Court Asks FCC to Defend Media Ownership Rule Stay

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has given the Federal Communications Commission and backers of its position three weeks to explain why the court should not lift the years-long stay on the FCC's media ownership rule rewrite and start hearing the legal challenges. The judges want more input on why the court should not lift the stay on the revised newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule and set a schedule for briefs on court challenges to that rule -- both those currently before the court and those held in abeyance. In particular, they said, "the parties are directed to address the Media Parties' argument in their status report that, despite proceedings over the last several years repealing the 1975 Ban [on newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership] that ban remains in effect. The parties shall file responses to this order to show cause within twenty-one days of the date of this order."