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With the first African American Chair of the FCC, MAP expects these issues to get high
priority in the next year. Critically important is the creation
of strategies to defend the FCC's ownership and EEO policies
from attack in the wake of the Supreme Court's 1995 Adarand
v. Pena decision questioning the constitutionality of federal
affirmative action programs.
Defending these policies is especially
important in light of Congress' recent decision to eliminate
the Commission's most successful program for promoting minority
ownership. That program permitted non-minority companies to defer
capital gains taxes if they sold their media properties to a
minority.
MAP is also involved in a more
general effort to reengage civil rights and minority organizations
in telecommunications policy.
Although challenges to broadcast
licenses, filing of fairness doctrine complaints and advocacy
for EEO rules and minority ownership were staples of the civil
rights agenda from the 1950's through the 1970's, participation
in telecommunications policy matters diminished greatly during
the deregulatory fervor of the 1980's, and has been nearly non-existent
in the 1990's. MAP is advising the "Civil Rights Project,"
which has taken on the task of setting a telecommunications policy
agenda for civil rights organizations and of convincing these
organizations that participation in these matters is essential
to empowering their members.
Maintain Limits on Concentration
of Control of Media
MAP has long fought to
maintain limits on ownership of multiple media properties. Such
"structural" rules have enabled some minorities and
females to enter media ownership. The Telecommunications Act
of 1996 greatly relaxes restrictions on media ownership.
For example, it lifts limits
on the number of radio and television stations a single company
may own, permits ownership of multiple radio stations in a single
city, and permits telephone company buyouts of cable systems
in smaller towns. However, the Act keeps in place several
important ownership restrictions, including those which prohibit
common ownership of a daily newspaper and a broadcast outlet
in the same city, and common ownership of a cable system and
a broadcast outlet in the same city.
Most importantly, the Act requires
the FCC to review its remaining broadcast multiple ownership
rules biennially. This permits the industry to relitigate these
issues over and over. It also requires the Commission to consider
whether to eliminate or modify its "duopoly" rule,
which prohibits common ownership of two stations in a local market.
As to cable television, the Act
permits the Commission to fashion waivers to permit cable systems
to buy out cable systems in larger markets.
MAP believes that it is critical
for the Commission to preserve its remaining ownership restrictions.
Such "structural" rules have enabled some minorities
and females to enter media ownership. Removing them will result
in further concentration of control of the media into fewer hands,
further reducing diversity of voices and information.
The FCC is Considering Further Deregulation
Pursuant to the Act's
mandate, the Commission recently began four separate proceedings
that look at changing the radio-newspaper cross-ownership prohibition,
the duopoly rule, the national ownership limits and the "attribution"
rules, (which define what constitutes a "cognizable"
interest in a broadcast station for the purpose of applying the
multiple ownership rules).
MAP will file comments
urging the Commission to retain the first three rules, and to
close loopholes in the attribution rule that have permitted minority
"fronts" to buy stations that are almost completely
financed and controlled by non-minorities. MAP will also
continue to educate the public on this matter through appearances
on radio and television programs dedicated to this issue.
Additional resources on media
ownership:
Local and national broadcast
"multiple ownership" rules:
The "Attribution"
rules:
The "Newspaper-Radio
Cross Ownership" rule:
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