Court Rebukes FCC Over Long Delay in Updating US Media-Ownership Rules

A federal appeals court rebuked the Federal Communications Commission over the agency’s yearslong delay in updating its media-ownership rules. In a sharply worded ruling, the Third US Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia threatened to toss out the government’s ownership rules altogether if the FCC doesn’t get its effort on track.

The opinion came in a broad legal challenge by broadcasters and others to the FCC’s handling of media-ownership rules. Throwing out the rules would be “the administrative-law equivalent of burning down the house to roast the pig, and we decline to order it,” said the opinion written by Judge Thomas Ambro. “However, we note that this remedy, while extreme, might be justified in the future if the Commission does not act quickly to carry out its legislative mandate.” The three-judge panel’s ruling is likely to accelerate the FCC’s efforts to update its rules, some of which are 40 years old.