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Home > BizTimes Daily > Archives > June 12, 2007
Groups ask FCC for new TV election coverage mandates
Published June 12, 2007 - BizTimes Daily
An alliance of Midwest civic and political reform groups is calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to impose stronger public interest obligations on local television broadcasters as part of the new regulatory framework that will govern the pending transition from analog to digital broadcasting.
In a letter sent to the FCC and federal lawmakers from five Midwestern states (including Wisconsin), the alliance cites recent studies showing that the viewing public is being shortchanged on coverage of state and local elections and critical government issues. The studies show that coverage of government and elections gets much less air time than crime, sports and weather, and that during election season, political ads outweigh election coverage by nearly three to one.
"The findings from the Midwest News Index (MNI) reports reveal a retreat from responsibility by local television stations," the groups said in their letter, citing studies conducted during the past year by the University of Wisconsin NewsLab. "They also reveal an equally distressing failure by the Federal Communications Commission to regulate broadcasting in accordance with the 'public interest, convenience, or necessity,' a principle first enshrined in the Radio Act of 1927 and later in the Communications Act of 1934."
The groups also called on the FCC to conduct hearings in the Midwest to provide the public an opportunity to comment on proposals for defining and enforcing "meaningful public interest requirements" in the digital age. The FCC is currently considering new rules to reflect the national transition from analog to digital broadcasting. The conversion, which is to be completed by February 2009, will allow single-license holders to air programming over several separate channels.
The letter was sent by Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin reform groups. The Wisconsin groups are Common Cause Wisconsin, the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
