Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Thursday, July 17, 2003

Yesterday the House Appropriations Committee voted to restore limits on how many TV stations a single company can own in one market, a result favored by a wide coalition of Americans and opposed by the media giants. Here's William Safire's take on why both parties rose up to oppose Bush's FCC and the well-funded networks: "Take the force of right-wingers upholding community standards who are determined to defend local control of the public airwaves; combine that with the force of lefties eager to maintain diversity of opinion in local media; add in the independent voters' mistrust of media manipulation; then let all these people have access to their representatives by e-mail and fax, and voilą! Congress awakens to slap down the power grab." More coverage.