Congressmen Blast FCC Religious Broadcasters Ruling
By Justin Torres
CNS Senior Staff Writer
07 January, 2000
conservativenews.org\Religion\archive\REL20000107a.html
In response to an exclusive story from CNSNews.com, four Republican congressmen have sent letters to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Vice President Al Gore demanding that the agency reverse recently promulgated rules limiting religious content on public airwaves.
The letter was cosigned Thursday by Rep. Mike Oxley (R-OH), Rep. Chip Pickering (R-MS), Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL), and Rep. Steve Largent (R-OK).
The new guidelines require broadcasters operating on noncommercial educational licenses to devote at least one-half of their programming hours to topics that serve the "educational, instructional or cultural needs of the community." To qualify, the Commission continued, that programming must not be "primarily devoted to religious exhortation, proselytizing, or statements of personally-held religious views and beliefs."
The decision, released December 29, 1999, came in licensing swap case between PBS station WQED in Pittsburgh, Penn., and religious broadcaster Cornerstone TeleVision's WPCB in Greensburg, Penn.
In his letter to FCC Chairman William E. Kennard, the congressmen said that the agency "had no business - no business whatsoever - singling out religious programming for special scrutiny" and called the new guidelines "an unconstitutional restriction on religious speech."
Oxley added, "We assure you that we would have commented on this application if we had known that the Commission were considering anything so outrageous." Two FCC commissioners, in a dissenting opinion, had criticized the agency for enacting broad changes to broadcasting regulations without holding public hearings.
In their letter to Vice President Al Gore, the congressmen called on Gore, "as the Clinton administration's most visible telecommunications policy maker, to weigh in with the commission in defense of religious broadcasters."
Oxley's spokesperson, Peggy Peterson, told CNSNews.com that the Ohio Republican decided to write the letters because he felt "that the FCC has just gone too far in setting these sorts of rules." |
