Michael Powell Stepping Down As Chairman Of The FCC

WASHINGTON (AP) Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael K. Powell plans to step down, an agency official said Friday.

Powell, who maintained a light regulatory hand as the nation's chief media watchdog but collected some of the largest indecency fines against U.S. broadcasters, plans to issue a statement but was not expected to hold a formal news conference, this official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Powell, the son of departing Secretary of State Colin Powell, does not plan to immediately step down, said the official. However, he will leave soon.

Powell privately informed some industry officials earlier this week that he planned to make the announcement, according to one industry source who met with Powell. This person also spoke on condition of anonymity out of respect for the timing of Powell's announcement.

Powell, a champion of deregulation who critics say is too pro-big business, rose from commissioner to chairman when President Bush took office in 2001. His term was to run until 2007.In a 2003 interview, he pledged to stay on until the end of Bush's first term. However, after Bush's re-election, it was widely assumed he would leave office early in the second term.

Powell led the Republican-dominated FCC to ease decades-old rules governing ownership of newspapers and television and radio stations. The commission approved changes in 2003 that allow individual companies to own TV stations reaching nearly half the nation's viewers and combinations of newspapers and broadcast outlets in the same community.

Major media companies said the changes were needed because the old regulations hindered their ability to grow and compete in a market altered by cable television, satellite broadcasting and the Internet.

But lawmakers from both parties and a broad range of public interest groups criticized the changes, saying the FCC regulations had given large media companies too much control over what people see, hear and read.

Congress and the courts are considering several efforts to modify or repeal the rules.0