The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee may vote today to reverse an agency's decision to let companies such as Tribune Co. own a broadcast station and daily newspaper in the 20 largest markets.
The Federal Communications Commission voted in December to allow such combinations, and the Senate panel will consider a resolution nullifying the action. The committee's measure would need approval of both houses of Congress and the president.
FCC waivers allowing Tribune, Gannett Co. and Media General Inc. to own TV stations and daily newspapers in the same markets could be endangered if the resolution succeeds, Andrew Jay Schwartzman, president of the public-interest group Media Access Project, said yesterday.
``The process we're using is effectively a legislative veto,'' Senator Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat who sponsored the resolution, said in an interview yesterday. He predicted passage by the panel.
President George W. Bush's advisers will recommend that he veto the resolution if it passes Congress, Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said in a letter released by his department. ``The administration supported this FCC action and strongly opposes any attempt to overturn these rules,'' Gutierrez said in the letter sent yesterday to Senator Daniel Inouye, the Hawaii Democrat who chairs the Commerce Committee.
The three Republican commissioners on the five-member FCC voted on Dec. 18 to allow the cross-ownership in the largest markets, and to let companies apply for waivers to create such combinations in smaller markets.
Gannett, Media General Waivers
In the same vote the FCC granted a waiver to McLean, Virginia-based Gannett, the largest U.S. newspaper publisher, for the Phoenix market, and to Media General to retain newspaper-broadcast combinations in four southeastern markets.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin argued the 1975 rule banning cross ownership needed updating because of changes in the media landscape, with the growth of cable and satellite TV and the invention of the Internet. ``This relatively minor loosening'' may help newspapers share news-gathering costs with other media, he said in December.
The Senate resolution might threaten the waivers if it means the entire FCC vote is nullified, Schwartzman said. If the old rule is reinstated, Tribune may also face difficulties when the time comes to renew its waivers, he said.
`Wrong Direction'
Tribune, the Chicago-based owner of the Los Angeles Times, received cross-ownership waivers for five markets in a separate FCC action Nov. 30. The resolution wouldn't affect those, Tribune Washington lobbyist Shaun Sheehan said.
Ray Kozakewicz, a spokesman for Richmond, Virgina-based Media General, said it's too early to speculate on the Senate legislation. Gannett had no comment, said spokeswoman Tara Connell. Mary Diamond, an FCC spokeswoman, declined to comment in advance of today's vote.
Supporters of the Senate measure include both Democratic presidential candidates, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, according to the Thomas legislation tracking service run by the Library of Congress.
The FCC action takes media in ``exactly the wrong direction,'' Dorgan said. ``We've already seen galloping concentration. We ought to be moving in the opposite direction.''