Fewer Voices In Our Communities: The FCC Supports More Media Ownership Consolidation

The current media ownership rules limit any one entity from owning too many of the newspaper, radio, and/or television entities within a local market, in order to ensure viewpoint diversity. These rules are under attack. Broadcasters are spectrum licensees, and without some strong public interest requirements on spectrum licensees, we are at risk of losing local, community-centric information. If the goal of broadcasting is no longer to be public trustees providing local service, then the Federal Communications Commission needs to take some time to seriously reflect on whether broadcasters should continue to have exclusive use of valuable spectrum resources.