| Candidate |
Cable |
Children's Television |
Fairness Doctrine |
Indecency |
Net Neutrality |
Spectrum Auctions |
Media Ownership |
| Joseph Biden (U.S. Senate, Delaware) |
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Biden has said he is relucant to write net neutrality rules into law until he sees real discrimination by big broadband incumbents (AT&T) against ISPs. |
Supports November 8, 2007 bill to require FCC to post a 60 day public comment period on any proposal to modify its newspaper/TV cross ownership rule. |
| Sam Brownback (U.S. Senate, Kansas) |
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Participates in an
FCC task force on the impact of television on child obesity. |
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Sponsored the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act, which boosted broadcast indecency fines by a factor of ten, to $325,000 a fine. Plans to introduce an amendment to the Senate that will permit the FCC to crack down on "fleeting expletives."
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Has opposed the Internet Freedom Preservation Act, which would add net neutrality regulations to federal law. |
| Hillary Clinton (U.S. Senate, New York) |
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Supports net neutrality. Co-sponsor of the Internet Freedom Preservation Act. |
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Supports November 8, 2007 bill to require FCC to post a 60 day public comment period on any proposal to modify its newspaper/TV cross ownership rule. |
| Christopher Dodd (U.S. Senate, Connecticuit) |
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Supports net neutrality. Co-sponsor of the Net Neutrality Act. |
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Supports November 8, 2007 bill to require FCC to post a 60 day public comment period
on any proposal to modify its newspaper/TV cross ownership rule. |
| John Edwards (former U.S. Senator, North Carolina) |
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Has called on the Federal Communications Commission to set spectrum auction rules "that ensure that the airwaves benefit everyone, not just big companies." |
| Dennis Kucinich (House of Representatives, Ohio) |
Kucinich voted against the Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006 (COPE), which would have created a national cable franchise process for pay-television; it also included some mild net neutrality language that advocates of net neutrality regarded as inadequate. Kucinich voted for a stronger amendment on net neutrality proposed by Edward Markey, which failed. The COPE bill was supported by Republicans and most incumbent cable and phone service providers; it was opposed by many Democrats and community media activists. The proposed law never reached the Senate. |
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Supports the restoration of the policy, which would require broadcasters to strive for balanced coverage of controversial issues, and to offer citizens response time to controversial editorial positions. |
Voted against the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act. |
Early supporter of net neutrality. Voted against the Internet Freedom and Broadband Deployment Act of 2002, which would have allowed big incumbents to offer broadband without any net neutrality provisions. |
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On media ownership rules, Kucinich says that "We should place new caps on media ownership and ban the granting of exceptions to those caps. We should limit the number of media outlets one corporation can own in a given medium, such as radio, print, or television. We should strictly prohibit cross-ownership and vertical integration." |
| John McCain (U.S. Senate, Arizona) |
Has long supported FCC Chair Kevin Martin's "a la carte" position that consumers should be able to pick and choose which cable channels they buy, without having to purchase a huge package of channels. |
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McCain opposes the Fairness Doctrine. On June 29th he announced that he would submit the "Broadcaster Freedom Act" to the Senate.
"The legislation would prevent the Federal Communications Commission from reinstating the 'Fairness Doctrine'," his press release stated, "a regulation that had required broadcasters to present opposing viewpoints on issues of public importance."
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Co-sponsored the Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act. |
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Supports proposal to reserve an "E-Block" area of the spectrum for wholesale licensing for public safety broadband providers.
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| Barack Obama (United State Senate, Illinois) | |
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Supports net neutrality. |
"I believe the FCC media-ownership rules remain necessary and are critical to the public interest," Obama tells audience at September 20th, 2007 FCC media ownership hearing in Chicago. "We should be doing more to encourage diversity in ownership in broadcast media, promote the development of new media outlets and the expression of diverse viewpoints." The candidate also warns FCC not to issue new rules without getting public feedback first.
Supports November 8, 2007 bill to require FCC to post a 60 day public comment period on any proposal to modify its newspaper/TV cross ownership rule. |
| Mitt Romney (Former governor of Massachusetts) | |
| Candidate |
Cable |
Children's Television |
Fairness Doctrine |
Indecency |
Net Neutrality |
Spectrum Auctions |
Media ownership |
