TV License Wars - Episode Two: CMA Strikes Back

Posted by Mitchell - January 23, 2006 (entry 399)

The license challenge that CMA filed in November 2005 was just one in a series of steps involved in the process of challenging a TV station license (or, in our case, nine such licenses).

After about 20 days (or longer, in our case), the stations have a chance to respond to the challenge. This is where the stations' public interest committments and well-reasoned arguments get to shine. Or, in the case of U.S. TV stations, it's the very-high-paid legal equivalent of a temper tantrum.

By law, the stations have to copy us in on the response to the challenges. Some stations addressed both CMA's license and the challenge that was filed by Third Coast Press with the same simultaneous response. The aggregate response to both petitions made for a lot of dead trees (about some 800 pages of aggregate responses).

We'll have to share the aggregate responses someday; it's really illustrative of the rigged game of three-card monte that passes for media policy in the United States. As a taste, we can share this response from WGN filed in response to an informal objection filed by CMA member Steve Macek.

Then we as the challenging party get to counter-respond. CMA completed its counter response last week, and we've got the go-ahead from our legal counsel to post the response. Here then is CMA's response filed before the FCC.

Now, with the counter-response filed, we wait for the FCC to take all the points under consideration and deliver its response. A warning: This is probably going to take a while -- a matter of a few months at best, perhaps much longer.

By the way, there's talk that the final seat on the FCC will be filled by some telecom lawyer (who, ironically enough, lobbies against some of the bigger telecom players). This could prove key in the fights ahead on the question of net neutrality.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed on this website are those of the individual members of Chicago Media Action who authored them, and not necessarily those of the entire membership of Chicago Media Action, nor of Chicago Media Action as an organization.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.