Prometheus Sues Pai FCC Over Broadcast Deregulation

Prometheus Radio Project has filed suit against the Federal Communications Commission's recent decision to eliminate the newspaper-broadcast crossownership and loosen other broadcast regulations, saying the FCC "ignores evidence in the record, misinterprets evidence, and fails to consider important aspects of the record." Joined by the Media Mobilizing Project, Prometheus wants the court to reverse the decision and require the FCC to "fully comply" with the courts direction in remanding a previous Quadrennial decision after Prometheus challenged it. Prometheus argues that the Pai FCC also failed to respond to the Third Circuit's direction, in remanding a previous attempt to deregulate, that it get better data on ownership diversity before deregulating. The recent FCC decision under Pai did also initiate a rulemaking on creating a diversity incubator program and to consider the definition of eligible entity, but that did not cut it with Prometheus. "The Commission's Reconsideration Order once again fails to satisfy this Court's remands in either Prometheus II or III," it said in seeking the court review. "As was the case in the Second Report and Order, and despite this Court's instruction in Prometheus III to gather and analyze more ownership data if necessary, the Commission did not collect such data or conduct the studies necessary to make a reasoned decision with respect to the impact of rule changes on ownership diversity and retained the revenue-based definition of 'eligible entity' previously found arbitrary and capricious by this court."