Free Press, Others Ask FCC To Deny Some Gannett/Belo Transfers

Free Press, NABET-CWA, The Newspaper Guild-CWA, National Hispanic Media Coalition, Common Cause, and Office of Communication, Inc., of the United Church of Christ don't want the Federal Communications Commission to approve Gannett's plan to spin off some stations as part of its $2.2 billion purchase of Belo's TV stations.

The groups cited stations in five markets -- Phoenix; Louisville; Tucson; Portland (OR); and St. Louis --that would violate the FCC's newspaper/broadcast crossownership and local ownership cap rules if Gannett were not turning around and selling them to operating companies headed by former Belo group chief Jack Sander, and Ben Tucker, former head of the Fisher station group. The petitioners call those third-party "shell" companies that mask the "true intent" of the deal, which they say is to allow Gannett "to simultaneously influence and control multiple media outlet in the same local market in a way that is contrary to the public interest and otherwise prohibited by the Commission's rules....Even if they do not outright violate the rules, such sharing arrangements are not in the public interest because they reduce the diversity of viewpoints and reduce competition in the provision of local news and the sale of advertising." They want the FCC to deny those transfers, or at least designate them for hearing.