Nevada's Supreme Court today upheld NBC's exclusion of presidential contender Dennis Kucinich from tonight's MSNBC Democrats' debate. But the TV network's own appeal to the court reveals that its managers changed the program's qualification rules—a move that threw Kucinich off the program.

An NBC Emergency Petition's "statement of facts" filed today admits that Kucinich may have qualified for the debate under the rules outlined by Democratic party consultant Jenny Backus. Those guidelines said that a candidate had to finish in at least fourth place in the New Hampshire primary or Iowa Caucus to participate in the January 15th debate.

A candidate could also qualify by being included "in the top four in one of six credible random-sample telephone national news media polls conducted since the Iowa Caucus."

NBC's statement acknowledges that in a Gallup Poll completed soon after the Iowa Caucus, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama received the support of 33 percent of those polled, John Edwards obtained 20%, and Kucinich won 3%. New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson picked up only 1% of those surveyed.

Remarks of FCC Chairman Kevin Martin at the Rainbow Push Coalition 's
11th Annual Wall Street Project Economic Summit
(As Prepared for Delivery)

January 7, 2008

I want to begin by thanking Reverend Jackson for inviting me to be here today and for hosting the FCC’s media ownership hearing held at Rainbow Push headquarters in Chicago.

Technology today touches almost every aspect of our lives. We are dependent upon it for our news, our information and our entertainment. It’s an exciting time in the media and telecommunications industries—but it is also a challenging one. The Commission has taken a number of steps to improve the communications landscape for all Americans, including minorities.

A particular point of focus has been promoting the availability and adoption of broadband internet access. We have made significant progress on this point. The Commission has acted to remove regulatory barriers to broadband deployment, and the result has been a significant increase in the number of Americans subscribing to broadband at the same time that the price for broadband services has declined. This success has been confirmed by studies by the independent Pew Internet and American Life Project.

LLFCC's regularly updated chart on the presidential candidates and their positions on FCC related issues is firming up. Some candidates, such as Kucinich, Clinton, Obama, and McCain, have a lot to say about these matters. It's harder to track the ex-governors (Huckabee, Romney) stands on various questions, such as net neutrality and media ownership. We'll add more data before the big state primaries in late January and early February.

On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission, by a bare majority, voted to lift its over three decade old prohibition against an entity owning a newspaper and a television station in the same market. Most FCC watchers will now shift their visors to Congress and the circuit courts, where media reform activists will doubtless turn in a bid to reverse this ruling.

But the agency also made four important decisions this month and last that deserve a second glance, not only because they could have an impact on broadcasting, but because they illustrate the extent to which the Commission can promote measures that clearly serve the public interest—when it wants to.

Low Power FM

When the FCC created its Low Power FM (LPFM) service in the 1990s, it ruled that these new, locally based non-profit frequencies did not have to protect so-called "third adjacent" full power FM stations. The National Association of Broadcasters moved almost instantly to quash the provision, using its enormous influence to get Congress to pass the "Radio Broadcast Projection Act," which restored the third adjacent rule.

Adam Candeub

On Thursday, October 4th, the Federal Communications Commission's Office of Inspector General completed a detailed audit of "allegations that Senior Management Ordered Research Suppressed or Destroyed." The research in question consisted of two draft studies that came out the FCC's Media Bureau. One titled "Do Local Owners Deliver More Localism?" suggested that, in fact, locally owned TV stations indeed do produce more local news than non-locally owned broadcasters. The second, a "2003 Draft Radio report," noted that advertising market share among radio stations had become more concentrated immediately after the enactment of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which allowed corporations to own many more radio signals.

Yet the FCC released neither of these studies, at least not until United States Senator Barbara Boxer confronted FCC Chair Kevin Martin with the first report—"deep sixed," as she put it—during his 2006 reconfirmation hearing. The plot further thickened when Adam Candeub, a former Media Bureau staff attorney, told journalists that the Local TV news report "was stopped in its tracks because it was not the way the agency wanted to go"—that is, towards publishing evidence implying that retaining some of the FCC's media ownership caps might be prudent.

FCC Fairness Doctrine
enforcer in the
Bad Old Days

When today's Fourth of July festivities conclude and tomorrow's business day begins, our nation's Representatives and Senators will return to their many duties, among them posturing about a twenty years deceased policy known as the Fairness Doctrine.

I'm sure that I'm not the only blogger toggling between barbecue duty and their computer today, flipping burgers and grabbing RSS feeds on what the trade press has to say about the "Broadcaster Freedom Act," a bill soon to be introduced into the House and Senate that will Kill the Fairness Doctrine Dead Yet Again.

The proposed law has over 100 sponsors, among them Arizona Republican United States Senator and presidential contender John McCain.

Why on earth has this become an issue? And why now? Because the Republicans are as scared as an Arkansas hog on the way to the sausage factory, that's why.

But first let us recap the last week's festivities regarding this always frisky subject.

"Three salutes to Mike Pence from Indiana," crowed Rush Limbaugh on his Friday, June 29th radio program. "He basically proposed an amendment to disallow federal funds to be used to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, and it won big, 319 to 100-something. When the rubber met the road, the Democrats did not have the guts to vote for this. It wasn't even close."

Mike Pence

But former talk show host now Representative Pence has gone even further. With support from his ally in the Senate, John McCain of Arizona, the two Republicans say they will sponsor the "Broadcaster Freedom Act" in their respective legislative chambers. Senators Norm Coleman (R) of Minnesota, John Thune (R) of South Dakota, and Jim DeMint (R) of South Carolina also favor the measure.

"The legislation would prevent the Federal Communications Commission from reinstating the ‘Fairness Doctrine'," McCain declares on his senate Web site, "a regulation that had required broadcasters to present opposing viewpoints on issues of public importance."