Rep Waters Wants Tribune Transfers Put Out For Comment

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) wants the Federal Communications Commission to put Tribune's station license transfers and attendant waiver requests out for public comment, and says she will introduce a bill, the FCC Waiver Accountability Act of 2012, that would make that required procedure for all such transfers.

Rep Waters, in a letter to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, said she thought the FCC had not sufficiently monitored the public interest obligations of broadcast license holders when the licenses are held by hedge funds and venture capitalists in bankruptcy proceedings. She also said that the FCC has never made it clear to the public when one a transfer it is considering includes a waiver of this rules. "The practice does not promote transparency," she said. Specifically, she said she was troubled by the recent retrans dispute between DirecTV and Tribune -- since resolved -- in which DirecTV alleged that Tribune creditors -- it is in the midst of protracted bankruptcy proceedings -- had blocked a deal that would have resolved the impasse earlier. The impasse led to blackouts in California (LA) and New York.