Moving on Media Reform

It's no secret that Washington has a limited interest in the public interest these days. So the Senate Commerce Committee's vote to restore media-ownership controls that were lifted on June 2 by the Federal Communications Commission was indeed remarkable. All the more remarkable was the willingness of the committee to back legislation that actually encourages the FCC to weigh measures to strengthen restrictions on media consolidation and monopoly.

What gives? Are Republican stalwarts like Alaska's Ted Stevens and Mississippi's Trent Lott turning into the trustbusters of the twenty-first century? Don't bet on it. Media reform, the issue almost no one in Washington took seriously a year ago, is on the agenda because hundreds of thousands of Americans put it there by flooding first the FCC and then Congress with their outrage at regulatory machinations designed to let Big Media get even bigger. And as long as the people keep complaining, the issue will have bipartisan legs.

That's because, when issues that involve the inner workings of democracy are put on the table, traditional political seating charts get tossed. Just as campaign-finance-reform initiatives of the mid-1990s attracted support from unexpected Congressional allies--some acting from real concern for democracy, some from self-interested concern about whether they could hold their own as fundraisers--so dozens of members of both parties are signing on to various Congressional initiatives that seek to defend diversity, competition and local control of the media.

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