F.C.C.'s Plan to Short-Circuit Dereg Protest

F.C.C. commissioner Kevin Martin learned a lot from his predecessor's ill-fated attempt at media ownership deregulation. Above all, he learned that the public hates the idea of further consolidation -- so if you want to push through rules allowing it, you have to do it while no one's looking.

Just look at the super-compressed timeframe Martin has proposed for the agency's review of its rules limiting ownership of newspapers, TV channels and radio stations. Dow Jones reports that Martin wants to hold a vote on the changes Dec. 18 -- meaning any public discussion of the pros and cons must take place in the next two months, over the background noise of the presidential primaries and the holiday season.

That is exactly the idea, says Danny Schechter, a filmmaker and co-founder of MediaChannel.org. "They're trying to move this quickly, before resistance to it emerges," he says.

Schechter's group was one of the forces leading the protest against the F.C.C.'s 2003 deregulation attempt, headed by then-commissioner Michael Powell. Thanks to MediaChannel and like-minded groups, including Common Cause (which has come out against Martin's plan) and Consumers Union, the F.C.C. received nearly 3 million public comments, and lobbying groups from all over the ideological spectrum made their voices heard.

But there's little chance a groundswell like that can emerge in the tiny space left by Martin's proposed timeframe.

"They know that [anti-consolidation types] have a limited window to make a major push," says Schechter. "The public's going to get distracted, holiday shopping is going to start. They're gambling that there's not going to be enough pushback. I'm sure the White House is stage-managing this whole thing."