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Kerry, Obama Continue Push vs. Dec. 18 Vote

Friday, December 14, 2007

Senators Write FCC Chairman Martin, Threaten to Ask Appropriations Committee to Deny Any Funding to Implement Media-Ownership Decision

Broadcasting & Cable By John Eggerton

Late Friday, Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) weighed in on the media-ownership debate, telling Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin in a letter that if he did not delay an FCC vote on the broadcast-newspaper cross-ownership rules, they would ask that the Appropriations Committee deny any funding to implement that decision.

It is the latest in a series of gambits to try to block the vote, including a Senate bill that would not allow it to go through.

"This is a showdown with an FCC chairman who is letting the FCC do the bidding of big corporate conglomerates without giving smaller media outlets a chance to fight back," Kerry said.

"We must ensure that we have an open media market that represents all of the voices in our diverse nation and allows them to be heard," Obama added.

Both are vocal media-consolidation critics, with Kerry leading the toughest questioning of Martin at a Senate Commerce Committee FCC oversight hearing Thursday.

Martin has vowed to hold the vote and finish the years-long media-ownership-rule review.