Media Center

Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied the emergency stay motion filed by public interest groups, including the National Hispanic Media Coalition, Free Press, Common Cause, Media Alliance, and United Church of Christ, OC, Inc., which sought to prevent the Federal Communications Commission from implementing its decision to reinstate the so-called UHF discount. This will allow the FCC to make it easier for the nation’s largest television ownership groups to acquire additional stations, and crowd out diverse and local voices. The groups are represented by the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown University Law Center. Despite this interim ruling, the Court will hear the appeal later this year.

Few people have ever walked through the doors of the Federal Communications Commission with as much knowledge, experience, and good judgement as Jessica Rosenworcel. I know from personal experience that she is among the most capable ever to hold the title of Commissioner, and her return to the Commission could not come at a more propitious time. With the Open Internet, media localism, and diversity all under threat, the public interest has never needed a public interest servant of her caliber so acutely. I urge Congress to confirm her with dispatch.

Sinclair's acquisition of Tribune Broadcasting is expected and disappointing. Expected because the new FCC majority is foaming at the mouth to rubber stamp more massive media mergers; and disappointing because Sinclair is not known for the best journalism in the land, to put it mildly. Our nation’s civic dialogue suffers yet another blow with this merger.

It is unnecessary and harmful for Chairman Pai to replace the FCC's Diversity Advisory Committee, which for years drew on the expertise of diversity experts to generate valuable and vetted proposals to advance important diversity initiatives. Commission leadership from both parties too-often ignored that committee's proposals. But instead of reconstituting that committee and finally acting on its many extant recommendations, Chairman Pai has chosen to ignore it and create a new committee which will take months or longer to organize, meet, and come up with proposals. Given the Trump Administration’s track record of business friendly appointments, Pai is likely to select committee members who put corporate interests ahead of diversity. Shameful. It is decades beyond time for serious action to help minorities and women in media ownership. Pai's announcement is a serious step backwards.

Today, the Federal Communications Commission dealt a body blow to the public interest by votingvoted to entrench monopoly in broadcasting and business broadband, Common Cause said. The FCC majority eliminated price restraints on Business Data Services (BDS), allowing incumbent carriers to charge exorbitant rates on small businesses across the country. In a separate proceeding, the same majority voted to reinstate a legal loophole that broadcasters exploit to monopolize ever more of the airwaves.

The President rails against “fake news,” but in eliminating the Corporation for Public Broadcasting his budget plan would sever the financial lifeline of scores of public TV and radio stations that are among the most reliable, trusted sources of real news for millions of Americans.