• The Independent Weekly, Thursday, July 13, 2006 12:15 PM

Three years ago, the Federal Communications Commission set out to deregulate media ownership, only to meet the protests of 3 million people, notes North Carolina's The Independent Weekly. Then, a federal court stopped the FCC in its tracks, just as Congress was voting to halt its new rules. Now, the FCC has announced a review of the ownership rules limiting the number of broadcast outlets a single company can own. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is from the Tarheel State and is part of a Republican majority on the commission. "But what you really need to know about Martin is summed up in a picture in Details magazine this month," the newspaper reports. "Accompanying a story about 'mavericks who are secretly controlling your life' is a posed photo of Martin on an unmade hotel bed beside a media executive and an industry lobbyist." The Weekly notes that groups from across the political spectrum are again uniting to fight the new rules.

Read the whole story at The Independent Weekly »