In a move that is hard to interpret as anything but contempt for the public it is supposed to serve, the FCC chose to unveil the details of a much anticipated set of studies on media ownership late on eve of the Thanksgiving holiday.

This is an old Washington trick when bureaucrats and politicians are faced with nettlesome news – release it as late as possible on a Friday or the eve of a holiday when few reporters or other folks who might be interested are still around.

And there are plenty of folks who are plenty interested in this particular set of studies, in no small part due to the FCC’s less-than-forthright and ham-handed handling of its media ownership rules in recent years – particularly when it comes to meaningful input from the public.

In 2003, despite having held only one hearing on the complex issue of media consolidation over a 20-month review period, the FCC in a party-line, 3-2, vote did away with most of its long-standing limits on media concentration. In the largest markets, the new rules would have allowed a single company to own up to three television stations, eight radio stations, the cable television system, cable television stations, and a daily newspaper.

The new rules touched off a firestorm of criticism from the public and were eventually tossed out by a federal court, which chided the agency for failing to justify the looser regulations.

Under pressure from the companies it is supposed to regulate and apparently unchastened by its spanking from the court, the FCC has once again begun the process of loosening its media ownership regulations.

Part of that process is ordering up a new – and supposedly improved – set of studies on various aspects of media ownership. Under normal circumstances, the agency’s announcement of the subject of those studies and who will conduct them late on Thanksgiving Eve would simply be irritating.

But the circumstances are far from normal when it comes to the FCC and the issue of media ownership these days.

In September it was reported that top FCC officials had ordered the destruction of a pair of studies done by FCC employees as part of the earlier media ownership regulation process. The studies reportedly did not jibe with the deregulatory philosophy of then FCC Chairman Michael Powell.

Embarrassed by news reports and congressional criticism about the suppressed studies, current FCC Chairman Kevin Martin very publicly ordered the agency’s inspector general to conduct an investigation. It is still unclear when that investigation will be completed, or whether it will be released to the public.

Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, the two Democrats on the five-member panel, have been frequent critics of their fellow commissioners throughout the media ownership debate. Both Copps and Adelstein blasted the Thanksgiving Eve announcement in statements late Wednesday.

Martin has promised to hold six public hearings on media ownership. The first one, held in Los Angeles in October, featured hundreds of speakers, nearly all of whom were opposed to further relaxation of the media ownership rules.

Martin is already on the record saying he wants to do away with most of the agency’s media ownership rules, a fact that gives the entire public hearing process the stench of simply going through the necessary motions.

The FCC has done very little to earn the public trust from the beginning of its quest to relax the media ownership regulations – and plenty to earn the distrust of the public. The FCC’s too-cute-by-a-mile decision to announce the study details when people were busy stuffing their Thanksgiving turkeys surely doesn’t help.

You can read the FCC announcement about the studies here. You can read the Copps statement here, and the Adelstein statement here.