Tuesday August 09, 2005

God vs. Mammon at the FCC

During Democratic administrations, things are relatively easy for the Federal Communications Commission. All it has to do is bow to corporate interests by dismantling ownership caps, public interest requirements and what not. But during Republican administrations, especially ones as indebted to the Christian right as the current one, the Commission’s job becomes twice as complicated. Now it has to bow to corporate interests and to the hysterical dictates of Brent Bozell and the Parents Television Council. Doing both at the same time can be difficult, if not impossible, and current gridlock at the FCC suggests that they might be on a collision course.

According to TV Week (free registration required), 524 of the 1,300 commercial TV station licenses currently in circulation are awaiting renewal but are being delayed pending the outcome of indecency investigations. Apparently, the commission is waiting to rule on renewals until indecency issues are resolved because renewing a station’s license requires the body to rule on any outstanding questions within one year of renewal. This, of course, makes the PTC very happy—“We have certainly made a very public case that until outstanding indecency complaints are adjudicated, broadcasters should not have their licenses renewed,” says Tim Winter, PTC’s executive director—and the National Association of Broadcasters very sad, since stations can’t be bought and sold unless their licenses are renewed. No one from the NAB is quoted in the article, but several unnamed “industry attorneys” chime in about what one calls “an extension of the madness that’s going on with indecency.”

Pair that with the fact that the White House needs to appoint two Republican commissioners to restore a Republican majority—a process that TV Week predicts won’t get started until at least September—and it’s clear that the FCC won’t be settling down to the business of dismantling ownership caps and public interest requirements anytime soon, perhaps not until next year.

Personally, I never bet against Mammon. I have every confidence that deregulation will continue apace eventually, but at what cost to Bush’s—and chairman Kevin Martin’s—morally conservative, and vocal, base? They’ve held the floor since Nipplegate, after all, and it’s unlikely that they’ll return to their seats quietly.