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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Federal Communications Commission media-ownership proposal is a "a huge mistake" and voting on it next week would be premature, the agency's two Democratic commissioners said in statement released on Wednesday. Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein said in a strongly worded statement that there needs to be more public input "rather than the callous disregard exhibited thus far" and called the proposal a "mish-mash of half-baked ideas." On Tuesday, the FCC released its agenda for its Dec. 18 meeting that includes Chairman Kevin Martin's proposal to relax the cross-media ownership rule for the top 20 U.S. media markets. Martin is expected to get the support of the agency's two Republicans. He got the wrath of two Democrats in the statement. At issue is what the Democrats say is a loophole in Martin's proposal that would allow one company to own both a newspaper and a radio or television station in any size market. Martin denied its existence during a House hearing last week, but said he could work with the Democrats to change the wording of his proposal. Adelstein and Coops said they've tried to negotiate internally, with little success. "At this point, given the lateness of the hour, we hope that either we can turn this around internally, or that Congress can save the FCC from itself," the statement said.
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