Union leaders praised the Senate's 50-45 vote to dump media concentration rules approved earlier in 2003 by the Bush-dominated Federal Communications Commission.
But the fight isn't over yet.
The Senate's Sept. 16 decision was bipartisan, with several conservative Republicans, such as Trent Lott (Miss.) and Wayne Allard (Colo.), joining Democratic sponsor Byron Dorgan (N.D.).
Earlier this year, the House dumped just one of the media concentration rules--though by a 400-21 margin. But the Senate vote showed Bush's backers have enough support to uphold a veto.
Still, the vote cheered Linda Foley, The Newspaper Guild's president and a leader in the fight against the media rules.
"FCC Chairman Michael Powell chose to ignore the wishes of hundreds of thousands of citizens," Foley said in a statement. "The Senate listened. FCC's deregulation of media is bad for democracy. Today, democracy rose up to let the people be heard."
She also said the vote sent a signal to the conglomerates themselves, that citizens "are not about to abandon democratic ideals and public discourse for corporate gains."
The FCC rules would let big media conglomerates--including AOL-Time Warner and the right-wing network Fox--own newspapers and TV stations in the same metro market, reducing access for and coverage of workers. FCC would also let the networks own TV stations reaching 45 percent of U.S. households.
"This was one of the most complete cave-ins to corporate interests I've ever seen by what is supposed to be a federal reg-ulatory agency," Dorgan said. "It is clear the public agrees."
TNG and its parent union, the Communications Workers, led the fight against the rules, because conglomerate control of the media would shut labor off the airwaves.
CWA President Morton Bahr told the FCC before its June 30 decision that conglomerate-owned stations deliberately refused to accept advertising from unions, but not from the businesses, in labor-management disputes in Atlanta, Cleveland and elsewhere.
Thousands of protests flooded the FCC before its ruling and more than 400,000 hit the Senate before the vote, said Dorgan. Among them: 300,000 postcards from National Rifle Association members and 100,000 letters from Consumers Union members.
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Union leaders praised the Senate’s 50-45 vote to dump media concentration rules approved earlier in 2003 by the Bush-dominated Federal Communications Commission.
But the fight isn’t over yet.
The Senate’s Sept. 16 decision was bipartisan, with several conservative Republicans, such as Trent Lott (Miss.) and Wayne Allard (Colo.), joining Democratic sponsor Byron Dorgan (N.D.).
Earlier this year, the House dumped just one of the media concentration rules–though by a 400-21 margin. But the Senate vote showed Bush’s backers have enough support to uphold a veto.
Still, the vote cheered Linda Foley, The Newspaper Guild’s president and a leader in the fight against the media rules.
“FCC Chairman Michael Powell chose to ignore the wishes of hundreds of thousands of citizens,” Foley said in a statement. “The Senate listened. FCC’s deregulation of media is bad for democracy. Today, democracy rose up to let the people be heard.”
She also said the vote sent a signal to the conglomerates themselves, that citizens “are not about to abandon democratic ideals and public discourse for corporate gains.”
The FCC rules would let big media conglomerates–including AOL-Time Warner and the right-wing network Fox–own newspapers and TV stations in the same metro market, reducing access for and coverage of workers. FCC would also let the networks own TV stations reaching 45 percent of U.S. households.
“This was one of the most complete cave-ins to corporate interests I’ve ever seen by what is supposed to be a federal reg-ulatory agency,” Dorgan said. “It is clear the public agrees.”
TNG and its parent union, the Communications Workers, led the fight against the rules, because conglomerate control of the media would shut labor off the airwaves.
CWA President Morton Bahr told the FCC before its June 30 decision that conglomerate-owned stations deliberately refused to accept advertising from unions, but not from the businesses, in labor-management disputes in Atlanta, Cleveland and elsewhere.
Thousands of protests flooded the FCC before its ruling and more than 400,000 hit the Senate before the vote, said Dorgan. Among them: 300,000 postcards from National Rifle Association members and 100,000 letters from Consumers Union members.