an FCC chairman who is letting the FCC do the bidding of big corporate conglomerates without giving smaller media outlets a chance to fight back," Kerry said.

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