Washington, DC — Common Cause, MoveOn.org and Free Press today condemned the FCC's 3-2 vote in favor of relaxing media ownership rules that favor corporate monopolies at the expense of local news outlets and diversity.

(Washington, DC) — Today, Senators Trent Lott (R-MS) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND) announced new bipartisan opposition to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules that allow further concentration of media ownership. The Senators' announcement comes as the Senate debates a Resolution of Disapproval, sponsored by the pair, which would repeal all of the new FCC rules.

Faced with a national outcry so intense that Congress is moving to reverse his attempt to eliminate controls on media consolidation and monopoly, Federal Communications Commission chair Michael Powell's new localism initiative is an eleventh hour attempt to avoid a Congressional rollback of his recent media ownership rule changes.<BR>

Common Cause and Free Press, two groups that have worked together in recent months to make an issue of the impact of media ownership decisions on American democracy, applaud today's actions of the Senate Commerce Committee in approving bipartisan legislation that will roll back the Federal Communications Commission's June 2 vote that relaxed media ownership rules.<BR><BR>"The Commerce Committee's

Today the House overwhelmingly passed the Commerce Justice State appropriations bill. This represents a tremendous victory for the broad coalition working for a roll back of the FCC media ownership rule changes.