Plan to Air Anti-Kerry Documentary Spurs Media Merger Critics

[G_j]

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1097686240147
www.sinclairwarch.net

Plan to Air Anti-Kerry Documentary Spurs Media Merger Critics

Ron Orol
The Deal
10-14-2004


Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. is emerging as enemy No. 1 for critics of media consolidation.

Reacting to Sinclair's decision to schedule an anti-John Kerry documentary for its 62 television stations two weeks before the Nov. 2 presidential election, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., is vowing to push for more stringent limits on mergers among TV, radio and newspaper companies.

"Sinclair is the poster child of what happens when you have media consolidation," said Dorgan spokesman Barry Piatt. "Clearly the situation with Sinclair underscores the need for broad ownership and points out the dangers of concentration of ownership."

<snip?
In wake of the Sinclair controversy, Dorgan intends to muster support for attaching media merger limits to one of the spending bills that Congress must pass when it returns in November from recess. If that fails, he will seek to use reauthorization of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 as a vehicle to limit media mergers, Piatt said.

The senator's legislation would restore media ownership limits that existed before the FCC's June 2003 decision to ease such restrictions. This includes retaining a prohibition on a newspaper company owning a broadcast outlet in the same market and a cap on the number of stations a TV operator may own in the same market.

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http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1097686240147

[ClintonTyree]

1. Good..............

this must be among the first actions taken by the Kerry Administration. The Corporate monopoly over news in this country must be ended. It brings our Nation ever closer to the abyss of Government controlled propaganda and Fascism.

[G_j]

2. kick