Broadcasters Weigh In on FCC's 2007 Media Ownership Rule Revision

Broadcasters and media consolidation opponents weighed in Monday (May 17) with an earful for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on the FCC's 2007 media ownership rule revise.

Both sides could agree on one thing: the FCC's decision was arbitrary, capricious and essentially unjustifiable. Monday was the deadline for briefs in that court's hearing of challenges to the FCC's 2007 decision, under Chairman Kevin Martin, only to loosen the ban on newspaper-broadcast crossownership rather than adopt any other deregulatory proposals from the 2003 FCC deregulatory ownership rule rewrite under then-Chairman Michael Powell. Broadcasters and newspaper owners challenged the decision as not going far enough to deregulate hurting industries, while media consolidation foes argued that even loosening the ban was one deregulatory step too many in an already consolidated marketplace. "This court cannot uphold the commission's failure to meaningfully review its outdated broadcast ownership restrictions," said the National Association of Broadcasters in summing up its argument for getting rid of the crossownership rule, as well as caps on local radio and TV station ownership.