Following yesterday's report that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is hoping to vote on changes to the media ownership rules as soon as December 18, Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Trent Lott (R-MS) have written a letter asking Martin to slow down.

In the letter, the senators write that they "do not believe the Commission has adequately studied the impact of media consolidation on local programming" in relation to any potential changes to the ownership rules. They added that "the FCC should not rush forward and repeat mistakes of the past" and asked that Martin "slow down and proceed with caution, maintaining the public interest goals of localism, diversity and competition as top priorities."

FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein asked at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing, "I'm not sure why the focus is on that date [instead of the impact of the rule changes]...I think there are a lot of issues we need to get done before we wrap this up."

An FCC spokesperson told Bloomberg, "This process was begun 18 months ago and has included more hearings, more independent studies, longer and more comment periods, and more input from the public than any other commission proceeding."

As reported yesterday, Martin hopes to allow for public comments on changes to the ownership rules through October and November, with a vote from the FCC on December 18.