Free Press Threatens Suit If FCC Proceeds With Ownership Vote

Craig Aaron, president of Free Press, said that his group will sue the Federal Communications Commission once again if the commissioners vote to approve a media ownership rule order without completing court-ordered diversity studies.

"If they don't follow the court instructions and do the studies they were supposed to do before moving forward, and if they move forward without public input, then I believe we will have no choice but to take them to court again.” Free Press was among those suing the Kevin Martin-led FCC when it attempted similar changes in 2007. Aaron’s comments came in a press conference held by a number of groups opposed to a draft order circulated by FCC chairman Julius Genachowski that would loosen the newspaper/TV cross-ownership rules, lift limits on newspaper/radio cross-ownership and allow radio/TV cross-ownership, while counting some joint sales agreements toward local ownership caps that are being left in place. Those groups did not go as far as to commit to a suit as well, but said they had "grave" concerns.

On the conference call with reporters, Wade Henderson, president and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, led some harsh criticisms of the commission, suggesting that it was allowing conglomerates to gobble up outlets and homogenize programming. He argued the FCC proposal would continue to keep licenses out of the hands of diverse owners.