The Political Whore

The FCC has announced the panelists for the Monday public hearing on media ownership in Tampa, and there are a few intriguing names. Former Fox 13 investigative reporter Steve Wilson is on one panel, along with Media General broadcast news division VP Dan Bradley and ABC Action News’ GM Bill Carey. A second panel will examine diversity in the market and features a broad range of minority media owners and practitioners.

Wilson and his wife, Jane Akre, were fired from Fox 13 after the station refused to run an investigative piece they reported on growth hormones used on cattle. They sued the station to mixed results, and CL’s John Sugg has detailed in numerous articles the pair’s status as left-media cause celebre’s and the story behind their court battle, including how the pair have raised money for their legal funds while buying a $1.4 million home in north Florida. (Wilson has taken exception to Sugg’s reporting.)

For more on the FCC hearing, check out my cover story here.

Here is the revised FCC agenda:

4:00 p.m. Welcome/Opening Remarks

4:30 p.m. Panel Discussion 1: Market Overview / Tampa, Florida Case Study
Dan Bradley, Media General Vice President of News for Broadcast
Bill Carey, General Manager of WFTS-TV and Incoming President of the Florida Association of Broadcasters
Robert Dardenne, Associate Professor in Journalism and Media Studies at Univ. of South Florida-St. Petersburg
Steve Erlanger, President, Hometown News
Ronald Gordon, President of ZGS Broadcast Holdings
Jim Johnson, Publisher of State of Sunshine, a political blog covering the state of Florida
Eric Klinenberg, Associate Professor of Sociology at New York University
Patrick Manteiga, Editor and Publisher of La Gaceta
Pat Roberts, President of the Florida Association of Broadcasters
Art Rowbotham, President of Hall Communications
Steve Wilson, Investigative Journalist

5:30 p.m. Public Comments

7:30 p.m. Break

8:00 p.m. Panel Discussion 2: Perspectives on Media Ownership
Gerardo Reyes-Chavez, Coalition of Immokalee Workers
Glenn Cherry, President/CEO and Chairman of the Board of Tama Broadcasting
Roswell Clarke, Director of Technical Operations and System Admin., Cox Radio-Tampa
Bob D’Andrea, President of the Christian Television Network
Dr. Karen Brown Dunlap, President of The Poynter Institute
Bob Gremillion, President, CEO and Publisher of the South Florida Sentinel
Carol Jenkins, President of The Women’s Media Center
Larry Lee, Jr., Owner of WFLM-FM/WIRA(AM), Port St. Lucie, Florida
Luis Lopez, Director of Public Relations, Hispanic Alliance of Tampa Bay
Carlina Rodriguez, Director of Organizing Spanish Language, Screen Actors Guild of America
Sam Rosenwasser, President and General Manager of WTSP(TV)
Rich Templin, Communications Director, Florida AFL-CIO

9:00 p.m. Public Comments

11:00 p.m. Wrap-Up/Adjournment

The moderator will be Louis Sigalos, Chief of the Consumer Affairs & Outreach Division, Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau, FCC

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