Industry lobbyists dismissed the campaign as grandstanding and media bashing...
Broadcasters are nervous about Copps' plan to hit the road again with more hearings. During the media ownership debate, Copps organized more than a dozen public forums nationwide that helped galvanize a grass-roots campaign to oppose relaxation of media ownership rules. As a result, Congress and the courts are reviewing whether to roll back some of those changes.
The new hearings also set down a political challenge for FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell, who recently announced plans to launch his own initiative and hearings to study whether broadcasters were serving local markets. Powell, a Republican, was roundly criticized for ridiculing Copps' first round of hearings and refusing to participate in most.
Copps and Powell have been discussing whether they can combine their efforts and avoid the prospect of dueling campaigns, but no agreement has been reached.
Powell's office declined to comment.
"We all need to work together on these issues," said FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, a Democrat. "The more we do it together, the more we send a message to the public and broadcasters that we're serious."
Copps said he wanted to return to the days when the FCC had more stringent criteria for reviewing broadcast licenses. Renewals were previously heard every three years. Local leaders were asked to grade a station's performance. And broadcasters were required to set aside 5% of programming for local shows and another 5% for news and public affairs.
In the 1970s and 1980s, many of those rules faded away as the FCC relied more on structural rules to prevent consolidation, such as a ban against the same company owning a TV station and newspaper in the same market.
Today, license renewals occur every eight years and were considered so automatic they've been dubbed "postcard renewals."
"Currently, the standard is totally self-defined by the stations themselves,'' said Meredith McGehee, director of Alliance for Better Campaigns, which advocates requiring that broadcasters give free airtime to political candidates. "And they usually define that standard in whatever way makes them the most money."
On June 2, Powell led the Republican majority to relax many of the remaining structural rules to prevent media consolidation, including lifting the ban on TV-newspaper mergers. The rules have been temporarily blocked by a federal court pending legal challenges.
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