FCC Hearing for Kansas City

Petition for a Federal Communications Commission Hearing
to be Held in Kansas City

To: Senator Christopher Bond, (R) MO
Senator Claire McCaskill, (D) MO
Senator Pat Robers, (R) KS
Senator Sam Brownback (R) KS
Representative Ike Skelton, (D) 4th District, MO
Representative Emanuel Cleaver III, (D) 5th District, MO
Representative Dennis Moore, (D) 3rd District, KS
Representative Nancy Boyda, (D) 2nd District, KS

We, the undersigned do hereby petition members of the Kansas City area U.S. congressional delegation to write the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission to request an FCC hearing or hearings be held in the Kansas City area so that the concerns of Missourians and Kansans regarding consolidation of major media ownership can be heard from before new media ownership rules are adopted.

Background:

In June 2003 the FCC issued rules that would have significantly loosened media ownership caps. Despite a near total media blackout leading up to that FCC action, over three million citizens from across the politcal spectrum contacted Congress and the FCC in opposition to the rules overhaul, and several citizen groups filed suit against it. In 2004 a Federal Court decision remanded significant portions of the overhaul back to the FCC for additional justification or modification. In a nutshell, the rules changes were put on hold, and the FCC was told to go back to the drawing board and restart the entire rulemaking process.

In the wake of this, FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin has promised to "hold public hearings in diverse locations around the country to fully involve the American people" in the FCC's review of media ownership rules. Hearings have been held in Los Angeles, CA, Nashville, TN, and Harrisburg, PA, and a hearing in Tampa, FL will be the fourth of "half a dozen" proposed hearings.

Besides cross ownership of multiple major media outlets in any given market, FCC public hearings, according to the FCC website, address many media issues including localism, competition, diversity, minority ownership, music, indecency and childrens and family-friendly programming relating to the internet, radio, television and newspapers.

If Chairman Martin really means what he says about fully involving the American people, then citizens from the Kansas City area must be heard from. Our position in the geographical center of the of the United States the Heart of America uniquely positions us as an important location for a hearing. We straddle two states and represent important urban, suburban and rural interests as well as diverse minority interests.

We have been informed by the FCC that the best way to accomplish this is for our congressional delegation to write FCC Chairman Martin asking that an official FCC hearing be held in the Kansas City area. Therefore, we the undersigned hereby petition the Senators and Representatives representing the Kansas City area to make such a request.