FCC commissioner asks Catholics to keep tabs on 'big media'

Published: 2003-10-20

ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- Commissioner Michael Copps, a Democrat who serves on the Federal Communications Commission, urged Catholic media professionals to hold what he called "big media" accountable for lack of diversity on the airwaves. "Catholics around this country need to be participating in the resolution of the great communications issues before the Congress and before the FCC," said Copps, a Catholic. He cited localism, concentration of media ownership, diversity and indecency as being among those issues. "Now is not the time to slow down. Big media isn't," Copps said in an Oct. 15 address to the Catholic Academy of Communication Arts Professionals meeting in St. Louis. "This is the best chance this country will have, for years, to do something about concentration and to make sure the public's airwaves serve the public interest." Copps was in the minority when the FCC voted in June to permit greater media concentration. However, the House and the Senate have passed separate bills that could scuttle the FCC's media deregulation plans.

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