FCC Republicans Rebuffed by Senate
OpenLeft, May 16, 2008
By Matt Stoller
Earlier this year, the Federal Communications Commission relaxed rules preventing TV stations and newspapers from owning each other in local markets. This was a very bad thing. Tonight, the Senate passed by a near universal voice vote a resolution of disapproval that would nullify this rule. It's in the House as well, and while the President will veto it, the next President will not.
If I were a media executive at a big outlet, I'd be getting very nervous about what a Democratic administration and a new progressive Congress will bring. The Pentagon Pundits scandal is the smoking gun, with the WGA strike big media lost its labor allies, and it's clear that the media executives don't get how much legitimacy they have lost. It's as if they have rerun the Quiz Show scandal, only this time with bullets and trillions of dollar.
Republican Kevin Martin, the current head of the FCC and a presumptive North Carolina politician, was shown as politically incompetent tonight. Less than 1% of the public comments supported his move to allow more media consolidation, and now the Senate is mad. A rule of thumb, Kevin, in case you're reading. You shouldn't make the Senate angry. You won't like them when they're angry.
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