An FCC watcher's guide to Super Tuesday

AN FCC WATCHER'S GUIDE TO SUPER TUESDAY
[SOURCE: Lasar's Letter on the FCC, AUTHOR: Matthew Lasar]
Super Tuesday is coming on, well, Tuesday. Twenty four states and American Samoa will hold primary elections or primary caucuses for Democrats and Republicans. And while the horse-race watchers obsess over which candidate will be most electable, LLFCC has kept track of their positions on broadcasting and telecommunications related issues. Barack Obama's Web site does not include a media page. But Obama did very publicly warn FCC Chair Kevin Martin not to rush through the media ownership rule changes that, in the end, he rushed through. Obama says he supports net neutrality and a wholesale requirement for FCC auctions. As for indecency issues, while Obama did not support the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act, which greatly boosted fines for obscenity scofflaws, he did not oppose the bill either, which passed the Senate unanimously. While Hillary Clinton has not said much about media ownership issues, she did support a Senate bill that would require the FCC to slow down on enacting new media ownership rules. She has also supported net neutrality, co-sponsoring the Internet Freedom Preservation Act. Clinton has come in for some criticism for her support for a non-profit called "Connect America," which Public Knowledge advocate Art Brodsky says has exaggerated its success in bringing broadband to underserved communities. She did not co-sponsor the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act, but she did not oppose the bill either. John McCain supports media consolidation. He had a chance to oppose it in 2003, after former FCC Chair Michael Powell dramatically relaxed the agency's media ownership rules. In response, the Senate passed a statement of disapproval of the FCC's actions, declaring that the move would have "no force or effect." McCain voted against the resolution, as did most Republicans. McCain does, however, support efforts to make it easier to start a Low Power FM radio station. He has also advocated "a la carte" cable reform, which some groups say will facilitate your picking and choosing which cable channels you want to buy, and others say will just ratchet up the price of cable generally, and make it harder for independent channels to survive. Your call on this one. The Senator very strongly opposes the restoration of the Fairness Doctrine.
http://www.lasarletter.net/drupal/node/551