Should newspapers own TV stations?

There is a new sheriff in town at the FCC - Chairman Kevin Martin - and he has a new approach to relaxing the cross-ownership rules for newspapers and television stations.

After the FCC tried and failed four years ago to eliminate the cross-ownership prohibition in all but the nation's smallest cities, Martin is offering a compromise in which newspapers in the 20 largest media markets (Baltimore is not one of them; Washington is) could buy one radio or TV station in their cities as long as the station was not one of the four most-watched or listened to in the market.

So far, according to The Washington Post, no one besides Martin seems to like the idea. Newspaper publishers (including Tribune Co., owner of The Sun) say it doesn't go far enough and anti-media consolidation folk say this is a big step in the wrong direction.

What do you think? Should newspapers own TV stations, or with the growth of the Internet and cable television, does it even matter any more?

-TOM LINTHICUM, Executive Editor