FCC Again Denies Chicago, Milwaukee TV License Challenges

On July 13, 2007, Chicago Media Action (CMA) and the Milwaukee Public Interest Media Coalition (MPIMC) filed a joint Petition for Reconsideration of a June 13, 2007, staff decision denying petitions to deny filed against the license renewal applications of eight broadcast television stations serving the Chicago area and 11 broadcast television stations serving the Milwaukee metropolitan area. In the petition to deny, CMA and MPIMC had argued that the television stations serving the Chicago and Milwaukee markets failed to present adequate programming relating to state and local elections during the last four weeks of the 2004 election campaign. In denying the petitions, the staff found that the CMA and MPIMC petitions did not raise a prima facie [good and sufficient on its face] issue as to whether the stations served the public interest since they failed to provide evidence that "the named licensees exercised their editorial discretion in bad faith." The staff stated, in particular, that the quantity of one type of programming does not necessarily indicate that the television programming in Chicago and Milwaukee has generally been unresponsive. In their respective Petitions for Reconsideration, CMA and MPIMC assert that the staff, by claiming it did not have the authority to review the broadcasters' programming decisions, applied the wrong legal standard to its allegations, and that the staff failed to consider or evaluate the numerical data contained in the study attached to the petitions. On July 11, the FCC's Media Bureau denied the groups petition for reconsideration.