Feb 10, 2005 -- Statement of Meredith McGehee on FCC's Must-Carry Vote

This morning, the Federal Communications Commission put the cart before the horse in voting on multicasting must-carry rights for broadcasters.

The agency missed a golden opportunity to address the public interest obligations of digital broadcasters. Indeed, there has been a Notice of Inquiry into this subject outstanding at the FCC for more than five years. Until the Commission acts to implement meaningful public interest standards for broadcasters, there is no compelling case to be made either for or against multicasting must-carry.

As the FCC moves forward to consider two important items -- the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking dealing with disclosure and the five-year-old NOI on the public interest obligations of digital broadcasters -- and as Congress considers legislation on the digital television transition, the public interest must be at the forefront of any debate. Otherwise, we are left simply with competition between commercial interests, and any notion of service to the American people will again be overlooked.

Meredith McGehee is Director of the Campaign Legal Center's Media Policy Program.