JOINT STATEMENT OF 
COMMISSIONER MICHAEL J. COPPS AND COMMISSIONER JONATHAN A. ADELSTEIN 
APPROVING IN PART, DISSENTING IN PART
Re:  2006 Quadrennial Review & 2002 Biennial Regulatory Review – Review of the Commission’s 
Broadcast Ownership Rules and Other Rules Adopted Pursuant to Section 202 of the Telecommunications 
Act of 1996, Cross-Ownership of Broadcast Stations and Newspapers, Rules and Policies Concerning 
Multiple Ownership of Radio Broadcast Stations in Local Markets Definitions of Radio Markets, Ways to 
Further Section 257 Mandate and to Build on Earlier Studies, Second Further Notice of Proposed Rule 
Making
Yesterday, the Commission provided the public only 60 days to comment on ten research studies 
that took dozens of economists and lawyers over eight months to prepare.  Today – August 1st, after 11 
months of inaction, the majority is providing the same truncated time for public comment on proposals 
that it neglected to discuss last year, at the beginning of our review of the media ownership rules.  
In Prometheus, the Third Circuit took the Commission seriously to task for failing to consider the 
impact of potential rule changes on minority media ownership.  The Court also faulted the Commission 
for sidelining MMTC’s proposals for advancing minority and disadvantaged businesses and directed that 
“[t]he Commission’s rulemaking process in response to our remand order should address these proposals 
at the same time.”1  Yet, in its July 2006 Further Notice, the Commission could only muster up a few pat 
questions on this vital subject.  On August 23, 2006, the Diversity and Competition Supporters –
representing a broad array of minority and women’s organizations – rightly asked the Commission to seek 
further comment on the specific proposals.  There the matter has sat, until today.  
We dissent to the inadequate time given for public comment.  After mulling this over for almost 
one year, the Commission is all of a sudden in a hurry and it is the public that gets punished.  Giving the 
American people only 60 days to comment on dozens of proposals is outrageous.  Not only is it 
disturbingly consistent with yesterday’s action, it is also eerily reminiscent of former Chairman Michael 
Powell’s rush to judgment four years ago when he rammed through consolidation that would have, had it 
not been subsequently reversed, inflicted incalculable injury on America’s media.  
Now a new agenda seems to be brewing here.  And whatever’s being cooked up, the public is not 
being given sufficient time to take a close look.  Maybe someone’s worried that, once again, the public 
will spit it out.
 
  
1 Prometheus Radio Project v. FCC, 373 F.3d 372, 421 n.59 (3d Cir. 2004).