Sanity may yet prevail

Senators from both parties have promised to act against any FCC move to lift the long-standing cross-ownership ban, just as they did in 2003. Byron Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota, and Trent Lott, a Republican from Mississippi, said last week they would provide the same sort of bi-partisan opposition they did four years ago to allowing a newspaper owner to also hold a licence for a television station in the same city.

The two senators said they were studying several ideas for derailing the FCC's expected decision in December, including a rarely used mechanism called a "resolution of disapproval," which would require passage in both the Senate and the House. Dorgan said there was "massive support" for such a move among Democratic senators, who control the chamber. Lott was less sure about Republicans backing such an effort.

The threat to block any such FCC move makes it unlikely it will lift the cross-ownerswhip ban in the dying months of the Bush administration.