Rarely has one Federal Communications Commission filing provoked as much ire as this. Thirteen major broadcast and newspaper groups have filed lengthy denunciations of a public interest group's appeal to redo the FCC's recent relaxation of its TV station/newspaper cross-ownership ban. Their comments once again expose the enormous divide between public opinion and big media on this issue.

"The Commission should deny the petition," insists CBS. "CBS has submitted hundreds upon hundreds of pages of comments, facts, and studies in this proceeding, all with the goal of demonstrating that the FCC's broadcast ownership scheme is woefully and perilously out of sync with the realities of today's media marketplace. To that end, we have urged the Commission to deregulate all of its media ownership rules."

CBS, Clear Channel, Fox Television, Gannet, Media General, the National Association of Broadcasters, the Newspaper Association of America, Tribune, and five other parties are responding to a plucky March 24th Petition for Reconsideration filed by Common Cause, the Benton Foundation, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, and three other groups. Their long shot appeal not only asked for a roll back of the FCC's new TV/newspaper combo rules, it also petitioned the agency to rethink its TV and radio station ownership limits.

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