Wheeler Sez FCC Has No Intention of Regulating News

FCC's Tom Wheeler

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has told the chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee that the FCC "has no intention of regulating political or other speech of journalists or broadcasters" via its Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs, but says he is working on changes to the study to address those concerns.

That, according to Broadcasting&Cable, came in a letter to House E&C chair Fred Upton (R-Mich.), in response to a letter from the committee's Republican leadership and members asking the chairman to suspend the study since tit included provisions for "FCC funded agents to question the editorial decisions of journalists, producers, and other news professionals."

They saw that as the FCC putting itself back in the business of controlling political speech, the "back" being a reference to the former Fairness Doctrine requirement that broadcasters seek out opposing viewpoints on issues of importance.

Wheeler indicated that changes would be coming, but that that might change the cost of the study. He also pointed out that the study was launched to fulfill the FCC's statutory mandate to 'identify and eliminate "market entry barriers for entrepreneurs and other small businesses in the provision and ownership of telecommunications services and information services."

The FCC has also been instructed by a federal appeals court to better justify initiatives to promote that diversity.

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