| Updated: February 15, 2008. This page will change constantly over the next two years. If your candidate has a position you'd like us to know about, please on your contact list. Blue denotes Democrat; red denotes Republican. A link to the candidate's Web site is included if the candidate has a page dedicated to media related issues. | Candidate News: October 5: Survey shows that only six of 17 Presidential contenders have explained their policies on broadband. <more> |
| Candidate | Cable/Broadband | Fairness Doctrine | Indecency | Net Neutrality | Spectrum Auctions | Media Ownership | Other | |
| Hillary Clinton (U.S. Senate, New York) | Clinton has unveiled a plan called "Connect America" which will, according to one news account, "extend access to underserved communities and low-income families through tax incentives and public-private parternships." Critics charge that the plan is based on "Connect Kentucky," whose principals, they say, have exaggerated their success. | Has not taken a position on the Fairness Doctrine, but that doesn't stop some pundits from saying that she has. | Clinton did not oppose the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005, which the Senate passed unanimously. But she did not cosponsor the bill. | Supports net neutrality. Co-sponsor of the Internet Freedom Preservation Act. | Supports November 8, 2007 bill to require FCC to post a 60 day public comment period on any proposal to modify its newspaper/TV cross ownership rule. | |||
| John Edwards (former U.S. Senator, North Carolina). Edwards has withdrawn from the race, but his position page on FCC issues is still posted. | Edwards has not called for the restoration of the Fairness Doctrine. But he has criticized its repeal and promised that he will "appoint FCC Commissioners who will immediately define robust public interest obligations for digital broadcasters -- a task twelve years overdue." | Supports net neutrality. | Has called on the Federal Communications Commission to set spectrum auction rules "that ensure that the airwaves benefit everyone, not just big companies." | On October 19, 2007, Edwards wrote a letter to FCC Chair Martin uring him to "cease your efforts to radically rewrite the rules preventing excessive media consolidation." | Edwards says he will lift restrictions on Low Power FM radio, making it easier for applicants to get licenses. | |||
| Mike Huckabee former governor of Arkansas | Hasn't taken a position on net neutrality, but some bloggers think he's for it. | |||||||
| Rudy Giuliani (former mayor of New York City) [withdrawn from race] | Says he will "will work to keep our children safe from internet pornography and online predators." | |||||||
| Dennis Kucinich (House of Representatives, Ohio) [withdrawn from race] | Kucinich voted against the Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006 (COPE), which would have created a national cable franchise process for pay-television; it also included some mild net neutrality language that advocates of net neutrality regarded as inadequate. Kucinich voted for a stronger amendment on net neutrality proposed by Edward Markey, which failed. The COPE bill was supported by Republicans and most incumbent cable and phone service providers; it was opposed by many Democrats and community media activists. The proposed law never reached the Senate. | Supports the restoration of the policy, which would require broadcasters to strive for balanced coverage of controversial issues, and to offer citizens response time to controversial editorial positions. | Voted against the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act. | Early supporter of net neutrality. Voted against the Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act of 2002, which would have allowed big incumbents to offer broadband without any net neutrality provisions. | On media ownership rules, Kucinich says that "We should place new caps on media ownership and ban the granting of exceptions to those caps. We should limit the number of media outlets one corporation can own in a given medium, such as radio, print, or television. We should strictly prohibit cross-ownership and vertical integration." | |||
| Candidate | Cable/Broadband | Fairness Doctrine | Indecency | Net Neutrality | Spectrum Auctions | Media Ownership | Other | |
| John McCain (U.S. Senate, Arizona) | Has long supported FCC Chair Kevin Martin's "a la carte" position that consumers should be able to pick and choose which cable channels they buy, without having to purchase a huge package of channels. | McCain opposes the Fairness Doctrine. On June 29th he announced that he would submit the "Broadcaster Freedom Act" to the Senate. "The legislation would prevent the Federal Communications Commission from reinstating the 'Fairness Doctrine'," his press release stated, "a regulation that had required broadcasters to present opposing viewpoints on issues of public importance." | Co-sponsored the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act. | Supports proposal to reserve an "E-Block" area of the spectrum for wholesale licensing for public safety broadband providers. | Voted against a 2003 Senate resolution disapproving of the FCC's sweeping Order relaxing most of its media ownership rules (the decision was later overturned in court). | Since 2001 McCain has supported various bills to make it easier to set up a legal Low Power FM station. Presently supports S.1675, the Local Community Radio Act of 2007. | ||
| Barack Obama (United State Senate, Illinois) | Says he wants broadband carriers to be able to access resources from the Universal Service Fund (a direction that the FCC appears to be moving in). Plus Obama wants "the public to be able to comment on the White House Web site for five days before legislation is signed." | Obama did not oppose the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2005, which the Senate passed unanimously. But he did not cosponsor the bill. | Supports net neutrality. | Supports requiring auction winners to offer more of their spectrum to public at wholesale rates. |
"I believe the FCC media-ownership rules remain necessary and are critical to the public interest," Obama tells audience at September 20th, 2007 in Chicago. "We should be doing more to encourage diversity in ownership in broadcast media, promote the development of new media outlets and the expression of diverse viewpoints." The candidate also warns FCC not to issue new rules without getting public feedback first.
Supports November 8, 2007 bill to require FCC to post a 60 day public comment period on any proposal to modify its newspaper/TV cross ownership rule. |
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| Congressmember Ron Paul | Opposes Fairness Doctrine. | Opposed extending indecency rules to cable networks. | Opposes net neutrality legislation | Paul is strongly critical of the provisions of the Patriot Act that have been used to justify surveillance of the email and phone calls of Americans, and has attempted to overturn the law. | ||||
| Mitt Romney (Former governor of Massachusetts) [withdrawn from race] | Romney says he will "will require the Department of Justice to enforce our existing federal obscenity laws. Even though the interstate trafficking of obscenity is illegal, federal obscenity laws have not been adequately enforced. | |||||||
| Candidate | Cable/Broadband | Fairness Doctrine | Indecency | Net Neutrality | Spectrum Auctions | Media Ownership | Other | |
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Technorati Profile  Copyright 2007, Lasar's Letter on the FCC |