The FCC should take more care in reviewing applications for TV li...
The FCC should take more care in reviewing applications for TV license renewal, media activists told Chmn. Martin and Media Bureau chief Donna Gregg. In a letter also sent to 3 FCC commissioners, the activists challenged Gregg’s Dec. suggestion…
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that the Commission streamline processing of renewal applications (CD Dec 15 p13). “The current renewal process should be reformed, not made worse,” wrote ex-Comr. Gloria Tristani of the United Church of Christ, Charles Benton and Campaign Legal Center Policy Dir. Meredith McGehee. They cited complaints about lack of local news coverage. Late last year Media Access Project sought to block renewal filings by 20 stations, including major Milwaukee and Chicago stations, over their volume of state and local political news (CD Nov 2 p5). The Media Bureau and an FCC spokesman had no comment. The FCC should give greater scrutiny to stations when reviewing renewal requests submitted every 8 years, said Tristani. “The concern is that the process has become pro forma and perfunctory…and if anything, the process needs to be strengthened,” she said. “You can’t do that quickly and by further streamlining a process that is already bare-boned.”