Rep. Janice Schakowsky (D-Ill.) is the latest Democrat to
ask FCC chairman Julius Genachowski to back off a vote on his media ownership
item.
In a letter dated Tuesday, Dec. 4, Schakowsky, who triedto block then-FCC chairman Kevin Martin's vote on a similar proposal in 2007,
asked the chairman to rethink his draft proposal, which has been circulated to
the other commissioners for a vote.
Schakowsky said she is concerned that the FCC has not
sufficiently taken the Third Circuit's instruction to consider the impact of
new rules on women and minorities. "I do not believe the draft order will
improve the quality of American media," she wrote, "and I am concerned
that it will threaten the diversity of news."
But if he does decide to hold the vote, she said, it should
be in a public meeting after the public had more time to weigh in.
The chairman has already effectively delayed the vote by at
least a month by granting Commissioner Mignon Clyburn's request for 30 more
days comment on the associated state of media ownership (form 323) study.
