FCC Asks Court To Keep Stay on Newspaper-Broadcast Crossownership Rule Change

The Federal Communications Commission has asked the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to keep the court's current stay of the FCC's newspaper-broadcast crossownership rule change in place for a while. In a status report filed with the court, the commission reaffirmed that its 2008 decision to loosen the ban no longer necessarily reflected the views of a majority of the commission (the 2008 was a Republican majority, the current majority is Democratic). The commission back in May, when it was a different, though still Democratic majority, had made that point to the court in asking that the stay be kept in place. The court complied, but asked for an Oct. 1 status report on the FCC's progress on the issue.