IP Democracy: Broadcast Lobbyist at Heart of McCain Controversy

The 3,000-word devastating and deadly knife that the New York Times threw at Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain tonight centers on McCain's "inappropriate" relationship with Vicki Iseman, a lobbyist for various TV and radio broadcasting companies who is 30 years McCain's junior. The Times and other publications say Iseman is a telcommunications industry lobbyist, but a look at her client list shows that most of the companies she represents are broadcast station owners and broadcast networks, such as AMFM Inc., Capstar Broadcasting, Hispanic Broadcasting Inc. and ION Media Networks.

ION (formerly Paxson Communications) is particularly important because the article has several somewhat disjointed passages depicting McCain and Iseman flying around on ION's corporate jet. I say disjointed because it is very clear that the bylined reporters (Jim Rutenberg, Marilyn Thompson, David Kirkpatrick and Stephen Labaton) were leaving out even juicier, more damaging stuff. Or the piece was edited by a team of overly cautious attorneys, which could be the case since McCain apparently tried to spike the story last December.

As former Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, McCain was actively involved in matters that affected Iseman's clients. The NYT cites letters that McCain sent to the FCC in 1998 and 1999 advocating same market ownership of two TV stations, an issue seemingly important to many of Iseman's clients, although the article mentions Glencairn Ltd. in particular. Glencairn is now called Cunningham and was once closely aligned with Sinclair Broadcasting.

The story between Glencairn and Sinclair was an ugly one, and I didn't follow it, although it seemed that Glencairn was being used as a front man for Sinclair to dodge the now-defunct one-to-a-market TV station ownership requirements. Sinclair was fined $40,000 in 2001 by the FCC for illegally controlling Glencairn.

McCain also introduced legislation to create tax incentives for minority ownership of stations. Iseman represented a number of minority broadcasting companies, including Telemundo and Hispanic Broadcasting. Something tells me that many of the things left unsaid in this article relate to McCain's stewardship of the Commerce Committee and to media and broadcasting regulation in particular.

Update: The Paxson angle to the story is getting more and more play. McCain sent two letters to the FCC dealing with Paxson's efforts and application to buy a Pittsburgh TV station. The second letter asked the FCC to meet a specific decision deadline regarding approval of the complex transaction. McCain requested an explanation from the FCC if it didn't meet the deadline. Democratic FCC Chairman Bill Kennard decried McCain's pressure, saying "

It is highly unusual for the commissioners to be asked to publicly announce their voting status on a matter that is still pending." He said such inquiries "could have procedural and substantive impacts on the Commission's deliberations and, thus, on the due process rights of the parties."

Update: McCain's staff has released information on his involvement with Paxson, Glencairn and the minority media tax incentives, which the campaign said it provided to the New York Times. McCain offers a lot of timelines regarding his or his staff's contact with the relevant companies.

The bottom-line is that McCain contends he did nothing wrong on behalf of Iseman's companies but was merely advocating appropriate policy on media-related matters. For example, McCain said that he sent the letter to Kennard urging that the license transfer be completed because the FCC was letting the transfer application approval process drag on for 800 days, twice the delay that license transfers usually experienced, and that several other legislators were interested in the proceeding.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on February 21, 2008 12:39 AM to IP Democracy