FCC action alert

EVER SINCE THE Federal Communications Commission voted June 2 to relax media ownership restrictions, representatives in Congress have been working to reverse aspects of the decision. So far, only one bill looks like it might survive the rough ride to the Senate floor.

The "Preservation of Localism, Program Diversity, and Competition in Television Broadcast Service Act," or S-1046, seeks to reverse the FCC's decision to raise the cap on the number of households a single television broadcast network may reach from 35 percent to 45 percent. The proposed legislation has 24 sponsors and is set to be marked up by the Senate Commerce Committee June 19. The committee is expected to approve forwarding the bill to the full Senate, at which point it will be up to majority leader Bill Frist (R-Tennessee) to schedule a debate.

Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-North Dakota) has said he'll propose an amendment that would also reverse the FCC's decision to weaken cross-ownership limits that prohibited the same company from owning television stations as well as radio stations or daily newspapers in the same market.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, who sits on the Senate Commerce Committee and signed up as a cosponsor of S-1046, has recently come out in favor of reversing the FCC's deregulation drive. Sen. Dianne Feinstein's name, however, is conspicuously absent from the list of S-1046's cosponsors.

Activists say now's the time to keep the phone calls and letters to your senators coming in: Ask Boxer to support Dorgan's amendment and to lobby her colleagues to back the legislation. And call on Feinstein to throw her weight behind the bill. Contact Sen. Barbara Boxer at (415) 403-0100 or www.boxer.senate.gov. and Sen. Dianne Feinstein at (415) 393-0707 or www.feinstein.senate.gov.

Camille T. Taiara