• by John Gaffney , April 3, 2003

April Come She Will: And after that May and June. I have to give props to FCC commissioner Michael Powell for promising to deliver the FCC decision on media ownership sometime in early June. Actually June 2 is the date we're talking about, but remember, this is DC time, we're working on. You may remember the FCC. The are the commission working on the rules changes that may just may stand the media world on its head by dropping all the chains that bind media companies from owning pretty much anything they want in any market they want. I thought Powell would disregard the conflict in Iraq and speed the debate on media ownership. But now the final debate will happen in mid-May when the public will be able to judge what the independent existence of each news source has been able to accomplish. Example: I think the myriad of different sources reporting from Iraq each brought something to the coverage. The Iraq coverage would have suffered if TimeWarner (for example) would have had the power to own so many other outlets that it would have dominated coverage. So those who oppose the loosening of media ownership rules, as I do, can make a better case in June.

Flakback: I took a lot of heat over the past weeks for suggesting that advertisers run ads that support troops or even send a patriotic message rather than run no advertising at all during this time of conflict . Now, the WSJ reports, Coldwell Banker and Lowe's will "launch high-profile patriotic ad efforts." See. I'm not that far beyond pale.

At The Buzzer: Peter Arnett. Geraldo Rivera. Couple of guys from Al Jazeera even. I say all of these reporters that were bounced from Iraq make a movie. Or at least start a cable news channel.