The House Judiciary Committee is getting in on the broadcast oversight fun tomorrow. However, its planned Antitrust Panel session on minority media ownership has been postponed by order of the Chairman. It was to feature HDTV anchor and former CBS newsman Dan Rather, as well asRadio One personality Joe Madison and a quartet of watchdogs. They include Minority Media and Telecommunications Council’s David Honig; Carol Jenkins of the Women’s Media Center; Adam Thierer from the Center for Digital Media Freedom; and S. Derek Turner of Free Press. No word if or when the hearing will return to the schedule.
RBR/TVBR observation: Rather is somewhat of a surprising choice for a panel such as this. He has an axe to grind with his former employers at CBS, but that would seem to be a different issue for a different panel. Honig is a more natural selection, in fact THE natural selection. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has indicated that many of the minority ownership initiatives the FCC is considering come directly from Honig’s MMTC.
